I’m in the process of migrating from Godot 3 to Godot 4. Basically everything has been relatively smooth and I’d recommend the upgrade to everyone (even though the improvements aren’t really tangible for me, at least concerning 2D).
BUT. Tilemaps. Apparently, Godot completely botched the migration of my auto tilemaps.
Furthermore, according to some prominent community posts, the tilemap feature is simply not ready. 3 releases in, it seems to be largely work-in-progress? Instead, the community recommends the better-terrain addon. I’ll quote the author here:
Godot 4 has a terrain system built-in to its tilemap node. This system has some tricky behaviors and is tailored towards a very specific usage of tilemaps, rather than a more general case. It’s also quite slow, and the API is difficult to use at runtime. There are very large functional gaps caused by the replacement of the Godot 3 autotile system.
Now, what does that mean for me?
I have to recut the sprites for animated tilemaps because frame-based animationtextures are not supported anymore
I have to create all the autotiling from scratch
and then have to redo every single map I’ve made, placing all tiles again
trust a 3rd party addon by a lone maintainer
risk having Godot revamp the current tilemap feature which potentially results in people abandoning the 3rd party addon
If at least the new system was better… but it really is worse in a lot of ways (see above and the associated Github issues). I don’t understand, why was this necessary? Can anyone explain that to me?
Furthermore, Godot makes major breaking changes, replacing a superior system with a new one that is still seriously lacking after several patches. Where is the direction here? Can I trust the people in charge to not do something like this again, for a future version?
I have to add a log to the fire as well. @godotuser6000 I don’t know why it leaves the 3.x environment for 4.x but there is probably a reason. I migrated my project from 3.2.3 to 3.5.3 and I have to say that I am very satisfied. Since it is 2D, I have to say that working with Tielmap and Tileset is very unergonomic in 4.x compared to 3.x. Version 3.x has perhaps the perfect system for working with tiles. It really doesn’t miss anything. Maybe metatile but I would like that too much.
So if I were you, if there really is no reason for 4.x ( I have no knowledge of your migration to this version ) then I would not leave the 3.x environment for your sake.
I do want to like Godot, engage with the community, and so on. That requires to be up-to-date and not use an ancient version. That’s my reason.
Apart from the tilemaps, Godot4 is fine. I’d not do the migration again, specifically for this tilemap fiasco and failure. But I’ve already spent significant time on it and I think I need to push through now.
yes, Godot 4 is great, I just have a 3.x project in the works. I will use Godot 4 for the next 3D project. But for how well 3.x works in 2D, I don’t need to think about it. Godot 3.5.3 is really well tuned.
Huh? You’re starting to really (sic!) dislike the entire engine because one feature doesn’t match your expectations? I’d call that an overreaction.
I have my fair share of gripes with the new TileMap as well, but I’ve been around for long enough to know that people complained plenty about the old implementation as well. Personally, I’d say the new implementation isn’t quite ready for a release that calls itself “stable” yet, but I also understand that at some point in time you need actual user feedback from someone using it in real world projects. Give it some time.
That’s why it’s called a major release. And no, you can’t. But at least you’re free to fork the engine and maintain the (in your eyes!) “superior version” yourself.
Huh? You’re starting to really (sic!) dislike the entire engine because one feature doesn’t match your expectations? I’d call that an overreaction.
You’re answering in bad faith. First, this change costs me many days of work. And obviously, as I’ve mentioned, it’s not about one feature per sé. It’s about how Godot handles large breaking changes. It’s also removing features. My expectation is that such a harsh change benefits users. I see nothing of that sort. This is not an issue that just I have.
I have my fair share of gripes with the new TileMap as well, but I’ve been around for long enough to know that people complained plenty about the old implementation as well. Personally, I’d say the new implementation isn’t quite ready for a release that calls itself “stable” yet, but I also understand that at some point in time you need actual user feedback from someone using it in real world projects. Give it some time.
Seriously, do not attempt to upgrade your existing projects to a new major version of Godot. All major versions have breaking changes. That’s why they are major versions.
“Sic” is so condescending, especially when used against a phrase such as “I really dislike”. People use “really” for emphasis, so there shouldn’t be any issue with “really dislike”. Perhaps it’s not proper grammar? Who knows, who cares. It’s widely used. There was no reason for such passive aggression here. But anyways…
And this is my problem with Godot. The community and the devs just have no idea what a 2D game needs. Tilemaps are crucial for 2D games, esepcially retro-style 2D games. If the tilemap editor sucks, the engine isn’t usable. It’s not just “one feature” but rather the most important feature for level editing in many if not most 2D games.
Godot 3 has a bad tilemap system, Godot 4 has a bad tilemap system. Something like RPG Maker has nailed tilemap editing, yet this full-featured game engine doesn’t know how to make it intuitive? It’s beyond frustrating. I really dislike it!
I agree that for 2D games, tilemap system is a beyond crucial component of the entire engine. Some engines (like above-mentioned RPG maker) are built on top of a solid tilemapping experience.
Godot 3 tilemaps were okay. From what I understand the tilemaps in Godot 4 are more powerful, but this also causes them to be more difficult to use. I don’t know. I still haven’t really figured out how the autotile with terrains works. It’s a bummer.
But I’m conviced that it has more features than Godot 3. Especially the custom data layers. In Godot 3 it wasn’t very difficult to hit the ceiling of what was ergonomic with tilemaps. Now the possibilities are better, but the learning curve is definitely much steeper.
I have never used a tilemap system before and even before I get comfortable with it, I saw a vid where the entire tilemap system is being deprecated in Godot 4.3, which is available in beta right now. While it’s still available for the time being, I am kinda freaking out about it.
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