The open-source engine Godot hits a new development milestone with its 4.6-dev5 snapshot. As the project moves toward feature freeze (scheduled for 3 December 2025), this build bundles a wide set of changes across rendering, export workflows, patching and editor usability.
Use D3D12 by default on Windows
For Windows users the default rendering backend now switches from Vulkan (or older defaults) to Direct3D 12 (D3D12). This reflects long-standing concerns about Vulkan stability on Windows, particularly around GPU driver reliability. The change only affects new projects created in 4.6-dev5 or later. For existing 4.5 projects you must manually set rendering/rendering_device/driver.windows = d3d12.
Delta-encoded PCK patching
Content patching sees a major enhancement. Previously, patch exports compared files at a per-file level — meaning even a single-character change in a large localisation file triggered a full export of that file.
Now, the engine supports delta encoding (binary diffing) when exporting patches. Only the modified bytes are stored, potentially turning megabyte-sized patches into lightweight, byte-level edits. This must be explicitly enabled in the Patching tab of the export dialog. Note: applying such patches comes with a small runtime cost (a few milliseconds worst case).
Native Android Gradle builds via companion app
Exporting to Android gets more robust. Previously, Godot allowed injecting game data into a pre-built APK — quick but limited. Now, thanks to a companion build app providing a Linux-like build environment on Android, Godot can run full Gradle builds on-device. This enables easier use of Android plugins (for example billing, XR, ads) and closer parity with native Android builds. The companion app is planned for release via Google Play and other stores before Godot 4.6 stable ships.
OpenXR 1.1 support and improved XR export
Godot now supports OpenXR 1.1. On devices with 1.1 support, the engine will automatically enable the newer API features. Loader logic for AOSP (Android Open Source Project) platforms has been moved from a vendor-specific plugin into Godot’s core. That means games targeting generic Android distributions can now export one APK that runs across many XR headsets without separate vendor plugins. The existing first-party OpenXR vendor plugin remains available for vendor-specific extensions and permission management.
2D renderer overhaul: major performance gains
The 2D renderer, especially for scenes benefiting from batching, gets substantial optimisations. Previous automatic 2D batching already reduced CPU usage by combining similar draw calls. In 4.6-dev5 the GPU cost of batching has been reworked. Tests show that on GPU-bound scenarios performance improved between 1.1× and 7× compared to prior versions.
Editor and engine usability upgrades
This snapshot also introduces many smaller but meaningful improvements across the editor, scripting, and core engine: rotating scene tiles in TileMapLayer, improved timeline resizing for animations, better GDScript debugging, extended GUI layout options, improved file attribute support under operating systems, and more.
What, if anything, to watch out for
As with any pre-release build, 4.6-dev5 is not a stable release. The official download page warns users to keep backups or use version control to avoid data loss or regressions. Depending on your project, some changes, like the switch to D3D12 or the use of delta-encoded patches, might require manual configuration or testing before relying on them.
This build is part of a broader push toward the stable 4.6 release. With feature freeze scheduled for 3 December 2025, this dev snapshot likely represents the last major feature add before the engine enters polish-only mode. Developers should test these changes thoroughly before upgrading production projects.
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And read more about this Release here: https://godotengine.org/article/dev-snapshot-godot-4-6-dev-5/
