The Godot game engine team has released version 4.4, with new features including the Jolt physics engine integrated into the Godot engine, the game window embedded into the editor for development, and an upgrade to .NET 8 for those using C#.

Godot is open source under the MIT license and has attracted more interest since the commercial Unity engine introduced a runtime fee in September 2023. The company had a change of heart a year later, by which time many developers had already explored other options, with Godot the obvious choice.

Version 4.4 was described by project manager Rémi Verschelde as “another massive release with close to 3000 commits … with a big focus on improvements to the overall workflow and usability of the editor.”

One big feature is that the Jolt Physics engine, another open source project previously used as a Godot extension, is now integrated into the engine, though not yet used by default. Jolt Physics was developed by Jorrit Rouwe and used in the well-known game Horizon Forbidden West, among others. Rouwe has helped with the work and according to the pull request “several major features have been added to Jolt largely to cater to the needs of Godot.”

Another fresh feature is 3D physics interpolation. Previously this was 2D only. Physics interpolation “creates additional frames between the last physics position and the current one. This reduces jitter and creates a smoother appearance,” the release post states.

The game window can now be embedded into the editor during development, a usability improvement for those working on a single screen. This feature only works on Linux, Windows and Android, not macOS. “The functionality otherwise is the same and the new features to debug your game with editor tooling also work on Mac. Neither impacts the actual project and cross-platform support, they’re just editor usability changes,” said Verschelde on Reddit.

The primary Godot scripting language, GDScript, now supports typed dictionaries, a change which also impacts the core engine and all other scripting languages. The GDScript editor includes tooltip pop-ups showing documentation for functions, variables, classes and other language elements.

Godot also supports C# scripting, and in 4.4 this has been upgraded to use .NET 8, the current long-term support version.

The Godot community is generally positive about the new release. “Typed dictionaries, physics interpolation, native Jolt support, CSG enhancements, so many QoL improvements and so many performance improvements. This is so exciting!” said one developer.

There is strong momentum behind Godot, though we are unlikely to see major game studios switch away from the mature commercial engines such as Unreal or Unity. One thing though in Godot’s favor is that it is approachable for new developers, an aspect which is further improved by the focus on developer experience in this release.