Godot 4.2 Released Featuring Over a Thousand Improvements

Here are some of the changes Godot 4.2 brings to the table:

• The new AnimationMixer node is added as an intermediate class for AnimationPlayer and AnimationTree.
• GraphEdit and GraphNode nodes are reworked with multiple renames, temporary removal of comment nodes, and introduction of GraphElement.
• Several changes in the GLTF importer can lead to nodes in imported scenes having slightly different names, compared to Godot 4.1 and before.
• Changes to the way the engine stores meshes internally have been implemented to improve performance and bandwidth utilization on lower-end devices.

• The release fixes issues related to the design limitations when changing scenes or renaming nodes during Ready, which led to crashes, as well as various problems related to renaming and moving files.
• You can now load OGG files at runtime, from a buffer or from a file path. The same goes for SVG files, which can be loaded from a binary buffer or a string.
• Forced integer scaling for 2D games.
• The ability to get barycentric coordinates.

• The onion skinning mode to preview animations has been brought back.
• Navigation mesh baking for 2D, bringing it to parity with 3D navigation. It is capable of handling physics bodies, mesh instances, plain polygons, and tilemaps.
• 2D and 3D navigation servers now support multi-threading when baking the navigation mesh, removing stutters and improving performance.

• Multiple updates to the tiles/tilemap system and editor.
• A new tool that allows you to flip and rotate any tile or tile pattern when placing them in the world.
• Code editor now supports code regions.
• Blender-style transforms are now improved with support for numeric inputs for each operation and mouse wrapping.
• Each side of the box can now be extended individually within the editor viewport.

• Improvements to context menus and on-hover documentation for types and their properties in the inspector and signal docks.
• Now, as you install an addon or an asset, you can specify a different installation folder and also choose to skip the root folder in the asset archive typically generated by GitHub.
• Improved the general arrangement of key controls, as well as the project import workflow, in the project manager.

• Import type changes are now picked up on the fly with relevant scenes and resources being invalidated and updated appropriately.
• Added animation playback into the preview window.
• The ability to override physics properties of imported objects, and to configure shadow casting and visibility ranges.
• Mouse and focus events now behave predictably across multiple viewports and windows.
• The MultiplayerSynchronizer node now supports synchronization of (sub-)resource properties, transform components, and other indexed data, without having to synchronize entire objects.
• Scene replication options have been streamlined and optimized.

• Added native file selection dialogs for Linux, macOS, and Windows, allowing you to leverage familiar user interfaces in your games and apps.
• Copying and pasting images has been implemented for all desktop platforms.
• Performance improvements across the board.
• Changes to how the engine stores meshes.
• The ability to create custom texture objects.
• Added a new set of APIs to call compute code on the render thread.

• Support for AMD's FSR 2.2, an open upscaling technique.
• Implemented a new lightmapper denoising approach.
• Introduced 2D HDR rendering, unlocking 3D effects, such as glow, for 2D games.
• It’s now possible to directly animate velocity over lifetime, inherit projectile velocity, and change the emission amount of particles.
• Both GPU and CPU particles now have a dedicated signal for when they are finished with emission and simulation.

• The addition of drop-down list properties to custom nodes for visual shaders.
• The script debugger now comes with full support for threaded code.
• Godot 4.2 features experimental support for Android (.NET 7.0+ required) and iOS (.NET 8.0 required) export targets.
• General improvements to the C# integration.
• Improved interoperability with GDScript.