• nyoooom@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I feel like that’s not how you measure a game engine usage, the large majority probably don’t install Godot via Steam, just looking at the numbers it’s a very small sample which might not represent game devs in general

      • MJBrune@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Eh, I feel like the sampling is clearly biased toward those who would install a game engine through a service that auto-updates it. (Novices and hobbyists.)

        • derpgon@programming.dev
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          1 year ago

          And - thats exactly what that means…? An uptake in GODOT usage would mean novices and newbies are trying it out. Every new user is a newbie.

          • MJBrune@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Sure but it doesn’t really reflect the studios switching to Godot. I think they are likely switching to unreal.

              • MJBrune@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                Yup just pointing that out because some folks aren’t seeing that. Not everything is an argument.

      • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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        1 year ago

        For sure an uptick, but who knows by how much? I agree this is useful for showing something, but it’s hard to know what really from this alone.

        • Knusper@feddit.de
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          1 year ago

          I imagine, Godot doesn’t collect usage data on its own. So, this is likely the best data there is…

      • alternative_factor@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        It might mean something though, FFXIV is a classic example of a game that almost nobody plays on Steam, but its Steam charts line up somewhat well with the game’s increasing popularity especially with Shadowbringers and Endwalker. Of course you have to look at actual data to back that up, but soemtimes it can show trends.

      • MJBrune@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        Professional game developers do not want their game engines to automatically update because when you upgrade engine versions things usually break. This happens in Unity, Godot, Unreal, and every other engine or framework I’ve seen in games. For big changes, this is inevitable. So professional game developers download the engine directly from the provider and not a service that will automatically update the engine version from under your project.

        I don’t even know why Godot is on steam. Probably to gain more discoverability and popularity.

        • Piers@beehaw.org
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          1 year ago

          Because if you want professional game developers to exist then you have to be welcoming to them when they are just aspiring game developers. Kids who play lots of games and want to have a fiddle around with tools for making games are much more likely to do so if there is a way to access them that they are familiar with and already associate with gaming.

          • MJBrune@beehaw.org
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            1 year ago

            While this is true, I feel a loss for the familiarity of going to a website, downloading an executable, and running it without worry. I still do that with most of my software. In fact, that’s how I got steam.

            • Piers@beehaw.org
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              1 year ago

              I don’t think anyone is arguing that because there is an option to install via Steam that people should stop downloading directly from Godot’s website though. Both of those things can exist beside one another.

        • Walnut356@programming.dev
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          1 year ago

          Iirc godot uses beta branches and semver, so the only updates you get are the ones that dont break anything.

        • voxel@sopuli.xyz
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          1 year ago

          godot doesn’t break stuff in minor releases, and steam version of Godot has separate release tracks for each version (you can switch between godot 3 and 4)

  • dylanTheDeveloper@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Does godot support 3D? If so does it support PBR materials? Does it support installing 3rd party plugins like HAVOK? Literately the only things i need.

      • nora@slrpnk.net
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        1 year ago

        Tbh that’s a pretty horrible example. It was a rushed product full of graphical glitches, including rapidly flashing lights. This is true especially on the switch. Idk if it’s improved since launch but shit was rough early on.

    • cynetri (he/any)@midwest.social
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      1 year ago
      1. Yes, not a great as Unity but it’s still pretty good especially after they switched to Vulkan over OpenGL. VR performance still could use some work though.
      2. Yes, PBR materials are fully supported. Actually one of the earlier things in 3D that was implemented, and then imoroved
      3. Yes, now I don’t know if HAVOK has a Godot plugin but there is a Jolt physics plugin that’s designed to be plug-and-play, with a few exceptions (it doesn’t suppory soft bodies afaik)
      • uis@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago
        1. Shaders are still GLSL or SPIR-V. Nothing changes in terms of quality.
    • rndll@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      I’m assuming for automatic updates. Just like some people do with Blender.

      • sveske_juice@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Oh yeah for Windows and mac os that makes sense. The problem doesn’t exist om linux with package managers :3

        • JDubbleu@programming.dev
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          1 year ago

          I’m all for Linux, I use it literally every day between my Steam Deck and remote dev machine at work, but updating software on Windows and MacOS isn’t hard, and I have no clue why the Linux crowd pretends it is. You could complain about forced updates on Windows, or MacOS having two different applications folders for Lord knows why, or literally anything else that is wrong with either of them, but ease of program updates isn’t a problem for Windows or MacOS.

          • Natanael@slrpnk.net
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            1 year ago

            Having a million different updater services instead of one is very annoying and even slows down boot

    • flux@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      I suppose it’s the easiest way to try it out.

      I wouldn’t use it long-term, because you don’t want Godot to update without you knowing, if there’s something that needs to be changed due to an update. I bet a few people noticed the update from 3.x to 4.x…

      I’ve read it also doesn’t come with the C# support, so that’s one reason not to use Steam for it if you’re interested in testing that side.

    • muhyb@programming.dev
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      1 year ago

      If you’re on Windows, it’s an easy way to auto-update. If you’re on Linux, there is no need for that.

    • Waker@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      I use it on steam, for this exact purpose. So it shows in using it. The more people are using it, the more people get aware of it.

      If all these people downloaded it directly and not from steam, this post wouldn’t exist :)

      Auto updates is interesting, didn’t even consider it, but it can be both a pro and a con I guess…

  • WindowsEnjoyer@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    Just like Linux is default standard for servers, I wish Godot would become a future’s stardard of game engine.

    Just like hudreds of corpos and many independent individuals commit patches to Linux kernel, I wish the same happens with Godot.

    • OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      GPL forces modifications to be best put upstream. Godot is MIT, which usually doesn’t get the same effect

    • Edgelord_Of_Tomorrow@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Now that you mention it it’s kinda weird it isn’t. When our phones, servers, infrastructure, social networks, chat apps and even AI are all open source why are games all still built on proprietary software?

  • TalesFromTheKitchen@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    I love seeing more people getting into Godot! It’s such a nice game engine with a fun learning curve and the scripting language is mostly hassle free.

    • scarilog@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      the scripting language is mostly hassle free.

      Is there a reason Godot has it’s own language for scripting and doesn’t use a common language like unity (C#) and unreal (C++)?

      • randy@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        Here is their reasoning, basically summarized as “it’s easier to get everything for games into a new language than bolting it onto an existing language”. I also recall seeing a blog post where they said their initial implementation of GDScrip took fewer lines of code than embedding Lua did.

        Note Godot does officially support C# and C++, and there is unofficial support for other languages too. But they commonly recommend GDScript for beginners.

  • kamen@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    … and I assume that’s just the instances installed through Steam.

    • learningduck@programming.dev
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      1 year ago

      It’s an open source game engine. People tend to consider it as a replacement for Unity when it come to 2D game development.

      • voxel@sopuli.xyz
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        1 year ago

        hey it’s 3d is pretty decent too!
        you won’t be making aaa games with it anytime soon but it’s really good for 99% of tasks

          • Afiefh@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Before Godot 4 the 3D engine was pretty far behind, think early 2010 teach. With Godot 4 it got an insane upgrade which puts it in par with Unity as far as I understand (not a unity expert), but still behind Unreal (then again, everything is behind Unreal.)

            Unfortunately it takes multiple years for a 3D game to be developed, so it’ll be a while before we see actual released 3D games with Godot 4.

            • Exec@pawb.social
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              1 year ago

              Sonic Colours Ultimate was made before Godot 4 was out but it doesn’t look bad at all.

              • Sethayy@sh.itjust.works
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                1 year ago

                Not many tools supported out of the box. Its beauty comes in its modularity, so anyone could have always made an add-on - but that takes time and money, what most small devs don’t have (but Sega and Tesla could).

                Then more recently the devs have had time, and so could make these first-party - and very recently much more stable long term funding, so I’d expect these tools to improve rapidly.

                All that being said you could toss a 20 million polygon default cube in UE5 and it’d look/run pretty good

            • voxel@sopuli.xyz
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              1 year ago

              godot runs everywhere, webgl, webgpu, android, ios, linux, macos, windows, gaem consoles

              • Trantarius@programming.dev
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                1 year ago

                My understanding is that running on game consoles can’t be officially supported, because they can’t integrate the necessary proprietary code into the engine while keeping it open source.

                • jcg@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  They can’t distribute the proprietary bits in with the engine, so you have to work with the Godot team and a publisher which you probably would be doing anyway.

              • Wugmeister@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                1 year ago

                I mean, it’s easier to port a game running on Godot than something written in Assembly. So I’m not shocked to hear that

                But up until Unity decided to stick some TNT up their ass and light it last week, the king of porting was Unity. I’m not saying it’s perfect, but if you’re a tiny indie company who wants to get something on Xbox, PS5, the Switch, PC, and even maybe mobile if the game is tiny, Unity was the engine for you.

  • Irishred88@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Unrelated question: is it pronounced go-DOT as in polkadot, or go-DOH, like the actress Gal Gadot?

    • Ategon@programming.dev
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      1 year ago

      Theres no official pronounciation

      The most common ones are guh-dough & go-dough (+ other variations) with the t silent, but the lead developer as well as a bunch of others call it go-dot and some people put the d in the first syllable instead to do things like god-oo

      Q&A with devs talking about it

    • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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      1 year ago

      I think it’s pronounced “God OO”

      Like the play. Although I have no idea why it would be named after the play.

      Also the logo doesn’t really have anything to do with anything. The whole thing is weird.

  • I Cast Fist@programming.dev
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    1 year ago

    While the numbers themselves are just a small fraction of actual usage (as I guess most people using it don’t do it thru steam), it doubled in about a week.

    What would be an “educated” guess of steam/non-steam users ratio? 1:50? 1:100?

  • dumdum666@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Awesome- hopefully more money will get put into the development fund as well. It is rather small yet.