* Only two texture import modes for low/high quality now:
* S3TC/BPTC
* ETC2/ASTC
* Makes sense given this is the general preferred and most compatible combination in most platforms.
* Removed lossy_quality from VRAM texture compression options. It was unused everywhere.
* Added a new "high_quality" option to texture import. When enabled, it uses BPTC/ASTC (BC7/ASTC4x4) instead of S3TC/ETC2 (DXT1-5/ETC2,ETCA).
* Changed MacOS export settings so required texture formats depend on the architecture selected.
This solves the following problems:
* Makes it simpler to import textures as high quality, without having to worry about the specific format used.
* As the editor can now run on platforms such as web, Mac OS with Apple Silicion and Android, it should no longer be assumed that S3TC/BPTC is available by default for it.
As many open source projects have started doing it, we're removing the
current year from the copyright notice, so that we don't need to bump
it every year.
It seems like only the first year of publication is technically
relevant for copyright notices, and even that seems to be something
that many companies stopped listing altogether (in a version controlled
codebase, the commits are a much better source of date of publication
than a hardcoded copyright statement).
We also now list Godot Engine contributors first as we're collectively
the current maintainers of the project, and we clarify that the
"exclusive" copyright of the co-founders covers the timespan before
opensourcing (their further contributions are included as part of Godot
Engine contributors).
Also fixed "cf." Frenchism - it's meant as "refer to / see".
Implements basic ASTC support:
* Only 4x4 and 8x8 block sizes.
* Other block sizes are too complex to handle for Godot image compression handling. May be implemented sometime in the future.
The need for ASTC is mostly for the following use cases:
* Implement a high quality compression option for textures on mobile and M1 Apple hardware.
* For this, the 4x4 is sufficient, since it uses the same size as BPTC.
ASTC supports a lot of block sizes, but the benefit of supporting most of them is slim, while the implementation complexity in Godot is very high.
Supporting only 4x4 (and 8x8) solves the real problem, which is lack of a BPTC alternative on hardware where it's missing.
Note: This does not yet support encoding on import, an ASTC encoder will need to be added.
* Allows running the game in "movie writer" mode.
* It ensures entirely stable framerate, so your run can be saved stable and with proper sound (which is impossible if your CPU/GPU can't sustain doing this in real-time).
* If disabling vsync, it can save movies faster than the game is run, but if you want to control the interaction it can get difficult.
* Implements a simple, default MJPEG writer.
This new features has two main use cases, which have high demand:
* Saving game videos in high quality and ensuring the frame rate is *completely* stable, always.
* Using Godot as a tool to make movies and animations (which is ideal if you want interaction, or creating them procedurally. No other software is as good for this).
**Note**: This feature **IS NOT** for capturing real-time footage. Use something like OBS, SimpleScreenRecorder or FRAPS to achieve that, as they do a much better job at intercepting the compositor than Godot can probably do using Vulkan or OpenGL natively. If your game runs near real-time when capturing, you can still use this feature but it will play no sound (sound will be saved directly).
Usage:
$ godot --write-movie movie.avi [scene_file.tscn]
Missing:
* Options for configuring video writing via GLOBAL_DEF
* UI Menu for launching with this mode from the editor.
* Add to list of command line options.
* Add a feature tag to override configurations when movie writing (fantastic for saving videos with highest quality settings).
* Resource that allows saving textures embedded in scenes or standalone.
* Supports only formats that are portable: Lossy, Lossles or BasisUniversal
This is something I wanted to add for a long time. I made it now because @fire
requires it for importing GLTF2 files with embedded textures, but also this
will allow saving Godot scenes as standalone binary files that will run
in all platforms (because textures will load everywhere).
This is ideal when you want to distribute individual standalone assets online
in games that can be built from Godot scenes.
On the only platform where PVRTC is supported (iOS),
ETC2 generally supersedes PVRTC in every possible way. The increased
memory usage is not really a problem thanks to modern iOS' devices
processing power being higher than its Android counterparts.
