# phaser v4.0.0-rc.3 — Phaser v4.0.0 Release Candidate 3

- Product: phaser (https://whatsnew.fyi/product/phaser)
- Vendor: phaserjs
- Date: 2025-05-16
- Version: v4.0.0-rc.3
- Original notes: https://github.com/phaserjs/phaser/releases/tag/v4.0.0-rc.3
- Permalink: https://whatsnew.fyi/product/phaser/releases/v4.0.0-rc.3
- Labels: Pre-release

What's New is an index, not a publisher: every entry below links to the vendor's own release notes, which are the authoritative source. Entries are labelled where they are hand-curated sample data, pre-releases, or drawn from a secondary source such as a developer blog.

Reuse: the summaries, labels and curation here are © What's New. Quote freely with attribution and a link back; wholesale republication of the corpus is not permitted — terms: https://whatsnew.fyi/terms. The vendors' own release notes remain their publishers'.

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- **added** — Add GameObject#vertexRoundMode to control vertex pixel rounding on a per-object basis with options: "off", "safe", "safeAuto", "full", and "fullAuto"
- **added** — Add GameObject#willRoundVertices(camera, onlyTranslated) method to determine whether vertices should be rounded
- **added** — Add Blocky filter that picks a single color from the image to preserve pixel art palettes with configurable pixel width, height, and offset
- **changed** — Make WebGL2 canvases compatible with the WebGL renderer
- **changed** — Optimize multi-texture shader branching pattern for better performance on a wider range of devices
- **changed** — Optimize multi-texture shader to request only the number of textures needed, improving performance on mobile devices
- **changed** — Remove vertex rounding from multi-texture shader to prevent batch breaking and performance degradation
- **fixed** — Fix WebGLSnapshot and snapshot functions to return the correct pixel instead of the one above it
- **fixed** — Fix ArcadePhysics#closest() and #furthest() to be properly defined
- **fixed** — Add guards to GamepadPlugin.stopListeners and GamepadPlugin.disconnectAll to prevent invocation on undefined gamepads
- **fixed** — Fix Arcade Physics OverlapCirc() and OverlapRect() to properly error when useTree is false

This release candidate introduces better pixel art controls, and fixes performance issues related to pixel art options.

Updates since RC2:

##### New Features

- `GameObject#vertexRoundMode` added to control vertex pixel rounding on a per-object basis.
  - Options include:
    - `"off"`: Never round vertex positions.
    - `"safe"`: Round vertex positions if the object is "safe": it is rendering with a transform matrix which only affects the position, not other properties such as scale or rotation.
    - `"safeAuto"` (default): Like "safe", but only if rendering through a camera where `roundPixels` is enabled.
    - `"full"`: Always round vertex positions. This can cause sprites to wobble if their vertices are not safely aligned with the pixel resolution, e.g. during rotations. This is good for a touch of PlayStation 1 style jank.
    - `"fullAuto"`: Like "full", but only if rendering through a camera where `roundPixels` is enabled.
  - `GameObject#willRoundVertices(camera, onlyTranslated)` returns whether vertices should be rounded. In the unlikely event that you need to control vertex rounding even more precisely, you are intended to override this method.
- `Blocky` filter added. This is similar to Pixelate, but it picks just a single color from the image, preserving the palette of pixel art. You can also configure the pixel width and height, and offset. This is a good option for pixelating a retro game at high resolution, setting up for additional filters such as CRT emulation.

##### Changes

- WebGL2 canvases are now compatible with the WebGL renderer.
- Optimize multi-texture shader.
  - Shader branching pattern changed to hopefully be more optimal on a wider range of devices.
  - Shader will not request the maximum number of textures if it doesn't need them, improving performance on many mobile devices.
  - Shader no longer performs vertex rounding. This will prevent many situations where a batch was broken up, degrading performance.

##### Fixes

- `WebGLSnapshot` and snapshot functions based on it now return the correct pixel, instead of the one above it (or nothing if they're at the top of the image).
- `ArcadePhysics#closest()` and `#furthest()` are properly defined (thanks @samme).
- `GamepadPlugin.stopListeners` and `GamepadPlugin.disconnectAll` now have guards around them so they won't try to invoke functions on potentially undefined gamepads (thanks @cryonautlex)
- Arcade Physics OverlapCirc() and OverlapRect() error when useTree is false. Fix #7112 (thanks @samme)

##### Documentation / TypeScript Enhancements

Thanks to the following people:

@ospira 
@samme
@OuttaBounds
@raaaahman