Godot 4.6 Released

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The popular open source Godot game engine just hit a major milestone – the release of Godot 4.6. This release comes a few short months after the release of Godot 4.5, but despite the short development cycle, there is a ton to be excited about in Godot 4.5

Highlight features of the Godot 4.6 release include:

Editor & Workflow

  • New “Modern” Editor Theme: A new default theme featuring clean lines, reduced clutter, and a grayscale palette to prevent blue-tint color perception issues.
  • Movable & Floatable Docks: The docking system has been unified; you can now drag docks (including bottom panels) to any side or float them in separate windows.
  • Decoupled Select & Transform: A new “Select-only” mode allows you to pick nodes in the 3D viewport without the transform gizmo appearing, mirroring industry-standard tools.
  • Instant Resource Previews: When selecting resources (like meshes or materials) in a list, they are now instantly previewed in the scene before you commit to the selection.
  • Tab Switching on Hover: While dragging a resource, hovering over a tab now automatically switches to that view/scene.
  • In-Game Speed Controls: New editor controls allow you to slow down or speed up the game while testing to inspect physics or fine-tune gameplay.

Core & Systems

  • Jolt Physics by Default: Jolt is now the default 3D physics engine for new projects, providing significantly better performance and stability than the old GodotPhysics.
  • Unique Node IDs: Nodes now have internal IDs, meaning references won’t break if you rename nodes or reorganize your scene hierarchy.
  • LibGodot: A new way to use Godot as a library, allowing developers to embed the engine into other applications rather than running it as a standalone executable.
  • Delta Encoding for Patch PCKs: Update files (patches) now only include the specific parts of resources that changed, drastically reducing download sizes for game updates.

Graphics & Animation

  • Major SSR Overhaul: Screen Space Reflections have been rewritten for better realism, performance, and stability, including a new half-resolution mode for optimization.
  • Revamped IK Framework: Inverse Kinematics returns with a new IKModifier3D system, featuring multiple solvers like TwoBoneIK, FABRIK, and CCDIK for procedural animation.
  • Timeline Dragging: In the Animation Editor, you can now resize animation lengths by dragging the end of the timeline directly.

2D & 3D Tools

  • Rotatable Scene Tiles: Scene-based tiles in TileMaps can now finally be rotated in 90-degree increments.
  • Bresenham GridMap Drawing: Painting in GridMaps now uses the Bresenham line algorithm, preventing gaps when dragging the mouse quickly to place tiles.

Scripting

  • C++ Tracing Profilers: Support for external profiling tools like Tracy, Perfetto, and Instruments to pinpoint bottlenecks in GDScript, C#, or GDExtensions.
  • String Placeholder Highlighting: Placeholders like %s or {name} are now syntax-highlighted in the script editor.
  • Hidden Private Signals: Signals starting with an underscore are now hidden from documentation and auto-complete to keep public APIs clean.

Key Links

Godot 4.6 Release Details

Interactive Change Log

Godot Homepage

You can learn more about the Godot 4.6 release and see several of the new features in action in the video below.

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