Download Cocos Creator 3.4.1 with Cocos Dashboard.
We're going to slow down a bit at the start of this year and start with a small update to 3.4. We are constantly pushing for each upgrade 3.x to be as stable as possible and improve developers' experience in one or two ways. This has pushed us to do many more minor updates as we finalize 3.5. As quality in our engine is a key factor going forward, expect us to become more stable and more expansive in the coming months.
So there are many updates, but we'd like to highlight the top two features coming out of 3.4.1. If you want a complete list of updates, check our developer log at our forums.
Improved 2D Rendering
We have been talking to many developers who are still on 2.x about why they are sticking with the engine and not updating to 3.4 (We love getting feedback and answering issues). The replies we got were more likely than not due to 2D rendering still being not at an acceptable quality for them compared to 2.4.
We've decided to focus this update directly on getting our 2.x developers onboard to 3.4.1 by improving the overall performance of 2D rendering by 20 – 70% better than previous versions. We have done a performance test comparing the two, and you can see how close it is with Bunnymark and Spine testing.
All tests are done on low-end and mid-range computers. The four intervals of each icon are Android Web, iOS Web, Android WeChat, and iOS WeChat.
In addition, the overall performance improvement on the native platform will also be significantly optimized for native platforms in Cocos Creator 3.6.
Preparing WebGL 2.0 for WeChat Mini-games
Though this might not apply to many developers outside of China, we have a ton of developers in China getting ready for the subsequent improvements for WeChat's mini-games.
We have now enabled WebGL 2.0 to the WeChat mini-games option in preparation for its release later this year.
WebGL 2.0 is exceptionally impressive as it allows for more texture formats, 3D textures and 2D texture arrays, shading upgrades, and a whole lot more compared to 1.0. So games on WeChat will be a lot more exciting and impressive in the coming year. Don't worry; we'll be sharing them in upcoming blog posts.
