We are entering the final stage of development for Godot 4.4, which is the Release Candidate: all features are in place, the most critical regressions have been tackled, and so we’re confident that it’s now ready for production use. Release Candidate But without very extensive testing from the community, we can never be 100% sure that the release is ready to be published as a recommended stable upgrade for all users. With this candidate, Godot 4.4 is now ready for testing to upgrade existing projects (but always make a copy or version control commit before upgrading!), and we’re eager to hear how it fares and whether any new major issues have been left unnoticed until now. Please, consider supporting the project financially, if you are able. Godot is maintained by the efforts of volunteers and a small team of paid contributors. Your donations go towards sponsoring their work and ensuring they can dedicate their undivided attention to the needs of the project. supporting the project financially Jump to the Downloads section, and give it a spin right now, or continue reading to learn more about improvements in this release. You can also try the Web editor or the Android editor for this release. If you are interested in the latter, please request to join our testing group to get access to pre-release builds. Jump to the Downloads Downloads section try the Web editor Web editor Android editor our testing group The original cover illustration is from Tiny Pasture, an endearing literal desktop pet that has cute pixel art animals grazing at the bottom of your screen while you do other things. Developed by CaveLiquid (Bluesky, website), the game was just released on Steam. The original cover illustration is from Tiny Pasture Tiny Pasture an endearing literal desktop pet that has cute pixel art animals grazing at the bottom of your screen while you do other things. Developed by CaveLiquid (Bluesky, website), the game was just released on Steam. Bluesky website on Steam Highlights We covered the most important highlights from Godot 4.4 in the previous 4.4 beta 1 blog post, so if you haven’t read that one, have a look to be introduced to the main new features added in the 4.4 release. 4.4 beta 1 blog post 4.4 beta 1 blog post Especially if you’re testing 4.4 for the first time, you’ll want to get a condensed overview of what new features you might want to make use of. This section covers changes made since the previous beta 4 snapshot, which are mostly regression fixes, or “safe” fixes to longstanding issues: beta 4 snapshot Audio: Web: Fix issue when pausing an non-started sample (GH-102955).
Buildsystem: Windows: Configure MinGW LTO with -fno-use-linker-plugin -fwhole-program (GH-103077).
Editor: Fix parsing translations in EditorTranslationParserPlugin (GH-99297).
Editor: Remove non-existent IPUnix conversion (GH-102922).
Editor: Fix Embedded Game over expanded bottom panel, by resetting expanded bottom panel on Play (GH-102978).
Editor: Always allow selecting any rendering driver in the settings, add “auto” option (GH-103026).
Editor: Don’t show Show in Filesystem Popup for empty frames in SpriteFrames editor (GH-103050).
Export: Fix modified_time on Android (GH-103080).
GUI: IME: Do not redraw and move caret on IME update w/o text/position changes (GH-103059).
Input: Remove temporary project conversion (GH-99479).
Input: Prevent pending input event callbacks from erasing the window in the middle of a loop (GH-102993).
Network: mbedtls: Don’t set TLS max version on Mbed TLS < 3.0 (GH-102964).
Particles: Fix particle not re-randomizing every emission (GH-103068).
Porting: Window: Fix flashing subwindows (GH-102983).
Porting: Fix Embedded Game startup location on Windows (GH-103021).
Rendering: Fix debug CanvasItem redraw rects in RD renderer (GH-103017). Audio: Web: Fix issue when pausing an non-started sample (GH-102955). GH-102955 Buildsystem: Windows: Configure MinGW LTO with -fno-use-linker-plugin -fwhole-program (GH-103077). -fno-use-linker-plugin -fwhole-program GH-103077 Editor: Fix parsing translations in EditorTranslationParserPlugin (GH-99297). EditorTranslationParserPlugin GH-99297 Editor: Remove non-existent IPUnix conversion (GH-102922). GH-102922 Editor: Fix Embedded Game over expanded bottom panel, by resetting expanded bottom panel on Play (GH-102978). GH-102978 Editor: Always allow selecting any rendering driver in the settings, add “auto” option (GH-103026). GH-103026 Editor: Don’t show Show in Filesystem Popup for empty frames in SpriteFrames editor (GH-103050). Show in Filesystem SpriteFrames GH-103050 Export: Fix modified_time on Android (GH-103080). modified_time GH-103080 GUI: IME: Do not redraw and move caret on IME update w/o text/position changes (GH-103059). GH-103059 Input: Remove temporary project conversion (GH-99479). GH-99479 Input: Prevent pending input event callbacks from erasing the window in the middle of a loop (GH-102993). GH-102993 Network: mbedtls: Don’t set TLS max version on Mbed TLS < 3.0 (GH-102964). GH-102964 Particles: Fix particle not re-randomizing every emission (GH-103068). GH-103068 Porting: Window: Fix flashing subwindows (GH-102983). GH-102983 Porting: Fix Embedded Game startup location on Windows (GH-103021). GH-103021 Rendering: Fix debug CanvasItem redraw rects in RD renderer (GH-103017). GH-103017 Changelog As we released 4.4 beta 4 just days ago, and tightened a lot our policy on what kind of changes can be merged leading to the release candidate stage, there aren’t a lot of changes in this snapshot. 12 contributors (at this stage, release heroes!) submitted 18 fixes for this release. See our interactive changelog for the complete list of changes since the 4.4-beta4 snapshot. You can also review all changes included in 4.4 compared to the previous 4.3 feature release. 12 contributors 18 fixes interactive changelog interactive changelog all changes included in 4.4 This release is built from commit 8ed125b42. 8ed125b42 Downloads Download Godot 4.4 rc1 Download Godot 4.4 rc1 Standard build includes support for GDScript and GDExtension. Standard build .NET build (marked as mono) includes support for C#, as well as GDScript and GDExtension. .NET build mono .NET 8.0 or newer is required for this build, changing the minimal supported version from .NET 6 to 8. .NET 8.0 or newer is required for this build, changing the minimal supported version from .NET 6 to 8. While engine maintainers try their best to ensure that each preview snapshot and release candidate is stable, this is by definition a pre-release piece of software. Be sure to make frequent backups, or use a version control system such as Git, to preserve your projects in case of corruption or data loss. a pre-release piece of software Known issues During the Release Candidate stage, we focus exclusively on solving showstopping regressions (i.e. something that worked in a previous release is now broken, without workaround). You can have a look at our current list of regressions and significant issues which we aim to address before releasing 4.4. This list is dynamic and will be updated if we discover new blocking issues after more users start testing the RC snapshots. list of regressions and significant issues Edit: A regression was introduced in this snapshot and will be fixed in RC 2: Edit: The change to the rendering/rendering_device/driver project setting and its platform overrides to default to a new auto mode in GH-103026 caused a regression in the Android and iOS export process, where some necessary configuration is no longer set properly (GH-103156). You can work it around by explicitly setting rendering/rendering_device/driver.android to vulkan and rendering/rendering_device/driver.ios to metal. The change to the rendering/rendering_device/driver project setting and its platform overrides to default to a new auto mode in GH-103026 caused a regression in the Android and iOS export process, where some necessary configuration is no longer set properly (GH-103156). You can work it around by explicitly setting rendering/rendering_device/driver.android to vulkan and rendering/rendering_device/driver.ios to metal. rendering/rendering_device/driver auto GH-103026 GH-103156 rendering/rendering_device/driver.android vulkan rendering/rendering_device/driver.ios metal With every release, we are aware that there are going to be various issues which have already been reported but haven’t been fixed yet, due to limited resources. See the GitHub issue tracker for a complete list of known bugs. known bugs Bug reports As a tester, we encourage you to open bug reports if you experience issues with this release. Please check the existing issues on GitHub first, using the search function with relevant keywords, to ensure that the bug you experience is not already known. open bug reports existing issues on GitHub In particular, any change that would cause a regression in your projects is very important to report (e.g. if something that worked fine in previous 4.x releases, but no longer works in this snapshot). Support Godot is a non-profit, open source game engine developed by hundreds of contributors on their free time, as well as a handful of part and full-time developers hired thanks to generous donations from the Godot community. A big thank you to everyone who has contributed their time or their financial support to the project! generous donations from the Godot community their time their financial support If you’d like to support the project financially and help us secure our future hires, you can do so using the Godot Development Fund. Godot Development Fund By Rémi Verschelde Also published here here Photo by Milad Fakurian on Unsplash Milad Fakurian Unsplash

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What You Need to Know About Release Candidate: Godot 4.4 RC 1

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