Author of GodotAwesome, a Godot game engine blog.
Godot 4.8 Beta: What's New and What Breaks
Godot 4.8 beta 1 was released on 15 October 2026. It is a pre-release, so it is for testing, not for shipping projects. Feature freeze is in effect, which means the team is now fixing regressions instead of adding features. We will update this page when the next beta or the stable release arrives.
30-second summary
- Status: beta 1, feature freeze, regression fixing
- Big editor change: main screens become docks you can close or float (the Game screen stays)
- New in 3D and rendering: native
Trail3D, multi-bounce ambient occlusion, screen space contact shadows - Watch out: the .NET build now needs .NET 10 or newer, and a few scripting behaviors changed
- Should you upgrade a real project? Not yet. Test on a copy
What is new in Godot 4.8 beta 1
Editor
- Main screens (2D, 3D, Script and others) are now docks. You can close them or float them, except the Game screen
- Redesigned toolbars for the Game, 2D and 3D screens
- Drag to toggle scene tree visibility on several nodes at once
- Pseudolocalization to test layouts with longer text
- Inspector resources can auto-expand
- "Play Scene" in the FileSystem context menu
- Ctrl+scroll zoom and glob search in the FileSystem dock
- Runtime changes to
CanvasItemwith undo and redo - Experimental symbol renaming across a project
2D, 3D and rendering
| Area | What changed |
|---|---|
| 3D | Trail3D, a native trail effect |
| 3D editor | Axis view override when hovering over a side viewport |
| GridMap | Octant visualization |
| Lighting | Multi-bounce ambient occlusion, directional lightmap specular |
| Shadows | Screen space contact shadows |
| Textures | Mip-level texture streaming, alpha-preserving mipmaps |
| Decals | Fully animated decals, decal support in the Compatibility renderer |
GDScript, UI and input
- Warnings and errors underline only the relevant part of a line
- Faster syntax highlighting
LabelandRichTextLabelcan auto-resize textTreesupports sticky foldable items- Touch support for
TextEdit,CodeEdit,TabBarandPopupMenu
Core and physics
- Jolt is updated to 5.6.0
- Non-allocating physics space state queries that reuse result objects
- Cleaner text-scene diffs and metadata in text scenes, which helps with Git
- Fuzzy search
Platforms and size
- Automated Android SDK and Java setup
- macOS binaries are distributed per architecture and are more compact
- visionOS support returns as a module, with groundwork for tvOS
- Hand tracking and PSVR2 controllers for Apple Vision Pro
- Consolidated object property storage saves about 12 MB of runtime RAM
Breaking changes to check first
| Change | Who is affected |
|---|---|
| .NET build requires .NET 10 or newer (was .NET 8) | Everyone using C# |
| Scripts can no longer inherit their own inner classes | GDScript projects that did this |
| Joypads are ignored on unfocused windows by default in new projects | Controller games, new projects |
Android OS.alert() is now blocking |
Android projects using alerts |
| Lightmap and bone follower behavior fixes | Existing 3D scenes |
| Reworked default dialog titles | Projects relying on default titles |
The full list is in the official announcement. Read it before you move a real project.
How to try 4.8 beta safely
- Download the beta from the official archive. Standard and .NET builds exist for Linux, macOS (arm64) and Windows. Web and XR editors are available too
- Keep it separate from your stable install
- Open a copy of your project, or commit everything to Git first
- If something that worked in 4.7 now breaks, search the GitHub issues. Regressions from earlier 4.x releases are the highest priority to report
If you rely on 3D physics, see Godot Jolt Physics: How to Enable Jolt. Godot 4.8 updates Jolt to 5.6.0.
FAQ
Is Godot 4.8 out?
Beta 1 is out (15 October 2026). The stable release is not out yet.
When is the Godot 4.8 release date?
The beta announcement does not give a stable date. Check the official site for the latest snapshot and release notes.
Does Godot 4.8 need .NET 10?
The .NET build of 4.8 requires .NET 10 or newer. Godot 4.7 used .NET 8, so update your SDK before testing C# projects.
Is Godot 4.8 smaller?
macOS binaries are more compact, and runtime RAM use drops by about 12 MB because of consolidated object property storage.
Should I upgrade my game to 4.8 beta?
No. Test on a copy. Wait for the stable release for anything you ship.