Godot 4.1 ships
The Godot team has released Godot 4.1, the latest version of the open-source game engine.
Changes relevant to CG artists include support for 3D noise textures in volumetric fog, and a rework of the particle turbulence system.
There are also workflow improvements to the Godot Editor, and updates to performance and scripting.
Rendering: updates to volumetric fog and particle turbulence
Godot 4.1 comes four months after the landmark Godot 4.0 release, and mainly consists of fixes and improvements for the new features it introduced.
Changes to the artist toolsets include support for 3D noise textures in volumetric fog: to control the density of the fog itself, or to create particle attractor vector fields to control wind effects.
In addition, particle turbulence has been reworked “based on artists’ feedback”.
General workflow and performance improvements
General workflow improvements relevant to CG artists include the option to detach script editors, including the Shader Editor, within the Godot Editor UI, and place them on a separate monitor.
The update also fixes a longstanding issue with 3D models ending up facing backward on import.
There are also improvements to engine performance, to scripting – particularly on improving parity between Godot’s native GDScript and C# – and to AI pathfinding.
You can find a full list of changes via the links at the foot of the story.
Availability and system requirements
Godot 4.1 is available under the MIT licence for 32-bit and 64-bit Windows, and 64-bit Linux and macOS. There are also browser-based and Android ports of the Godot Editor.
Read a full list of new features in Godot 4.1 on the Godot team’s blog