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FOSS game engine Godot Engine just gained a new Platinum sponsor

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The excellent free and open source game engine Godot Engine just announced that Heroic Labs are now supporting their development as a Platinum level sponsor.

Going by the Patreon campaign for Godot Engine, that means Heroic Labs are handing over at least $1,500 monthly to help development which is awesome. It's an interesting matchup too, as Heroic Labs are the developers of the open source Nakama (GitHub) a "real-time, competitive, social back-end that helps game developers create compelling multiplayer experiences" according to Heroic and they're now working on getting it working with Godot Engine as well.

Hopefully the extra funding will continue to keep the team at Godot Engine secure to keep pushing this FOSS game engine further into the hands of more developers.

In other related Godot Engine news, work is continuing on Godot Engine 4.0 with developer Juan Linietsky deep into getting Vulkan support ready. Just today, Linietsky posted on Twitter an exciting update for developers:

Debug visualization of compute-based voxel lighting, with ray-marched shadows, for the new global illumination implementation. Godot 4.0 GIProbe will be fully real-time, look better and work on more lower end GPUs thanks to Vulkan.

Which had a little teaser video too:

Godot Engine 4.0 really is going to be a massive release. If you've been using Godot Engine, do share what you're working on in the comments if it will be available for Linux.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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12 comments
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BrazilianGamer Oct 2, 2019
Cool
Beamboom Oct 3, 2019
Are there any games out now that do a good job in showcasing this engine from a modern (not retro) perspective?
TheSHEEEP Oct 3, 2019
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Quoting: BeamboomAre there any games out now that do a good job in showcasing this engine from a modern (not retro) perspective?
Not gonna happen anytime soon, I'm afraid.
Godot is still lacking in some vital departments required for really modern 3D gaming. Pathfinding/navigation, for example, is almost unusable in 3D, lacking important features.
The renderer is also currently being rewritten, both to improve it in general and to add Vulkan.

Both the Navigation and Pathfinding reworks are supposed to be in 4.0 - but when that will come out, nobody knows. Originally, the Navigation rework was supposed to be in 2.X, then 3.0, then 3.1, then 3.2, now it got pushed to 4.0...

As much as I love Godot (and will use it my own 3D project, will likely even create a proper 3D navigation module as I don't want to wait X years for 4.X to come out), the developers are really struggling with proper planning, prioritization, community handling and communicating their plans.

I really think they have to improve in that regard. They are collecting over 10k funds via Patreon each month, I think that would justify becoming a bit more professional in these things, instead of "just" focusing on development.

Don't get me wrong, you can absolutely make a modern non-retro game with Godot right now, but it will require you to either use a couple of modules to work around limitations or roll your own workarounds.
But that might simply be too much hassle for many users, who then opt to use Unity, etc. instead.


Last edited by TheSHEEEP on 3 October 2019 at 8:55 am UTC
gnk2000 Oct 3, 2019
Searching Steam, I found this:

Trains & Things
Steam (not out yet)
Official Homepage (Itch.io released , 30US$)

There used to be a multiplayer (Cube) Voxel Game being developed in Godot on Steam, can not find it anymore though.

There don't seem to be many modern 3D Games being made using Godot.
Its not yet as comfortable as Unity for big projects, and 3D usually is a big project, or as Powerful as Unreal, in my Opinion.
iiari Oct 3, 2019
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Quoting: TheSHEEEP
Quoting: BeamboomAre there any games out now that do a good job in showcasing this engine from a modern (not retro) perspective?
Not gonna happen anytime soon, I'm afraid.
Godot is still lacking in some vital departments required for really modern 3D gaming.
So, for we gamers who know near nothing about development, do you think the Godot hype is just wishful hoping on our part right now, or is there real promise here?
Eraindil Oct 3, 2019
Quoting: iiariSo, for we gamers who know near nothing about development, do you think the Godot hype is just wishful hoping on our part right now, or is there real promise here?

As a developer coming out of a game programming school, I believe they hold great promise. And the first thing for that is the editor: if you compare it with Unity or Unreal, it is more intuitive (at least I think). One could argue that's because it still lacks features. But it's design in itself is great.
Also the weight for the engine. Godot is about 60MO more or less while Unity is more like 10Go and unreal like 20Go.
The same goes with the power needed to feed those engines.

Well, that's my opinion as of now.
TheSHEEEP Oct 3, 2019
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Quoting: iiari
Quoting: TheSHEEEP
Quoting: BeamboomAre there any games out now that do a good job in showcasing this engine from a modern (not retro) perspective?
Not gonna happen anytime soon, I'm afraid.
Godot is still lacking in some vital departments required for really modern 3D gaming.
So, for we gamers who know near nothing about development, do you think the Godot hype is just wishful hoping on our part right now, or is there real promise here?
There is great potential, without a doubt.
As @Eraindil said - and I fully agree - the editor itself is just way more intuitive, as is its scripting language (though you can use C# as well if you want).

I'm sticking with the engine for a reason, despite having to use workarounds for now. I'll just take it as programming excercise ;)


Last edited by TheSHEEEP on 3 October 2019 at 2:39 pm UTC
Kimyrielle Oct 3, 2019
Quoting: TheSHEEEPI don't want to wait X years for 4.X to come out

If I am not totally mistaken, 4.0 is supposed to get released in 2020, which is not THAT far in the future. :)

Personally, I can't comment much on the 3D side of things, but I am using Godot for two 2D projects, one retro, one more modern style, and find it to be a wonderful engine for these purposes. I suppose it's safe to say that Godot is more suited for 2D games at this time, though. To be fair, the engine is geared at smaller studios, so I guess 3D just wasn't a priority for the longest time - complex 3D projects tend to be out-of-budget for smaller studios, after all.
TheSHEEEP Oct 3, 2019
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Quoting: Kimyrielle
Quoting: TheSHEEEPI don't want to wait X years for 4.X to come out

If I am not totally mistaken, 4.0 is supposed to get released in 2020, which is not THAT far in the future. :)
It is possible, but then again, with how often goals have been shifted into the next release, it is simply very uncertain what really will be part of 4.0 and what won't - apart from the new renderer, anyway.
And delays are normal in non-open source projects with strong management. In open source projects with very little management, even more so.

It's just not something I'd suggest waiting for if you really want to be working with Godot for certain projects and don't want a long uncertain waiting time.
Beamboom Oct 4, 2019
Quoting: TheSHEEEP
Quoting: BeamboomAre there any games out now that do a good job in showcasing this engine from a modern (not retro) perspective?
Not gonna happen anytime soon, I'm afraid.
Godot is still lacking in some vital departments required for really modern 3D gaming. Pathfinding/navigation, for example, is almost unusable in 3D, lacking important features.

Thanks for taking your time to write a very informative reply, TheSHEEP! Much appreciated.
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