I get the feel discoverability of addons has become much worse with the Asset Store than it used to be with the Asset Library pre-4.7. Am I the only one? Here are some examples:
Notice how even in the last example the results are still much more pinned down for the Library and non-related addons and AI agents still make it in the Store results.
I do acknowledge that some assets may not have yet been uploaded to the store but still, I don’t see the necessity of showing unrelated results just for the sake of outputting something. I prefer precision not indecision.
You have put words to something I noticed. Though TBF, I never spent much time in the Asset Lib. I typically google for addons and add them myself from their GitHub pages. But I have noticed a number of AI-generated plugins and I do not like it. I actually assumed the no AI contributions to Godot rules would extend to the Asset Store, but I guess not.
I do not use the asset store/lib for downloading addons neither. However, it is good “discover” tool:
When asking for “terrain” or “voxel” addons, you will most likely be pointed towards Terrain3D by Tokisan and Voxel Tools by Zylann. Those are, indeed, the best addons in these fields (my opinion), but it’s still worthwhile to check alternatives that might have fallen into obscurity and the asset store could serve that purpose.
CSG Terrain by SpockBauru, HeightMap Terrain by Zylann and M Terrain by mohsenph are interesting alternatives to Terrain3D that are subpar (technically) or outdated but still could serve some use.
I had noticed this. I put it down to the new asset store not relying on a name match solely, and that the categorisation of the assets was not updated. However relying on categorisation is a mistake in my opinion too. It only ever leads to category hell.
Personally I never use the asset store either. I broke my rule the other day and installed something on a test project just to try it out and it was horrible! It worked as it said out of the box, but it generated tons of warnings, added files to my root directory (which I thought was bad) and got me so concerned I deleted the project entirely and started again. Good job it was just a test project I had just started. (It was also awful in user design, which is usually the case). It even left the add-on folder external files laying around after I removed it through the editor!
I am sorry to say that I just don’t trust anything from the asset store and it does nothing to instil any confidence in me.
To be fair that also happened with the asset library, it’s just a bit of getting used to the format. But yeah, I don’t use it neither for more than testing. For now, GodotEnv addons installer is my go to.
Again, I still stand by the idea that the asset store is or should be a good tool to look for assets. An example that has come to my mind is G.U.I.D.E. Although not unknown, I would say that the addon by Godotneers is easy to pass by.
Still, it seems like G.U.I.D.E not adding something “unique” to Godot, in the sense of a big feature that is not present (like a terrain system, steam integration, new classes…) coupled with the fact the channel has been on a hiatus, makes the discoverability of this tool bad.
I would honestly say that, if your game has a “more-than-basic” input layout (most modern games…?), G.U.I.D.E becomes a necessity. The only thing that explains to me the lack of more visibility for it is bad discoverability: bad SEO, not enough endorsements, few tutorials… The asset store was the only way I would’ve discovered it, probably.
I tried to download Aseprite Wizard from the new store and couldn’t find it. I had to copy it from a different project where I had it downloaded. I haven’t looked at it again, but I still don’t quite understand.
They don’t because I never added them. Godot Asset Library/Store doesn’t have a way to do library dependencies, and about half of mine require that. Though I suppose I could add the lower level ones.
