godotengine
patreon
Changes to Godot Patreon
🕑 Added 2020-02-06 15:22:43 +0000 UTCHi guys, I am writing this to sort out how we are going to use the money after we have received an Epic Megagrant.
When we applied to Epic, we asked to use the money on two fronts:
1. Rendering, to have someone dedicated to rendering for two years, either me or someone else.
2. Scripting, to have someone dedicated to fix GDScript and GDNative for two years.
The application was several months ago, actually before we hired George, and the grant was only approved a few weeks ago, so this leaves us in a situation of having to reorganize a bit.
What we are probably going to do is, for these two years, move George and I (Juan) to the Epic Megagrant and use it just for that (Remi continues to be paid by Patreon). The goal of the Patreon donations is that they are invested in areas that benefit all users, and not just some of them, so we want to continue in that direction.
Ideally, we would like to use the donations hire one or two more developers to work for the project, but as this has been very sudden we don't really have anyone ready to start working right now, this will take some months.
So, what we discussed with the other core developers is that we can use the Patreon donations for the following months to hire different contributors for limited amount of time to do work packages. We have been defining the work packages during the Godot Sprint.
Work packages include areas such as:
* Porting the Android Godot port from Java to NativeActivity. This is quite a lot of work, but its required in order to support Vulkan on mobile. Likewise, the iOS port needs to be modified to support MoltenVK (MacOS already does). This is pretty urgent for the 4.0 release and if I have to do it myself (Juan) it would delay the release some weeks (or months).
* Finishg cleaning up the tile editor. Its much better than before, but its still kind of messy.
* Fix the many problems remaining and issues reported in the Bullet physics server.
* Many several usability improvements in the editor interface (we spent most of the Godot Sprint making a long list of things to fix, will be published soon so we can create work packages).
One option to do this, is to via Prehensile Tales, which is Hein Pieter van Braam's (TMM2k) Godot consulting company. He is a very trustworthy contributor, and has also hired full-time several other core contributors to offer commercial support to many large companies using Godot.
We could rent their time and Hein Pieter mentioned he would charge us significantly less (probably about the same it would cost us to hire a contributor directly), given this work benefits his clients too. In the end, we both benefit (we don't have to do a stable contract with a specific contributor only so he works in one area for a limited amount of time).
Eventually, in some months, when we are sure who we can hire to work on the project, we switch to stable contracts.
In any case, please let us know what you guys think. Also of course, despite me not working under Patreon donations for these two years, I still promise to do the new rewards system we discussed in the previous post, but so far we wanted to wait until GodotCon and the confirmation of the grant to reorder this.
Comments
Viktor Ismagilov
+1 for 2d, +1 for c#. My dream is to get Metal support (even via MoltenGL) before Apple will drop down OpenGL support permanently. And, of course, support for c# brought me here, on patreon. Waiting c# AOT for desktop and Android platforms. Hmm... dreams... :-)
Juan Linietsky & Godot Core Contributors
It's already there in master branch for 4.0
Godot Engine
Yeah, Completely agree. After 4.0 is completed and the overall feature set is there, the plan is to move fully to improving usability. There is a lot that can be improved, specially in the 3D area.
Jasper Brooks
Please, consider adding real-time global illumination <3 I REALLY want that <3 <3 :D
Jasper Brooks
OMG OMG 4.0 graphics update, OMG omg April 2020, OMG OMG OMG <3 <3
Jasper Brooks
I just read update for this month, April 2020, omg so fucking awesome, all my wishes, omg omg, so fucking omg omg omg I must have 4.0 omg omg omg omg I'm shaking and, dancing, omg omg omg . . So much goodness, so much love, so much honor . . . . :D <3 <3
Grady
Of everything listed I think usability improvements is what interests me the most. I would love to see a concentrated effort to really make the Godot UI shine, to reorganise things a bit, bring some people into the project who are focused on user experience design more than just technical design. But overall it all sounds great, keep up the good work!
Jasper Brooks
The only thing I ask, is that you post some cool updates, about new features, graphics stuff, engine improvements . . . That stuff makes me happy, all over . . Also, please keep visual scripting improvements on the radar and, better graphics . . That's all, no more posts, you guys are AWESOME, thank you <3 <3
Jasper Brooks
Okay, I became a contributor, since I can use Unity, Unreal for free almost, and I get Quixel assets in Unreal, I wanted to give more than 48 dollars ( 60 dollars after taxes ) but, when I look at the other engines, it's a bit tough to give more, because I can get the same stuff, sort of, for free, but I think Godot is a VERY good initiative and, idea and, I support with 48 dollars per month, I think that's a nice amount of money, for the fun I am getting, I wish it made sense to give more, but not with the other engines, it's not your fault . . . .
Jasper Brooks
I think you should make the engine for every-body, not just hard-core, important users . . . Every-body is in the race, deserves, to win . . . Maybe that is difficult, in practice . . The noobs are people too, just remember . . And, have fun, Good times . .
Jasper Brooks
Please, don't forget the beginners, we need it . . .
Jasper Brooks
So, 1 / 4 gets spend on features, beginners will like, 1 / 4 gets spend on medium user-features, 1 / 4 gets spent on high-level features, and 1 / 4 gets spent on super-advanced, hard-core stuff, with some wiggle room, so if there's a nice advanced feature, that would in the end also benefit medium users, and new users, sort of use it like that . . It would be sort of nice, to see Godot grow on all fronts, also for beginners, but certainly also for advanced, high-quality users, with experience . . I think you should consider adding features, that make it good for schools, as it's free, even kids can learn it, and if they do, when they grow up, they might keep using Godot, that could make it more popular, ' used ' . . <3 <3
Jasper Brooks
I don't think I'm smart enough to know what's good for Godot, I guess ideally the money should be spent about 4-ways, 1 / 4 for features beginners will like, maybe add a help button, like AnimationPlayer when you add new animation, a key appears next to each parameter, maybe one could have a ' help ' button, so when one clicks it a ' ? ' appears, instead of a key, and there's a new ' tab ' next to animation, called ' Information and Help ', so there's next to Debugger, Audio, Animation a ' Help ' tab, and when one goes there, a ' ? ' appears, instead of a key, when adding an animation for keyframing, and one gets documentation there, during run-time, working, in the engine, possibly with ability to send feedback on the help, so every user can add to the help, or send suggestions, and then the people writing the ' help ' sections can just read all the suggestions, and add them as needed . . . Also, links to maybe youtube links, to good tuturials, made by users that use the engine well . .
Jasper Brooks
a. Please hire some experts from KhronosGroup, so we get a stronger, more optimized Vulkan, and also sooner release, of 4.0 . . b. Please make Visual script even easier to use, Godot is already friendly to beginners, please make it more so . . c. Please make the shadows look nicer, by default, maybe in Vulkan, using the new render engine . . d. Please make the standard lighting conditions not ' blue ', but so imported colors match like a paint program, or Blender better . . e. when importing .obj, all the textures look different, a bit darker than in Blender, the format is nice for importing static meshes, works really well . . but, importing a ' 100 % ' white color from Blender, becomes sort of ' darker ', for some reson . . A 1-to-1 import works well, IF one takes colors in Blender, makes them a texture, and add it, the color bug is not there . . f. Please have fun, enjoy yourselves, making Godot, and spend the money well, consider hiring some expert coders, from like KhronosGroup, to add to the code, so we can get Vulkan faster . . g. Please improve the documentation, perhaps by adding links to youtube tutorials that you feel further explain the topic, like how to setup particle systems, glow effects and so on, you could call the ' Approved Tutorial Examples ', if you feel a tutorial contains ' good enough ' stuff, for the people that use the Godot engine <3
Daniel Kimblad
I really hope you can find some good help so 4.0 will be here sooner rather than later. Very much looking forward to it :)
Sergey
Good strong plan!
Austen McRae
Sounds like you've got a strong plan going forward. I think its a great way to separate the responsibilities and keep pushing Godot forward!
Igor S.
Good thinking! Please don't forget internalization PRs :)
Juan Velandia
Sounds reasonable
Ranoller
Epic is right with godot needs... i think all patreons will be happy with rendering and scripting as priorities. Itยดs good time to approach gdscript performance like old roadmap says (jit or type compiling). I think that megagrant suggestion fits very well with patreons and other users necesities... And if some-work can go to "general performance" (not only rendering and gdscript, general API performance is important too). Commits like this: https://github.com/godotengine/godot/pull/20137 are a big push up to the project.
Sofox
Thanks for keeping us in the loop with this. Your plans sound good, and I trust you with who you bring on. Prehensile Tales seems like a solid idea.
Produno
Sounds like a good move. I cant wait to see what improvements GDscript gets.
Jeff Nyte
Awesome! I'm excited for godot's future!
Alex Khayrullin
Congrats on the grant, and yes, this seems like a solid plan.
Godot Engine
Thanks, the weight of responsibility is pretty big for us when handling donations, as we always want to make sure they benefit as most users as possible.
Godot Engine
Yes, I believe paid work packages are a great way to get people involved, at least until we can ensure we can hire more contributors full time.
Godot Engine
Asset importing has been hugely improved in 3.2, so please make sure to give it a try. Gordon continues to work on it also, ensuring that we have the best possible FBX import support by using a reverse engineered library of our own.
Gazza.NZ
Congrats on the grant - this sounds like a reasonable approach to me - keep up the awesome work!
Janders
Sounds good to me
Bruลo Barbarroja
I personally trust very much your management and decisions, keep up the good work!
Tama
Congratulations on getting that Megagrant!
Paul Hocker
This seems like a very sound decision and will benefit the community. Great work securing that funding!
Jason Anderson
I think it's a great idea to get Prehensile Tales to work on certain components of the engine. I hope that they perform the Java to NativeActivity conversion, as well as the iOS support.
Reneator
Thats a great idea! Especially the work packages, which would motivate anyone to start contributing, as they see that their work on the engine could (literally) pay off. This can also reinforce how godot can be taken serious as a game engine and project. Showing that it has great potential and a great future if you guys keep handling things like you have been doing all these years! Keep it up!
Andrew Thomas
This sounds like a good plan to me!
Arda Erol
Great plan. Regarding work packages, I feel two areas need a lot of love: 3D asset import and iOS support: - Asset import has too many problems (rigs not working and models not appearing as they should). - Last I tried I tried, iOS specifically had a lot of issues (to the point that I decided to use Android to test my mobile app instead, as Android seems to receive a lot more love). Note that my experience is from a year ago. Donโt know if these things have improved in 3.2.
Ash
This was awesome news, congrats!
Tim Gleason
Congrats! Great plan!
Ryan Kelln
The Prehensile Tales option seems ideal. Thanks to TMM2k and the Godot team for making that an option. Win-win!
Bernhard Werner
I know nothing about project management... But that sounds good! ๐
Digital KI
Thant's great news! We'll see the rise of n4 hopefully this year!
Tom Bleek
More work into the tile editor! Hell yes, that alone sounds good to me XD
SleepCircle
I can't personally see any problems, hahah. Good luck!
David Snopek
Sounds like a great plan! Let's do it :-)
