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Introducing the Godot Engine.

brap

Banned
Is this named after Gal Gadot?👀
No.
godot-deskslam-mug.gif
 
I've heard of this engine. If it was more complete, I'd think it'd be a good solution for people who don't want to pay the royalties of the big engines (UE4, etc).

Open source is always a good alternative to corporate crap, but it develops really slowly. :(
 

Shifty

Member
Godot_Chugging_Coffee.gif

Looks neat. Sounds like the guy might be on a bit of a hype train for it, but there's obviously potential there.

I find it kind of funny how he goes all in with the premise of it being disruptive, only to sprinkle in a bunch of "it's good for an open source project" and "well for what it is". These things, they take time.

I think we’ll be waiting for it for a long time.
Samuel Beckett would be proud

Is this named after Gal Gadot?👀
g3BFcF.gif
 
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element

Member
Nowhere close to disrupting the industry.

Doesn't have built in support for consoles. Total non-starter.
 

Kadayi

Banned
Cool. Could be a good starting point for your bedroom coder types, and it's inevitably going to get better as more and more features are added. I really like that it's being crowdfunded.
 

TheSHEEEP

Gold Member
Have been monitoring and using the engine since a while.
While true that it doesn't have everything Unity or UE have - yet (and that is a very clear yet, Godot is being developed extremely fast compared to other engines) - what it does have is actually often better than what others have.
The node structure of the engine alone is a godsent that makes development a lot easier than the typical prefab approach.
Similarly, the way their scripts are structured (no matter if you use GDscript or C#) is just closer to what you really want to do in a game - and I say that as someone who has worked (though not intensively) with Unity and UE as well.

And of course, entirely free, no royalties and funded via Patreon.

Obviously, it is not a typical AAA engine, but neither is Unity, for example. AAA devs typically use other (way more expensive) engines or in-house ones.

Doesn't have built in support for consoles. Total non-starter.
It does have support for XBox One via UWP.
There is also a company that offers porting of Godot to PS4, Switch, etc.
Of course, that only matters if you care for consoles to begin with... which obviously, the majority of PC titles don't ;)

It also has full mobile support, which business-wise is (unfortunately) more important than consoles.

That shitty video title.

"This game engine will disrupt the industry."
True. That is a shitty video title... Typical clickbait title, unfortunately. It should also be said that this is not an official video.
The Godot devs are very friendly and modest.
 
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Snakey125

Member
"Bluedrake42"

I forgot how this guy likes to exaggerate about things way too damn much. The engine itself looks good however. I might even have a look at it with a buddy whose doing a indie game.
 
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Cunth

Fingerlickin' Good!
Have been monitoring and using the engine since a while.
While true that it doesn't have everything Unity or UE have - yet (and that is a very clear yet, Godot is being developed extremely fast compared to other engines) - what it does have is actually often better than what others have.
The node structure of the engine alone is a godsent that makes development a lot easier than the typical prefab approach.
Similarly, the way their scripts are structured (no matter if you use GDscript or C#) is just closer to what you really want to do in a game - and I say that as someone who has worked (though not intensively) with Unity and UE as well.

And of course, entirely free, no royalties and funded via Patreon.

Obviously, it is not a typical AAA engine, but neither is Unity, for example. AAA devs typically use other (way more expensive) engines or in-house ones.


It does have support for XBox One via UWP.
There is also a company that offers porting of Godot to PS4, Switch, etc.
Of course, that only matters if you care for consoles to begin with... which obviously, the majority of PC titles don't ;)

It also has full mobile support, which business-wise is (unfortunately) more important than consoles.


True. That is a shitty video title... Typical clickbait title, unfortunately. It should also be said that this is not an official video.
The Godot devs are very friendly and modest.
how large is an empty mobile build do you know?
 

Virex

Banned
Have been monitoring and using the engine since a while.
While true that it doesn't have everything Unity or UE have - yet (and that is a very clear yet, Godot is being developed extremely fast compared to other engines) - what it does have is actually often better than what others have.
The node structure of the engine alone is a godsent that makes development a lot easier than the typical prefab approach.
Similarly, the way their scripts are structured (no matter if you use GDscript or C#) is just closer to what you really want to do in a game - and I say that as someone who has worked (though not intensively) with Unity and UE as well.

And of course, entirely free, no royalties and funded via Patreon.

Obviously, it is not a typical AAA engine, but neither is Unity, for example. AAA devs typically use other (way more expensive) engines or in-house ones.


It does have support for XBox One via UWP.
There is also a company that offers porting of Godot to PS4, Switch, etc.
Of course, that only matters if you care for consoles to begin with... which obviously, the majority of PC titles don't ;)

It also has full mobile support, which business-wise is (unfortunately) more important than consoles.


True. That is a shitty video title... Typical clickbait title, unfortunately. It should also be said that this is not an official video.
The Godot devs are very friendly and modest.
Thanks for letting me know. Will check if I can get some videos of the actual engine developers. I have insane respect for game engine creators.
 

Rodolink

Member
It deserves respect for how it became what it is. The engine was created in latin america from scratch, because their creators didn't wanted to comply to the royalties of Unity and Unreal. So its a great thing they managed to get it to this point.
 

Zannegan

Member
Three minutes into the video. Would be nice if he would tell us some of the things the engine does and how it operates instead of waxing on about how it's going to change everything because it's free.

Don't get me wrong, the little games shown so far look nice in a polished UE3 game sort of way (that's not an insult. I just can't see any more on my phone), but I'm not seeing anything revolutionary here. Really, the most interesting thing he's said was that it's incredibly small/lightweight, and that's apparently not really relevant or important to why it will be disruptive.

If the whole 20 minute video is like its opening, I'll be less than thrilled.
 
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TheSHEEEP

Gold Member
how large is an empty mobile build do you know?
I have read that (if NOT using C#, at least) it is quite small, but I'm not sure as I'm not targeting mobile.
Generally, the Godot footprint isn't that large, though - again, if not using C#, that is.
 

element

Member
It does have support for XBox One via UWP.
There is also a company that offers porting of Godot to PS4, Switch, etc.
Of course, that only matters if you care for consoles to begin with... which obviously, the majority of PC titles don't ;)

It also has full mobile support, which business-wise is (unfortunately) more important than consoles.
UWP isn't really the same as real support. Not having a native port means devs aren't working in the same/suggested code/content path. Which would make porting a pain. Using an engine that you will either have to port it yourself ($$$) or hire an outside team ($$$) doesn't make a lot of sense.

Mobile is neat, but honestly better-using Unity or other options.

Being "free" isn't always a good thing. Limited or lack of support could kill a title. One reason why UE4 is so popular is they have a support team to help you when shit hits the fan. Something like this, you are on your own or maybe someone from the community could help.
 

Shifty

Member
One reason why UE4 is so popular is they have a support team to help you when shit hits the fan. Something like this, you are on your own or
Eh. Last I checked, Epic's Unreal Developer Network support is not all it's cracked up to be.

The support team has little to no influence on the engine tech side, so unless your issue can be solved by more thoroughly reading the docs or employing a workaround that's already publicly known on the unreal forums, they're essentially useless.

Engine bug? "It'll be fixed at some indeterminate point in the future, have a great day!"

Need to modify some in-engine black box to do what you want? "That part of the codebase currently isn't exposed to developers, but it might be at some indeterminate point in the future. In the meantime, write your own from scratch. Have a great day!"

Vague documentation around a certain feature that implies it should be finished and working but is in fact incomplete and busted? "Working as intended, HAVE A GREAT DAY!"

Unless you have the cold hard cash to throw in Epic's direction and cut a deal to bump something up an internal priority list, or really enjoy being let down and told to 'have a great day' by someone who's meant to be helping you ship a project under time pressure, a competent developer with research and problem-solving skills is going to be a better investment than a UDN subscription.

They literally gave it away for free to the last company I worked at.
 
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Domisto

Member
Who is that guy? He's so enthusiastic about it, had to skim the vid. Fair play. It's a respected engine and often cited as best for 2D dev. I've been looking into it myself recently, started learning Python so I can give a it a proper go. 'Disrupt the industry' is a bit strong but I can see a lot more indie devs using it over time.
 

TheSHEEEP

Gold Member
UWP isn't really the same as real support. Not having a native port means devs aren't working in the same/suggested code/content path. Which would make porting a pain. Using an engine that you will either have to port it yourself ($$$) or hire an outside team ($$$) doesn't make a lot of sense.
I am just stating what can be found in the documentation.
I don't think Godot will ever have real console support, since they will only ever use libraries that are open source to begin with - which console SDKs are obviously not.
If someone was to develop a console title, they wouldn't pick Godot to begin with, so this whole discussion is kinda pointless, isn't it?

At this point in time, as an indie/small dev, you develop either a PC (Windows + Mac/Linux) or console title, those that want to do both are VERY rare (mostly because indie titles just don't do well on consoles, except Switch maybe).
Doing full cross-platform development is simply out of scope for most small developers - the testing/patching routine alone would be a nightmare.

Mobile is neat, but honestly better-using Unity or other options.
Why would you think so?
Godot comes with everything you need for mobile development (which actually requires a lot less sophisticated tech than any other platform).

Being "free" isn't always a good thing. Limited or lack of support could kill a title. One reason why UE4 is so popular is they have a support team to help you when shit hits the fan. Something like this, you are on your own or maybe someone from the community could help.
Lack of support from the dev can kill a title. Lack of support from a middleware dev? I don't think that is something that has happened yet.
It would have to be a bug so significant as to kill the entire development of the title - if that happened in any engine, paid or not, you can bet your ass the engine devs will make it a priority.
Remember that Godot devs do get paid. At least the 2-3 main ones. They have the same interest that "normal" engine devs have to help in such a case. This isn't some hobby project that will die once the interest of the maintainer wanes.
 
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H

hariseldon

Unconfirmed Member
Personally I prefer working in LibGDX, though I'm more of a 2D guy (it can handle 3D well enough to do some cool stylised things though). It fits my love of Java which helps.
 

balgajo

Member
What a coincidence. I pulled the repository the other day. Right now I learning about it in order to contribute in the future.
 

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
It takes me back to the days at ITT Tech when they passed around a key generator with 3DS Max because the school didn't want to pay for indivual licenses.

I guess someone could make a little extra $$$ if they decided to make a Udemy course. Otherwise schools would have to adopt it for their game design programs, which I doubt they'd just drop Unreal. It isn't like this is Lynux or something.

It would Ben interesting if an indie dev made something in this engine. Otherwise it sounds like WPS compared to Office 365. Even if Ms nickels and dimes you, you're still better off relying on their products.
 

GenericUser

Member
Every other year or so, I hear from an "engine that will redefine the industry". Couple of years ago it was the unlimited details engine, now this. None of this will take off. The industry is far too complex and specialized for some random engine to just walk in and "disrupt the industry".
 

Larxia

Member
Every other year or so, I hear from an "engine that will redefine the industry". Couple of years ago it was the unlimited details engine, now this. None of this will take off. The industry is far too complex and specialized for some random engine to just walk in and "disrupt the industry".
Damn I remember that Euclideon ulimited detail thing, I think it's still kinda used but not for games, I don't think it's been drop completely but it's just not suited for games.

However, Godot engine and this Unlimited engine thing are two very different example, not comparable, one was supposed to revolutionize everything because of it's tech, while Godot could change some things because of the purely open source and completely free aspect.
 
H

hariseldon

Unconfirmed Member
Damn I remember that Euclideon ulimited detail thing, I think it's still kinda used but not for games, I don't think it's been drop completely but it's just not suited for games.

However, Godot engine and this Unlimited engine thing are two very different example, not comparable, one was supposed to revolutionize everything because of it's tech, while Godot could change some things because of the purely open source and completely free aspect.

The problem is that for the most part I'm not sure people are that arsed about things being open source (I say this typing out on the Vivaldi browser using the open-source Chromium engine, on a linux machine, while building software using a tonne of open-source stuff). It's the free bit that most people pay attention to, and as long as UE4 is free, other 3D engines won't be able to compete in that space. 2D is another matter - I think Unity is a bit much for it for instance and Game Maker, while lovely, is expensive, leaving room for the likes of LibGDX.
 
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Shifty

Member
Haha... a bit off topic, but was there ever a school that actually paid for these licenses?
The IT team at my school sure as heck dug their feet in when it came to using a free copy of The Games Factory (from a magazine coverdisc) to teach my fellow students some super basic 2D game creation as an after-school club project.

Goddamn red tape.
 

ookami

Member
By looking at the features on the website it feels like an indy concurrent to unity. But I'll admit that the video had some kind of charm.
After looking at the title I came for something in those lines... Maybe a punch line generator from this guy.
images
 

yurinka

Member
The video said "it's the Linux of game development". I disagree, Linux has around a 2% of market share and I think Godot will have even less.

No game engine will disrupt anything wihout console support.
 
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TheSHEEEP

Gold Member
and I hear the load times are like... forever.
Can't find any accurate source for that claim and none of the games I played made with it had long loading times. That's more something Unity is known for, tbh...
But of course, if a developer messes up their asset management, their loading times will be bad no matter the engine. So long loading times are usually the developer's fault, not really an engine problem.

I think only UE3 had these extremely long loading times on startup that couldn't really be helped.
 
H

hariseldon

Unconfirmed Member
Can't find any accurate source for that claim and none of the games I played made with it had long loading times. That's more something Unity is known for, tbh...
But of course, if a developer messes up their asset management, their loading times will be bad no matter the engine. So long loading times are usually the developer's fault, not really an engine problem.

I think only UE3 had these extremely long loading times on startup that couldn't really be helped.

One can argue that certain tools attract less capable developers and thus the reputation is gained as a result of that - I have no doubt that Unity has suffered for that.
 

TheSHEEEP

Gold Member
One can argue that certain tools attract less capable developers and thus the reputation is gained as a result of that - I have no doubt that Unity has suffered for that.
Absolutely.
I am fully convinced one could do great things with Unity, but the sheer number of rather clueless devs putting out terribly, unoptimized games with it have harmed its reputation. And by extension, every game using Unity suffers somewhat from that reputation - even if it wouldn't be warranted in the case.

I kinda hope Godot stays relatively small, if only to prevent gaining the same kind of reputation ;)
 
Can't find any accurate source for that claim and none of the games I played made with it had long loading times. That's more something Unity is known for, tbh...
But of course, if a developer messes up their asset management, their loading times will be bad no matter the engine. So long loading times are usually the developer's fault, not really an engine problem.

I think only UE3 had these extremely long loading times on startup that couldn't really be helped.

Apologies for being unclear. I was just trying to jump on the Literary Reference Joke Bandwagon there...
 

TheSHEEEP

Gold Member
Some Godot news, especially for those thinking it's some super small thing nobody knows about, without growth:

https://godotengine.org/article/status-godot-gdc-2019

Sure, obviously the writer is biased, but I don't think one can just handwave away everything written in the article with that.
So Godot went from "nobody knows what this is" to "People know it, user base doubled every year". Not bad for an open source project, right?
 
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