Baking, Game Engine and Shaders - Game Developers Network

Dev snapshot: Godot 4.4 beta 1

Mircosoft Game Dev

JANUARY 16, 2025

Breaking changes Animation Audio C# Core Editor GDScript Import Input Physics Platforms Rendering and shaders XR New in Beta 1! Add 2D shader instance uniforms Previously, Godot only supported shader instance uniforms in Spatial shaders. Highlights Many features originally intended for 4.3 ended up making it into 4.4

Beta

Beta Dev Lightmap Baking

Dev snapshot: Godot 4.4 beta 3

Mircosoft Game Dev

FEBRUARY 7, 2025

Lightmap baking improvements Clay John changed the logic for baking direct lighting in LightmapGI to spread it over multiple frames, avoiding a spike of computation that can lead the OS to trigger TDR , resulting in a crash of the GPU context ( GH-102257 ). Shaders: Fix source_color default value ( GH-101642 ).

Beta

Beta Dev Baking Render

From Concept to Completion: Navigating the Game Art Production Pipeline

iXie gaming

MARCH 28, 2025

High-poly models are first sculpted for maximum detail, then converted into low-poly versions for in-game use. Why it matters: Efficient UV mapping and normal map baking allow high-detail textures to be applied to low-poly models, preserving visual fidelity without unnecessary computational overhead.

Concepts

Concepts Art Texture Asset

Dev snapshot: Godot 4.4 beta 2

Mircosoft Game Dev

JANUARY 30, 2025

Rendering: Bake UV2 emission using half float in the compatibility backend ( GH-101730 ). Shaders: Fix space transformations in WorldPositionFromDepth visual shader node generation ( GH-100350 ). Baking a Lightmap3D is more prone to crash after we added support for transparency. The issue is tracked in GH-101391.

Beta

Beta Dev Bug Baking

Dev snapshot: Godot 4.0 beta 9

Mircosoft Game Dev

DECEMBER 19, 2022

Core: Add feature tags to signify engine float precision ( GH-69538 ). Core: Handle corner cases for curve baking ( GH-69726 ). Rendering: OpenGL: Fix scene shader error when using Omni or Spot but not both ( GH-69901 ). Shaders: Fix the sorting of shader uniforms ( GH-70016 ).

Beta

Beta Dev Render Shaders

Godot 4.0 will get a new, modernized lightmapper

Mircosoft Game Dev

MAY 8, 2020

Let's hope this implementation will also be of use to others making their own technology or engines, so they can use it as reference or just copy it. The new lightmapper is GPU based written mostly on Compute shaders (meaning it does most of the heavy lifting using the GPU, via Vulkan). Allows baking dynamic and static lights.

Lightmap

Lightmap Baking Render Shaders

Dev snapshot: Godot 4.0 beta 9

Mircosoft Game Dev

DECEMBER 19, 2022

Core: Add feature tags to signify engine float precision ( GH-69538 ). Core: Handle corner cases for curve baking ( GH-69726 ). Rendering: OpenGL: Fix scene shader error when using Omni or Spot but not both ( GH-69901 ). Shaders: Fix the sorting of shader uniforms ( GH-70016 ).

Beta

Beta Dev Render Shaders

Dev snapshot: Godot 4.0 beta 12

Mircosoft Game Dev

JANUARY 13, 2023

Navigation: Fix for navmesh baking when parsing StaticBody colliders ( GH-70904 ). Visual Shader: Add few improvements for VisualShaderNodeParticleRandomness ( GH-71123 ). Import: Add vertex color support to OBJ importer ( GH-71033 ). Navigation: Add NavigationServer performance monitor ( GH-70731 ).

Beta

Beta Dev Collision Render

Enhancing Mobile Game Performance: Essential VFX Techniques for Visual Excellence

iXie gaming

SEPTEMBER 17, 2024

Utilizing Shaders Wisely Shaders are powerful tools that can enhance the visual quality of a game, but they can also be demanding on mobile devices. To balance performance and quality, it’s essential to use shaders judiciously. What role do shaders play in enhancing mobile game visuals?

Mobile Gaming

Mobile Gaming Mobile Mobile Texture

Dev snapshot: Godot 3.5 beta 1

Mircosoft Game Dev

JANUARY 13, 2022

and included in this beta are: Asynchronous shader compilation + caching (ubershader) ( GH-53411 ). A long awaited solution to shader compilation stuttering on OpenGL, courtesy Pedro J. This adds support for obstacle avoidance using the RVO2 library, and navigation meshes can now be baked at runtime. Estébanez ( RandomShaper )!

Beta

Beta Dev Shaders Console

Godot 3's renderer design explained

Mircosoft Game Dev

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

Godot uses a considerably different approach to rendering (and rendering abstraction) than other, popular, game engines. For example: On GLES3+ we can use UBOs to optimize shader parameters. Shader abstraction. Most game engines nowadays start with HLSL or CG as a base and offer it to the user directly.

Render

Render Shaders Texture Engine

Dev snapshot: Godot 4.0 beta 12

Mircosoft Game Dev

JANUARY 13, 2023

Navigation: Fix for navmesh baking when parsing StaticBody colliders ( GH-70904 ). Visual Shader: Add few improvements for VisualShaderNodeParticleRandomness ( GH-71123 ). Import: Add vertex color support to OBJ importer ( GH-71033 ). Navigation: Add NavigationServer performance monitor ( GH-70731 ).

Beta

Beta Dev Collision Render

Cocos Creator 3.8 Community Beta is now available

Cocos

JUNE 11, 2023

It will support the implementation of engine builtin Custom Pipeline and the default Deferred Pipeline. We also support Compute Shader capabilities. Google has recognized Cocos as the recommended game engine for adapting to the Google Play Games on PC platform and the recommended game engine for the large-screen experience.

Beta

Beta Lightmap Render Animation

Dev snapshot: Godot 3.5 beta 2

Mircosoft Game Dev

MARCH 15, 2022

and included in this beta are: Asynchronous shader compilation + caching (ubershader) ( GH-53411 ). A long awaited solution to shader compilation stuttering on OpenGL, courtesy Pedro J. This adds support for obstacle avoidance using the RVO2 library, and navigation meshes can now be baked at runtime. Estébanez ( RandomShaper )!

Beta

Beta Dev Shaders Render

Maintenance release: Godot 3.5.1

Mircosoft Game Dev

SEPTEMBER 28, 2022

iOS: Workaround WebKit/ANGLE shader compilation bug for WebGL 2.0 ( GH-64811 ). Navigation: Exclude disabled StaticBody collisions from NavigationMesh baking ( GH-65775 ). Navigation: Fix TileMaps placing baked NavigationPolygons with wrong offset without a Navigation2D node ( GH-66262 ) [regression fix].

Render

Render Bug Baking Collision

Release candidate: Godot 3.5 RC 6

Mircosoft Game Dev

JULY 8, 2022

This RC 6 has a few notable changes compared to the previous build: In RC 4, async shader compilation and caching was enabled by default on desktop, but several users reported issues with it on some hardware. You can enable it in the Project Settings ( rendering/gles3/shaders/shader_compilation_mode ). Estébanez ( RandomShaper )!

Render

Render Shaders Mesh Console

Dev snapshot: Godot 3.5 beta 3

Mircosoft Game Dev

MARCH 30, 2022

and included in this beta are: Asynchronous shader compilation + caching (ubershader) ( GH-53411 ). A long awaited solution to shader compilation stuttering on OpenGL, courtesy Pedro J. This adds support for obstacle avoidance using the RVO2 library, and navigation meshes can now be baked at runtime. Estébanez ( RandomShaper )!

Beta

Beta Dev Shaders Render

Dev snapshot: Godot 3.5 beta 4

Mircosoft Game Dev

APRIL 15, 2022

and included in this beta are: Asynchronous shader compilation + caching (ubershader) ( GH-53411 ). A long awaited solution to shader compilation stuttering on OpenGL, courtesy Pedro J. This adds support for obstacle avoidance using the RVO2 library, and navigation meshes can now be baked at runtime. Estébanez ( RandomShaper )!

Beta

Beta Dev Shaders Render

Dev snapshot: Godot 3.5 beta 5

Mircosoft Game Dev

MAY 3, 2022

and included in this beta are: Asynchronous shader compilation + caching (ubershader) ( GH-53411 ). A long awaited solution to shader compilation stuttering on OpenGL, courtesy Pedro J. This adds support for obstacle avoidance using the RVO2 library, and navigation meshes can now be baked at runtime. Estébanez ( RandomShaper )!

Beta

Beta Dev Shaders Render

Godot 3.5: Can't stop won't stop

Mircosoft Game Dev

AUGUST 5, 2022

If you use and enjoy Godot, plan to use it, or want support the cause of having a mature, high quality free and open source game engine, then please consider becoming our patron. The new NavigationServer adds support for obstacle avoidance using the RVO2 library, and navigation meshes can now be baked at runtime.

Shaders

Shaders Render Mesh Feature

Release candidate: Godot 3.5 RC 5

Mircosoft Game Dev

JUNE 27, 2022

and included in this release candidate are: Asynchronous shader compilation + caching (ubershader) ( GH-53411 ). A long awaited solution to shader compilation stuttering on OpenGL, courtesy Pedro J. The new NavigationServer adds support for obstacle avoidance using the RVO2 library, and navigation meshes can now be baked at runtime.

Render

Render Shaders Mesh Console

Release candidate: Godot 3.5 RC 8

Mircosoft Game Dev

JULY 28, 2022

and included in this release candidate are: Asynchronous shader compilation + caching (ubershader) ( GH-53411 ). A long awaited solution to shader compilation stuttering on OpenGL, courtesy Pedro J. The new NavigationServer adds support for obstacle avoidance using the RVO2 library, and navigation meshes can now be baked at runtime.

Render

Render Shaders Mesh Console

Release candidate: Godot 3.5 RC 1

Mircosoft Game Dev

MAY 18, 2022

and included in this release candidate are: Asynchronous shader compilation + caching (ubershader) ( GH-53411 ). A long awaited solution to shader compilation stuttering on OpenGL, courtesy Pedro J. This adds support for obstacle avoidance using the RVO2 library, and navigation meshes can now be baked at runtime. back in 2020!

Render

Render Shaders Console Culling

Release candidate: Godot 3.5 RC 7

Mircosoft Game Dev

JULY 22, 2022

and included in this release candidate are: Asynchronous shader compilation + caching (ubershader) ( GH-53411 ). A long awaited solution to shader compilation stuttering on OpenGL, courtesy Pedro J. The new NavigationServer adds support for obstacle avoidance using the RVO2 library, and navigation meshes can now be baked at runtime.

Render

Render Shaders Mesh Console

Release candidate: Godot 3.5 RC 3

Mircosoft Game Dev

JUNE 1, 2022

and included in this release candidate are: Asynchronous shader compilation + caching (ubershader) ( GH-53411 ). A long awaited solution to shader compilation stuttering on OpenGL, courtesy Pedro J. The new NavigationServer adds support for obstacle avoidance using the RVO2 library, and navigation meshes can now be baked at runtime.

Render

Render Shaders Mesh Console

Godot 3.0 is out and ready for the big leagues

Mircosoft Game Dev

JANUARY 29, 2018

Materials and shaders. New audio engine. The new 3D engine is outstanding, with many features out-of-the-box that are still not common in other mainstream engines. The new 3D renderer is state-of-the-art, with features rarely see in game engines today, such as: Full principled BSDF. Materials and shaders.

Render

Render Visual Scripting Shaders Tile

Maintenance release: Godot 3.5.1

Mircosoft Game Dev

SEPTEMBER 28, 2022

iOS: Workaround WebKit/ANGLE shader compilation bug for WebGL 2.0 ( GH-64811 ). Navigation: Exclude disabled StaticBody collisions from NavigationMesh baking ( GH-65775 ). Navigation: Fix TileMaps placing baked NavigationPolygons with wrong offset without a Navigation2D node ( GH-66262 ) [regression fix].

Render

Render Baking Bug Collision

Release candidate: Godot 3.5.1 RC 2

Mircosoft Game Dev

SEPTEMBER 21, 2022

iOS: Workaround WebKit/ANGLE shader compilation bug for WebGL 2.0 ( GH-64811 ). Navigation: Exclude disabled StaticBody collisions from NavigationMesh baking ( GH-65775 ). Input: Fix axis mapped to DPad buttons not releasing opposite button ( GH-64532 ). iOS / macOS: Fix generation of duplicate locale property list files ( GH-65067 ).

Bug

Bug Render Collision Animation

Release candidate: Godot 3.5 RC 2

Mircosoft Game Dev

MAY 24, 2022

and included in this release candidate are: Asynchronous shader compilation + caching (ubershader) ( GH-53411 ). A long awaited solution to shader compilation stuttering on OpenGL, courtesy Pedro J. The new NavigationServer adds support for obstacle avoidance using the RVO2 library, and navigation meshes can now be baked at runtime.

Render

Render Shaders Mesh Collision

Release candidate: Godot 3.5 RC 4

Mircosoft Game Dev

JUNE 17, 2022

and included in this release candidate are: Asynchronous shader compilation + caching (ubershader) ( GH-53411 ). A long awaited solution to shader compilation stuttering on OpenGL, courtesy Pedro J. The new NavigationServer adds support for obstacle avoidance using the RVO2 library, and navigation meshes can now be baked at runtime.

Render

Render Shaders Mesh Bug

Godot 3.1 is out, improving usability and features

Mircosoft Game Dev

MARCH 13, 2019

If you use and enjoy Godot, plan to use it, or want support the cause of having a mature, high quality free and open source game engine, then please consider becoming our patron. Visual shader editor. Some shader features will not work and throw an error when used (which is to be expected when using an older OpenGL version).

Feature

Feature Render Editing Mesh

Accelerating Load Times for DirectX Games and Apps with GDeflate for DirectStorage

Nvidia

NOVEMBER 7, 2022

We’re looking forward to next-generation game engines benefiting from GDeflate by dramatically reducing loading times. Resource streaming and data compression Today’s video games feature extremely detailed interactive environments, requiring the management of enormous assets. a modern I/O streaming API from Microsoft.

Tile

Tile Data Games Content

Dev snapshot: Godot 3.4 beta 6

Mircosoft Game Dev

OCTOBER 6, 2021

Shaders: Add support for structs and fragment-to-light varyings ( GH-48075 ). Lightmapper: Add an editor setting to configure number of threads for lightmap baking ( GH-52952 ). Particles: Fixed rotate_y property of particle shaders ( GH-46687 ). Shaders: Add support for structs and fragment-to-light varyings ( GH-48075 ).

Beta

Beta Dev Mesh Render

Release candidate: Godot 3.4 RC 1

Mircosoft Game Dev

OCTOBER 19, 2021

Shaders: Add support for structs and fragment-to-light varyings ( GH-48075 ). Lightmapper: Add an editor setting to configure number of threads for lightmap baking ( GH-52952 ). Particles: Fixed rotate_y property of particle shaders ( GH-46687 ). Shaders: Add support for structs and fragment-to-light varyings ( GH-48075 ).

Mesh

Mesh Render Shaders Animation

Godot 3.3 has arrived, with a focus on optimization and reliability

Mircosoft Game Dev

APRIL 21, 2021

If you use and enjoy Godot, plan to use it, or want support the cause of having a mature, high quality free and open source game engine, then please consider becoming our patron. It was reusing parts of the code for baking GIProbes, and that made it quick but not great in terms of quality. New CPU lightmapper.

Collision

Collision Lightmap Render Baking

Release candidate: Godot 3.4 RC 2

Mircosoft Game Dev

OCTOBER 27, 2021

Shaders: Add support for structs and fragment-to-light varyings ( GH-48075 ). Lightmapper: Add an editor setting to configure number of threads for lightmap baking ( GH-52952 ). Particles: Fixed rotate_y property of particle shaders ( GH-46687 ). Shaders: Add support for structs and fragment-to-light varyings ( GH-48075 ).

Mesh

Mesh Render Shaders Animation

Release candidate: Godot 3.4 RC 3

Mircosoft Game Dev

NOVEMBER 2, 2021

Shaders: Add support for structs and fragment-to-light varyings ( GH-48075 ). Lightmapper: Add an editor setting to configure number of threads for lightmap baking ( GH-52952 ). Particles: Fixed rotate_y property of particle shaders ( GH-46687 ). Shaders: Add support for structs and fragment-to-light varyings ( GH-48075 ).

Mesh

Mesh Render Shaders Animation

Dev snapshot: Godot 3.2.4 beta 5

Mircosoft Game Dev

JANUARY 7, 2021

In particular, this build adds WebXR support for VR games! It also adds a much-requested minimap to GraphEdit , and thus to the VisualScript and Visual Shader editors. Rendering: Disable lights for objects with baked lighting ( GH-41629 ). You can try it live with the online version of the Godot editor updated for this beta.

Beta

Beta Dev Bug Build

The next big step: Godot 4.0 reaches Beta

Mircosoft Game Dev

SEPTEMBER 15, 2022

Last but not least, lightmaps baking is now done using the GPU to speed up the process significantly. You can even create complex dynamic effects by writing custom shaders that operate on FogVolume nodes. is introducing sky shaders which allow users to create dynamic skies that update in real time (including reflections).

Beta

Beta Engine Engineering Feature

Dev snapshot: Godot 4.5 dev 5

Mircosoft Game Dev

JUNE 2, 2025

Estbanez bring us another miracle of rendering via GH-102552 : shader baker exporting. This is an optional feature that can be enabled at export time to speed up shader compilation massively. Build size will be much larger since the baked shaders can take up a lot of space. if something that worked fine in previous 4.x

Dev

Dev Baking Shaders Render

Dev snapshot: Godot 4.4 beta 1

Dev snapshot: Godot 4.4 beta 3

Trending Sources

From Concept to Completion: Navigating the Game Art Production Pipeline

Dev snapshot: Godot 4.4 beta 2

Dev snapshot: Godot 4.0 beta 9

Godot 4.0 will get a new, modernized lightmapper

Dev snapshot: Godot 4.0 beta 9

Dev snapshot: Godot 4.0 beta 12

Enhancing Mobile Game Performance: Essential VFX Techniques for Visual Excellence

Dev snapshot: Godot 3.5 beta 1

Godot 3's renderer design explained

Dev snapshot: Godot 4.0 beta 12

Cocos Creator 3.8 Community Beta is now available

Dev snapshot: Godot 3.5 beta 2

Maintenance release: Godot 3.5.1

Release candidate: Godot 3.5 RC 6

Dev snapshot: Godot 3.5 beta 3

Dev snapshot: Godot 3.5 beta 4

Dev snapshot: Godot 3.5 beta 5

Godot 3.5: Can't stop won't stop

Release candidate: Godot 3.5 RC 5

Release candidate: Godot 3.5 RC 8

Release candidate: Godot 3.5 RC 1

Release candidate: Godot 3.5 RC 7

Release candidate: Godot 3.5 RC 3

Godot 3.0 is out and ready for the big leagues

Maintenance release: Godot 3.5.1

Release candidate: Godot 3.5.1 RC 2

Release candidate: Godot 3.5 RC 2

Release candidate: Godot 3.5 RC 4

Godot 3.1 is out, improving usability and features

Accelerating Load Times for DirectX Games and Apps with GDeflate for DirectStorage

Dev snapshot: Godot 3.4 beta 6

Release candidate: Godot 3.4 RC 1

Godot 3.3 has arrived, with a focus on optimization and reliability

Release candidate: Godot 3.4 RC 2

Release candidate: Godot 3.4 RC 3

Dev snapshot: Godot 3.2.4 beta 5

The next big step: Godot 4.0 reaches Beta

Dev snapshot: Godot 4.5 dev 5

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