DLSS 4.5 🤖, Godot 4.6 Beta 🎮, Discord IPO 💰, CDPR Mocap Fix 🏃♂️
🚀 Engines & Tech Updates
Godot 4.6 Beta 3 Lands With 133 Fixes and RC in Sight
Godot kicks off 2026 with the release of 4.6 beta 3, a stability-focused update building on the already solid beta 2. This build packs 133 fixes from 60 contributors, targeting determinism, editor UX, GUI polish, Vulkan rendering glitches, VoxelGI reflection artifacts, and XR camera handling on Android. New builds are available for Linux, macOS, Windows (.NET and standard), plus Web, XR, and Android editors. The team urges devs to test, report regressions, and consider supporting ongoing development via donations.
NVIDIA DLSS 4.5: Sharper Frames, Smarter AI for 400+ Games
NVIDIA’s DLSS 4.5 is a major step up from DLSS 4, upgrading both Super Resolution and Multi Frame Generation. A new second‑gen transformer model delivers sharper edges, better lighting, and smoother motion across 400+ supported games. The update also introduces Dynamic Multi Frame Generation and a 6X mode that can generate up to five AI frames per rendered frame. DLSS 4.5 Super Resolution is already available in beta via the NVIDIA App, with the new frame‑gen modes arriving this spring.
🎮 Gameplay, Tools & Performance
Energy-Saving Plugin Cuts Power Use When Players Go AFK
Hauke Thiessen’s Energy Saving plug-in tackles idle power draw without adding work to your schedule. It monitors player input and, when someone goes inactive, gradually reduces frame rate and resolution before eventually pausing rendering entirely. As soon as the player returns, the game instantly restores full quality, so active gameplay is never affected. The plugin especially benefits handheld devices by extending battery life, reducing overheating, and shrinking your game’s carbon footprint.
Build Lifelike Character Interactions in Seconds with Interactor 1.0
Interactor by Negen Games is a near‑1.0 solution for building realistic character interactions in just seconds. The tool bundles editor utilities, a dynamic IK system, and a robust core that intelligently handles objects around the player. It’s fast to set up, mobile‑friendly, great for NPCs, and works with both HDRP and URP. New example scenes and tutorials are in the works, and it’s currently available at 50% off.
📈 Industry, Business & Monetisation
Discord’s Road to IPO: New CEO, Game Sales, and Safety Scrutiny
Discord is preparing for life as a public company, having confidentially filed for an IPO. The move follows last year’s leadership change, bringing in former King president Humam Sakhnini specifically to guide Discord toward the public markets. Discord is also building out a new revenue stream, letting studios sell in-game items right inside servers, wishlists, and chats. However, the company must balance growth with responsibility, facing legal action over alleged failures to protect young users.
Rethinking Game Monetisation: Teqblaze’s AI-Assisted Ad Infrastructure Play
Teqblaze CEO Anastasia Nikita Bansal argues that mobile game monetisation is broken not for lack of tools, but because most studios treat ads as disconnected growth hacks instead of core infrastructure. In this interview, she outlines Teqblaze’s unified, white-label stack and TeqMate AI, built to cut manual ops, automate A/B testing, and make complex programmatic setups actually explainable. Her core thesis: the next big profit unlock by 2026 will come from owning and architecting ad infrastructure, not just adding more partners.
🏭 Rethinking AAA & Production
Fixing AAA: Why Smaller Teams and Hard Constraints Win
Alexandre Amancio, former Assassin’s Creed creative director, argues that AAA is in crisis after years of bloated teams, feature creep, and metric-driven thinking. He champions a film-style model built on small core teams, tightly defined constraints, and modular co-dev for self-contained systems. Real innovation, he says, starts with rigorous prototypes—not just vertical slices—and ruthless filtering of ideas against clear design pillars. Amancio also suggests AAA could safely reuse worlds, Yakuza-style, if studios are honest and focus fresh effort on systems and player experience.
CDPR Animator Shows Near One-Click Fix for Mocap Foot Sliding
If you wrestle with messy mocap in your game animations, Slava Baravik has a streamlined solution. In this featured tutorial, the CD Projekt Red animator showcases his Smart Layer Maya script, designed to quickly fix foot sliding and tough leg overextension cases. The piece directs you to his full Smart Layer tutorial series, the download, and examples of his work on Cronos: The New Dawn.