Blend Shapes should include a warning that they do nothing in GLES2

[goatchurchprime]

Describe the project you are working on

VR mapping gestures to avatars

Describe the problem or limitation you are having in your project

I just used a lot of time trying to get blend shapes to do something in Godot. I was loading in a GLB file and moving the values around, but nothing was happening.

Eventually I found this docs note here:
https://docs.godotengine.org/en/latest/tutorials/rendering/gles2_gles3_differences.html#blend-shapes

I have GLES2 selected most of the time because it's necessary for doing VR for the Oculus Quest2, since it's a mobile platform, so it didn't cross my mind that this could be the problem.

When I checked with someone else doing similar VR coding, they also thought that blend shapes in Godot didn't work at all and wasn't a feature. It's a relief to find that they are there, because I thought I was going crazy.

Describe the feature / enhancement and how it helps to overcome the problem or limitation

As it has proven difficult to find out about this limitation, we need a contextual warning for people who get stuck.

For example, a "This does nothing" note is included in the tooltips for the LOD values, as seen here:

Describe how your proposal will work, with code, pseudo-code, mock-ups, and/or diagrams

Can the Tooltips for the blend_shapes properties include a similar note when GLES2 is selected?

Also, is this just a temporary issue? Is the Godot4.0 mode used for the Oculus Quest (and other mobile platforms) going to implement Blend shapes so it's no longer a modal limitation?

If this enhancement will not be used often, can it be worked around with a few lines of script?

N/A

Is there a reason why this should be core and not an add-on in the asset library?

It's core UI

[Calinou]

Can the Tooltips for the blend_shapes properties include a similar note when GLES2 is selected?

For "static" properties, this only requires modifying the class reference – you don't need to open a proposal for that. You can ask for such documentation changes on the godot-docs repository.

However, blend shape properties are "dynamic" in the sense that their name and amount vary depending on the node selected. I don't think there's a way to add a tooltip for such properties.

We could hide blend shape properties entirely when using the GLES2 renderer, but this would be confusing. I think the best compromise would be to return a node configuration warning for MeshInstance nodes that expose at least one blend shape.

Also, is this just a temporary issue? Is the Godot4.0 mode used for the Oculus Quest (and other mobile platforms) going to implement Blend shapes so it's no longer a modal limitation?

GLES2 support is unlikely to remain for 3D in 4.0. Using GLES3 as a baseline renderer will make blend shapes usable in all renderers supported by Godot 4.0 4.x. (The Oculus Quest supports GLES3.)

[clayjohn]

Blend shapes were added to GLES2 so closing :)

godotengine/godot#48480