We all know Godot, right? It’s one of the biggest free and open-source game engine, whose popularity has dramatically increased over the past few years in the game development community.
This engine has given us a lot of gems in the indie-games community, for example "Brotato" a title with over 25.000 positive reviews in general and even appears in titles such as the Nintendo Switch version for "Sonic Colors: Ultimate". EA’s Battlefield 6 is also planning on using Godot as an editing tool for their Portal UGC platform.
This engine has given us a lot of gems in the indie-games community, for example "Brotato" a title with over 25.000 positive reviews in general and even appears in titles such as the Nintendo Switch version for "Sonic Colors: Ultimate". EA’s Battlefield 6 is also planning on using Godot as an editing tool for their Portal UGC platform.
Now, after a long-awaited time, Godot is back with their 4.5 version targeting improvements that expand what’s possible with the engine. Let’s take a closer look at the highlights!
#GodotEngine 4.5 has finally arrived! 🎉
— Godot Engine (@godotengine) September 15, 2025
With this new release, we made meticulous efforts in order to amplify what is possible to do with our engine, guided by our goal of making gaming and game development for everyone!https://t.co/yd3PlPKsVh
New Features
As we know, Godot is already a complete engine, and with this new update it aims to improve the game development experience:
- Stencil Buffer Support: By writing an invisible shape into a special buffer and comparing it in the wall shader, you can reveal only the area around your character while keeping the rest hidden. (Read more)
By Passivestar
- New Screen Reader Function: Godot now includes screen reader support through AccessKit, making interfaces more accessible for visually impaired users and others who rely on assistive tools. (Read more)
- Script Backtracing & Custom Loggers: New debugging tools improve error tracking in Godot. Script backtracing pinpoints where issues occur even in release builds, while custom loggers let you capture logs and create in-game bug reporting. (Read more)
- Shader baker: Godot’s new shader baker pre-compiles shaders during export, cutting down startup times and reducing compilation stutters. Tests on Metal and D3D12 showed load times up to 20x faster in demo projects. (Read more)
- Internationalization live preview: Godot now lets developers preview translations directly in the editor, making it easier to test and adjust user interfaces in multiple languages before release. (Read more)
- Chunk Tilemap Physics: Godot’s TileMapLayer physics now merges cell shapes into larger collision bodies, reducing the “one tile, one body” overhead and improving performance in physics-heavy 2D scenes. (Read more)
There’s also lots of improvements to the development tools and the GCScript language, to be sure to check out the complete changelog!
👉 Are you curious about what’s possible with Godot? Take a look at the Godot Shaders Bible, our godot-based shader book. Currently in Early Access, it aims to be a complete guide that takes you from the basics to advanced techniques.
🎥 Here’s a quick showcase of all the effects we’ve made so far for the book (some coming in the next update!).
What’s next for the Godot Shaders Bible? We’re still working on Chapter 3, but Chapter 4 will be full of effects for 3D, 2D, and UI ✨
— The Unity Shaders Bible (@ushadersbible) September 1, 2025
Check out this project! https://t.co/8KMfJIFew5#GodotEngine #indiedev #gamedev pic.twitter.com/kTA12aQyC1
Godot Engine Logo
Copyright (c) 2017 Andrea Calabró
Godot Engine logo, screenshots and showcase are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0 International): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Copyright (c) 2017 Andrea Calabró
Godot Engine logo, screenshots and showcase are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0 International): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Check out our book!
We invite you to explore "The Godot Shaders Bible", a comphensive book on the concepts and fundamentals seen in this post.
Other posts that might interest you.
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This tutorial will guide you through the process of creating a UI blur in Unity using Shader Graph, a node-based shader creation tool. -
Shader Graph is great for multi-platform games, but for advanced control and efficiency, learning HLSL and ShaderLab is key. Explore these techniques in depth with the Unity Shaders Bible! -
Sprite Masks on 3D Quads? Not quite, but with the power of shaders, you can create a similar effect!
