Phaser v4's final release candidate delivers game-changing performance improvements that will transform mobile gaming experiences. The standout achievement is a complete overhaul of data buffer management for filters and masks, resulting in performance gains of up to 16x on mobile devices. Games that previously struggled with filter-heavy scenes on phones and tablets will now run smoothly, while desktop users benefit from significant memory savings. The new BatchHandlerQuadSingle render node and dedicated WebGL buffers optimize the rendering pipeline, cutting memory usage by over 16MB while maintaining peak performance.
The architectural changes in RC4 demonstrate Phaser v4's commitment to efficiency. By transitioning to dedicated buffers for batch handlers, the framework now uses approximately 5MB of optimized RAM and VRAM instead of the previous 16MB generic buffer approach. Critical fixes include proper lighting on rotated and filtered objects, along with community-contributed patches for Group iterations and tileset handling. While TileSprite texture cropping has been removed to streamline the rendering system, the overall improvements far outweigh this limitation.
This marks the final release candidate before Phaser v4 goes live. We're placing RC4 in the community's hands for a couple of weeks of intensive testing to ensure rock-solid stability. Your feedback during this crucial period will help us deliver the most polished version of Phaser yet. Test your projects, push the boundaries, and report any issues you encounter – together we'll make Phaser v4's official launch a milestone worth celebrating.
You can get Phaser v4 RC4 from GitHub and npm under the beta tag. It is also now available in the Phaser Sandbox.
We've released our new Phaser 4 Examples Labs for you to play with! Every single example has been updated for Phaser 4, so dig in and explore :)