Godot 4 Download: Everything You Need to Know About the Next Big Step in Game Development
Godot 4 Download: How to Get the Latest Version of the Free and Open Source Game Engine
If you are looking for a game engine that is free, open source, cross-platform, and packed with features, you might want to check out Godot 4. Godot 4 is the latest version of the Godot game engine, which was released on March 1, 2023. It is a major update that overhauls the rendering system, adds support for Vulkan graphics API, improves GDScript performance and usability, enhances physics and animation systems, and introduces many other features and bug fixes.
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In this article, we will show you how to download Godot 4 for Windows and other platforms, how to get preview builds and compile from source, and how to compare Godot 4 with other game engines.
What is Godot 4?
A major update with new features and improvements
Godot 4 is the culmination of years of development by more than 2000 contributors. It is a complete core overhaul and a full engine rewrite that aims to make Godot more powerful, flexible, and user-friendly. Some of the highlights of Godot 4 are:
A new Vulkan-based rendering engine that supports advanced graphics features such as SDF-based global illumination, GPU-based particles, dynamic soft shadows, volumetric fog, screen-space reflections, subsurface scattering, and more.
A revamped GDScript language that offers optional static typing support, first-class functions, lambdas, new property syntax, await keyword, super keyword, typed arrays, built-in annotations, and more.
A redesigned editor interface that improves usability and accessibility, with new themes, icons, fonts, docking system, inspector panel, context menus, tooltips, popups, dialogs, color picker, file system dock, script editor enhancements, etc.
An improved physics system that uses Bullet as the default backend for both 2D and 3D physics. It also adds support for soft body simulation, ragdoll physics, cloth simulation, raycast vehicles, convex decomposition tools, etc.
An enhanced animation system that allows for more control and flexibility over animation blending, transitions, tracks, curves, etc. It also adds support for animation retargeting using IK or FK solvers.
A new node system that allows for creating data-driven elements with custom resources. Resources are scriptable objects that can describe characters, entities, data structures in your game. You can use your custom objects directly in the editor by assigning them to nodes.
A new GDExtension API that allows for scripting and programming your game components in C++ without having to recompile the engine. You can also use GDExtension to create bindings for other languages such as Rust or Python.
And many more! You can find a detailed list of new features in the official release announcement or watch this video by GDQuest .
A free and open source alternative to other game engines
Godot 4 is not only a powerful game engine, but also a free and open source one. This means that you can use it for any kind of project, commercial or non-commercial, without paying any royalties or fees. You can also modify the source code and contribute to the development of the engine. Godot 4 is licensed under the MIT license, which is one of the most permissive licenses available.
Godot 4 is also a community-driven project, which means that it is developed by people who love making games and want to share their passion and knowledge with others. You can join the Godot community on various platforms such as Discord , Reddit , Twitter , Facebook , etc. You can also find tutorials, documentation, demos, assets, and other resources on the official website or on other websites such as GDQuest , Game from Scratch , KidsCanCode , etc.
How to download Godot 4 for Windows
Requirements and recommendations
To download and run Godot 4 on Windows, you will need:
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A 64-bit Windows 7 or later operating system.
A graphics card that supports Vulkan 1.1 or later. You can check if your GPU supports Vulkan by using this tool .
A CPU that supports SSE2 instruction set or later.
At least 2 GB of RAM.
At least 500 MB of disk space.
We also recommend that you have:
A monitor that supports at least 1280x720 resolution.
A mouse and a keyboard.
A sound card and speakers or headphones.
An internet connection for downloading updates and resources.
Steps to download and run Godot 4
To download and run Godot 4 on Windows, you can follow these steps:
Go to the official download page and click on the "Windows" tab.
Select the version that suits your needs. You can choose between the "Standard" version, which includes the editor and the export templates for Windows, Linux, macOS, Android, iOS, HTML5, etc., or the "Mono" version, which also includes support for C# scripting and .NET integration. You can also choose between the "64-bit" or the "32-bit" version depending on your system architecture.
Click on the download button and save the file to your preferred location. The file will be a ZIP archive that contains the executable file and other files.
Extract the ZIP archive to a folder of your choice. You can use any tool that can handle ZIP files, such as WinRAR or 7-Zip .
Double-click on the executable file to launch Godot 4. You will see a splash screen followed by a project manager window that allows you to create, import, or open projects.
Export templates and .NET support
If you want to export your games to other platforms, you will need to download the export templates for those platforms. You can do this by clicking on the "Editor" menu in the top-left corner of the editor window, then selecting "Manage Export Templates". You will see a dialog box that allows you to download or update the export templates for various platforms. You can also manually download the export templates from the official download page and install them by clicking on the "Install from file" button in the dialog box.
If you want to use C# scripting or .NET integration in your projects, you will need to install some additional software. You will need:
The Mono SDK , which is a cross-platform implementation of .NET Framework.
The MSBuild tool , which is a build system for .NET projects.
The Visual Studio Code editor or another IDE that supports C# development.
You can find more information on how to set up C# scripting and .NET integration in Godot 4 in this documentation page .
How to download Godot 4 for other platforms
Linux
To download and run Godot 4 on Linux, you will need:
A 64-bit Linux distribution that supports Vulkan graphics API. You can check if your GPU supports Vulkan by using this tool .
A CPU that supports SSE2 instruction set or later.
At least 2 GB of RAM.
At least 500 MB of disk space.
We also recommend that you have:
A monitor that supports at least 1280x720 resolution.
A mouse and a keyboard.
A sound card and speakers or headphones.
An internet connection for downloading updates and resources.
To download and run Godot 4 on Linux, you can follow these steps:
Go to the official download page and click on the "Linux" tab.
Select the version that suits your needs. You can choose between the "Standard" version, which includes the editor and the export templates for Windows, Linux, macOS, Android, iOS, HTML5, etc., or the "Mono" version, which also includes support for C# scripting and .NET integration. You can also choose between the "64-bit" or the "32-bit" version depending on your system architecture.
Click on the download button and save the file to your preferred location. The file will be a ZIP archive that contains the executable file and other files.
Extract the ZIP archive to a folder of your choice. You can use any tool that can handle ZIP files, such as unzip or p7zip .
Make the executable file execu