Version 0.2.0 (2022-10-07)

It's been a long road…. 6 months worth of work, to get Godot Manager to 0.2.0 release version. With this version, we have implemented quite a bit of updates, and bug fixes. Along with some new features, that have been wanted from the start, and that people have requested along the way. To hilight a few of the things that we have done with this release.

Godot Engine Mirrors

We started with the number one issue with Godot Manager, was the restriction of only being able to download from Github. With v0.2.0, and the intrudction of the Godot Mirror Manager project, official mirrors of Godot can now be scanned, and database generated from it, allowing for users to download from both Github and Tuxfamily. Meaning, that Stable, Alpha, Beta and Release Candidate releases can now be installed directly in Godot Mananger.

This allows for future engines to be added, as long as they have a scannable repository of entries that can be fetched, so that version information can be populated into a database. For thoes sites, that only provide a singular executable release, such as Nightly Builds, you can use the new Manage Custom Versions dialog.

Asset Library

Since the release of Godot 4 Beta, a need to be able to distinguish between 3.x plugins/addons/templates, and 4.x plugins/addons/templates was needed. Along with this, being able to define what version of Godot you want to look through was also needed. This presented us with a need to tweak the Asset Library UI, and searching functionality.

News Panel

With news coming out of latest versions, and various other news peices, such as the 2022 Showreel, and such, I decided to add a news panel to Godot Manager, allowing you to quickly scan Headlines directly from Godot Engine's website. If you see an article you like, you can click on any part of the article entry, and it will take you directly to the article.

New Settings

With new options being setup, new settings were added to the Dialog manager. As you may have notice in this screen shot, there's a couple of things that have been enabled. The first, by request, is the ability to use your OS' System Titlebars, and controls. This should allow for easier dragging of interface windows to anywhere on your desktop. While the "Faux" Titlebar still remains in the app, and is the default, this should allow for less bugs on slower systems.

Also introduced in 0.2.0, thanks to Godot 3.5 release, is the implementation of Proxy support. Since using Godot's own core Networking functions for HTTP Communications, anything that uses these functions, will support Proxy support. This will allow users in other countries, that have restrictive internet, to be able to proxy to continue using Godot Manager to download Engines, Plugins and Templates through their proxy.

Sorting and Pinnable Categories

A requested feature was to have a way to be able to sort the Default List View (Godot's own Project Manager View), to allow sorting by Project Name, or Godot Version. This is now setup, Default is the same as Godot's Internal Project Manager, which is Sorted by Last Opened / Modified. But you can sort Alphabetically, or by Version of the Godot Engine.

Also new, is the ability to pin Categories to the top of the list. So you can now pin categories to the top of the list, otherwise they will be sorted by Alphabetical order, with Favorites Category and Uncategorized being towards the bottom of the list.

Also, Godot Manager will now allow you to collapse Categories, for categories your not currently interested in, and will remember the toggle status, so that you can keep the same order as from the previous run.

New Addon Manager

With the previous versions of Godot Manager, Plugins / Addons were managed by using simple check boxes. Now, there's a new UI for Addon Management for both the Project Settings, and New Project dialogs, giving you visual information about the addons. Showing the Addon Icon, Version of the Addon, and a + or X to Add/Remove the Project from the project.

Engine Popup

With the previous screen shot, Godot Manager will now show the location of where that particular version of Godot is installed to. But not only that, there is now a Popup menu for a Godot Version, allowing you to Install/Uninstall, Make Default, as well as Copy path to the Godot Engine, or Open it directly with your OS' File Browser.

Translations

Work has begun to implement Translations for Godot Manager. All strings currently used in Godot Manager are translated, and with the help of GalaxyGamingBoy, initial work for Greek translations have begun. If you would like to contribute to translations, please see https://github.com/eumario/godot-manager/blob/master/locale/README.md for information on how to work on Translations. To add translations, feel free to create a Pull Request.

Bugs

Many different bugs were patched, and fixed in this release.

• Fixed bug for searching for Plugins and Templats, where a null wasn't being returned when not found. Now using Linq to search Central Store.
• Fixed bug where Asset Preview was still querying Godot AssetLib for locally imported plugins/templates.
• Fixed bug, where Duplicate Projects were being added to the Central Store, when there was only 1 project to be added.\
• Fixed 2 bugs on Linux/BSD where System needs to be prefix, and Executable Name was not named properly in the property.
• Fix UI bug where Labels on IconView, to ensure that there is proper spacing, and justification of the labels, so that they don't run over each other.
• Fixed minor bug where Indexes were not properly aligning to their images in the Download queue.
• Fixed minor bug where Checking to ensure directories exist, it properly get's the Operating System's Location, and ensures to use the Settings that are saved, in order to get validated location.
• Fixed bug with Paginated views, not properly updating when lower numbers of results were presented.
• Fixed bug on Linux where Installer wasn't properly following Folder structure for Mono Editions of Godot, when decompressing from the Zip File.

Future of Godot Manager

The next goal for Godot Manager, for Version 0.3.0, will be a complete re-write of the Godot Manager, to use Godot 4.x, instead of Godot 3.x. Many advancements with C# support in Godot 4, has made using C# HTTP(s) Networking stack a lot easier, and more conveinent then working with Godot's HTTP(s) Networking stack. Which also opens using native libraries for things such as Octokit for Github, and other various libraries to support such things as Git checkout for importing Projects, Initializing Git repository in new projects, and various other features that can be accomplished a lot easier, and safer through C# stacks and existing Libraries.

Also, a full clean up of the structure of the project, will allow for better organization, and better management of the project as a whole. This will make things easier for the future, to add new features, and separate more work of UI and Logic, making it easier to manage what is UI side, and what is Logic side.

If you have an Idea you would like to see added to Godot Manager, feel free to submit a new Feature Request on the Github page: (https://github.com/eumario/godot-manager/issues/new/choose), and describe the kind of feature you would like to see added to Godot Manager. Another option, is that if you feel confident with using C#, and Godot, you are more then welcome to create a Fork, and submit Patch Requests to the Main repository for features that you create.