Game Engine Godot 4.5 with Screenreader support and Stencil Buffer
Among other things, the new release improves accessibility and internationalization and reworks game effects.
(Image: dpa, Britta Pedersen/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa)
The Godot development team has released version 4.5 of the open source game engine for 2D and 3D games. The update enables screen reader support for parts of the UI editor, a live preview of the GUI in several languages, and new visual game effects.
Revised visuals via Stencil Buffer
Stencil buffers can now be used for new visual options:forr example, they can be used to drill a hole in a wall in the game to see what is on the other side. Stencil buffers are similar to the existing depth buffers but are more flexible and offer more control. A video in the announcement demonstrates what this can look like.
(Image:Â godotengine.org)
New features for accessibility and internationalization
The editor becomes more accessible in Godot 4.5: Screen readers can now handle Control nodes, and screen reader bindings are available to adjust the behavior of all Node types. The Godot team was able to implement this with the help of AccessKit, an accessibility infrastructure for UI toolkits.
These changes are currently classified as experimental and screen reader support for the Godot Editor is not yet complete. It currently only applies to the Project Manager, standard UI nodes, and the Inspector. Accessibility will be further improved in future updates.
The Godot team has also worked on accessibility in different languages: The new "Internationalization Live Preview" feature shows a real-time preview for translations directly in the editor viewport and is intended to simplify GUI testing in multiple languages.
(Image:Â godotengine.org)
In addition, it is now possible to change the language in the editor without restarting. This should be helpful, for example, when developing Editor plug-ins to test translations.
Further Editor updates
Other new features in the Editor include a "Mute" button. When debugging, it can happen that developers hear the same game music over and over again. To avoid this without having to switch off the sound completely, the Godot team has introduced a new option in the Game View. The sound can now be switched off there by clicking on a speaker icon:
(Image:Â godotengine.org)
Another editor update concerns the view: on HiDPI screens, the standard controls and the editor UI could previously look blurry. Here, too, the development team has made improvements and revised the rendering to display the elements sharply on all monitors.
Videos by heise
Further details on all the new features in version 4.5 can be found in the detailed announcement on the Godot website.
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