
Godot 4.0 will get a new lightmapper - todsacerdoti
https://godotengine.org/article/godot-40-will-get-new-modernized-lightmapper
======
gridspy
Would you like to use Rust (and Godot) to make games?

Here is my tutorial on using Godot and Rust together -
[https://medium.com/@recallsingularity/gorgeous-godot-
games-i...](https://medium.com/@recallsingularity/gorgeous-godot-games-in-
rust-1867c56045e6?source=friends_link&sk=c2fd85689b4638eae4d91b743439c75f)

Also, I'm making a space factory game. Sporadic updates so far but here is the
most recent

[https://medium.com/@recallsingularity/space-factory-
building...](https://medium.com/@recallsingularity/space-factory-building-in-
feb-2020-752e96dfaa0a?source=friends_link&sk=b94f8113de1e0c2130a7a769abde43fd)

There is a Discord mentioned in there if you run into any issues with your
godot-rust dev, we've got a very active development community there.

Godot also supports GDScript, C#, Python, C++ and more.

~~~
billfruit
Does it support javascript?

~~~
freedomben
Godot does not, because Godot is heavily threaded and the VM was difficult to
embed[1]

[1]
[https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/about/faq.html](https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/about/faq.html)

------
_bxg1
Godot really seems to be taking off lately. It would be very exciting to see a
true open-source competitor to Unity and Unreal. Unfortunately I think it'll
be held back on that front until it supports console builds, but still, it's
quite an impressive endeavor considering the size of the team and the funding
model.

~~~
hanoz
You may as well stick with Unity and Unreal if you need support for console
builds because from what I hear there's no point in waiting for Godot.

~~~
swivelmaster
You snuck a very good joke into this comment.

~~~
cycloptic
It's not a coincidence, this joke is actually the namesake of the project.
[https://godotengine.org/article/godot-history-
images](https://godotengine.org/article/godot-history-images)

------
cycloptic
It's been really enjoyable to read these progress reports. Juan is a great
programmer and I admire his dedication and ability to consistently put out
high-quality features and drive the project despite being the only developer
working full-time on it for many years now. He really knows his stuff.

I haven't had time for it lately, but I used to participate in the Godot Wild
Jam. It's a great way to connect with other Godot users and test out these new
engine features. I highly recommend it for any new Godot users:
[https://godotwildjam.com/](https://godotwildjam.com/)

~~~
MarcellusDrum
I'm 100% sure that at least 3 developers are working full-time on Godot now. I
think a fourth one was recently hired as well.

------
borellvi
A little bit off topic: do you know any good resources to get started with
Godot?

~~~
rayalez
I have started by following "Discovering Godot"[1] video course on Udemy, I
still think this is the best place to start.

After that I have watched "Top-down Tank Battle"[2], and I highly recommend
it, absolutely brilliant series of tutorials(all of the tutorials on this
channel are great). Really helped me to understand all the concepts much
better.

For intermediate/advanced tutorials, watch GDQuest. They have a youtube
channel[3] and excellent video courses[4]. They are planning to release
courses on procedural generation and multiplayer too, I'm really looking
forward to watching those.

Finally, a shameless plug - I'm making some tutorials on Godot(alongside with
some general Digital Art and Houdini videos). I'm still just getting started,
but people seem to like them. The most popular one I've made so far is
"Creating Platformer Character Movement in Godot - Wall Jumping/Sliding,
Double Jumping, Dashing"[5].

[1] [https://www.udemy.com/course/godot/](https://www.udemy.com/course/godot/)

[2] [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsk-
HSGFjnaFC8kEv6MaL...](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsk-
HSGFjnaFC8kEv6MaLXnnDcevGpSWf)

[3]
[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxboW7x0jZqFdvMdCFKTMsQ](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxboW7x0jZqFdvMdCFKTMsQ)

[4]
[https://gdquest.mavenseed.com/p/home](https://gdquest.mavenseed.com/p/home)

[5]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8pC8n4s-_I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8pC8n4s-_I)

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throwawaysea
What is a light mapper exactly. Is there a good resource to give a high level
overview of how such a modern engine works?

~~~
jtolmar
Light maps are when you use any lighting algorithm to generate a pre-rendered
texture of all the lights and shadows in a scene. The result is a big packed
texture and an extra set of texture coords on all the scene geometry that says
which bit of the texture corresponds to what. You can use any lighting
algorithm to generate the map, but presumably something that's too slow to use
in real time, and that's in some way better than your real time shader.

Light maps only work on non-moving lights and non-moving objects, but they're
usually combined with light probes, which are samples of what the shadows
would be like in a given chunk of empty space if an object were there. Moving
objects can shadow themselves using these.

Light maps can be combined with other lighting/shadow algorithms. For example
you might leave out the direct lighting from the most important lights in your
scene, and use shadow maps for those instead, so dynamic objects can cast
shadows.

~~~
throwawaysea
Thanks for the explanation. Is there a good more general resource to learn
this and other graphical concepts?

~~~
IdiocyInAction
Stuff like this should be covered in the Real-Time Rendering book.

~~~
throwawaysea
Is that
[https://www.realtimerendering.com/](https://www.realtimerendering.com/)?

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TaylorAlexander
Nice! I just discovered Godot this week.

Note if the post author is here, there is a typo in the sentence "In Godot,
different scenes can have their own ligthmaps and you can mix and match them
however you like."

------
shafyy
Here's your friendly reminder to support Godot if you like using it (or just
like it without using it):
[https://www.patreon.com/godotengine](https://www.patreon.com/godotengine)

I'm not affiliated with Godot, just love using it :-)

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jokoon
There was an article yesterday about framework vs libraries.

I think it's exactly why I don't like godot for the same reason I dislike
unity, unreal, etc: they're frameworks.

~~~
joejoint
goal : build a game \- 1st solution : use framework + n days dev time \- 2nd
solution : use libraries + 10xn days dev time

~~~
jokoon
That's true in most cases, if you want to make a game as fast as possible, if
it's not too ambitious, if you like the framework, and if the constraints are
satisfying.

Frameworks are not so cut and dry compared to libraries. Not using a framework
is not necessarily a bad idea.

~~~
ShinTakuya
Godot lets you script with native code (GDNative) and more importantly lets
you access the very low level parts of the engine should you so wish, allowing
you to implement advanced custom functionality performantly.

I do get your point but honestly unless you're a big studio or a custom engine
enthusiast, there's very few logical reasons not to use a framework.

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PunksATawnyFill
I notice in the demo with the rotating rings that the illumination underneath
them does not rotate smoothly. Anybody have an insight as to why?

~~~
jnnnik
If I had to guess, which I do, I'd say it's probably a voxel size constraint.
As long as one voxel is bigger than a perceivable pixel, all you can really do
is interpolate the GI values within the voxel grid. That's is why lights
moving smoothly and linearly will look slightly "choppy". It's probably less
obvious in most real-world applications.

Again, just a wild guess based on watching that clip, I'm open to corrections!

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jbritton
The link has a screen shot of a UI for configuring a Baked light map. Does
anyone know the framework used for the screenshot?

~~~
jbritton
I ended up doing a web search. Found this comment. “”” Godot's editor is built
with Godot's own Control nodes which you can use for your games. In short,
there's no external toolkit, Godot's editor is a Godot game. “””

And from looking at a tutorial it appears to be a retained mode UI.

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noir-york
Godot is awesome, and Juan and the contributors are doing fantastic work. They
deserve every success.

------
pojntfx
Godot is really good. Loving the games that have been created with it so far.

------
qubex
I’m waiting for Godot 4.0

(runs and hides)

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speedgoose
I believe real-time raytracing will change everything once cheap hardware can
do it. It may take a while to get it on mobile, but for PC and consoles, I'm
not sure all AAA in 10 years will have old fashioned light maps.

~~~
badsectoracula
Depends on what you mean with 'lightmap' \- if you mean the classic Quake
2-style slapping of colored textures on top of diffuse textures, sure,
probably that wont be much of a sight in 10 years. However even nowadays (or
years ago, really) most lightmaps contained more than that (e.g. at minimum
you'd need directional information) and i doubt raytracing will get rid of the
idea of precalculating lighting information per surface, especially as
raytracing hardware becomes more programmable.

------
jfkebwjsbx
What is the story for raytracing?

Considering they don't have enough manpower to compete with UE/Unity in
raster, would it make sense going for full raytracing now?

That way, when next-next-gen hardware arrives in 2-3 years, they could be on
the forefront of editors specialized in fully raytraced games.

~~~
etaioinshrdlu
I bought a new system with RTX 2070 Super and couldn't get any demos with
raytracing to work acceptably in either Unreal or unity... The frame rates on
super simple levels were maybe 10fps at best...

I was a little dismayed. It seems like AAA games are also not making a huge
amount of use of it either. Despite the RTX name I don't know if it's really
ready for prime time, at all.

~~~
jfkebwjsbx
Current gen hardware is nowhere powerful enough for that, yeah. But for simple
games a lot is already possible (like Minecraft).

DLSS 2 and similar techniques help a lot to reduce the number of rays needed.
Perhaps by the time of RTX 4000 (what I meant as next-next-gen) we might be
able to see full raytracing.

~~~
SirLotsaLocks
yeah, I feel like it will be several years before it's polished enough for
normal gaming usage and it becomes more than just a cool gimmick.

