It sounds like the issue might be related to the specific build process or configuration you used when compiling Godot 4.2.2 with the spine-godot module. Here are a few steps you can take to troubleshoot and potentially resolve the issue:

1. Verify Compilation Steps: Ensure you followed the correct steps for compiling the Godot editor with C# support. Based on the documentation, the commands should look something like this:

       cd spine-godot
       ./build/setup.sh 4.2.2-stable false true
       ./build/build-v4.sh true

   Make sure the setup.sh and build-v4.sh scripts are executed with the correct arguments.

2. Check Dependencies: Ensure all necessary dependencies for C# support are installed as per the Godot documentation.

3. Compare with Pre-built Version: Since the animations work with the pre-built version of Godot provided by Spine, compare the configuration and settings of your compiled version with the pre-built version. Look for any differences in the project settings, export templates, or runtime configurations.

4. Review Exported Files: Ensure that the exported skeleton and animation data files (.spine-json or .skel, .atlas, and .png files) are correctly imported into your project. Verify that the file paths and names are consistent and correctly referenced in your project.

5. Check for Errors: Look for any error messages or warnings in the Godot editor's output console when running the game. These messages might provide clues about what is going wrong with the animations.

6. Update to Latest Spine Runtimes: Make sure you are using the latest version of the spine-godot module from the 4.2 branch on GitHub. There might have been updates or bug fixes that could resolve your issue.

If the issue persists after following these steps, it might be helpful to recompile the editor and export templates from scratch, ensuring that all steps are followed precisely.

jakecard Sorry if Spinebot's answer was not helpful. Mario, who is responsible for spine-godot, is currently unable to answer questions due to illness. It may take some time to get a response and we appreciate your patience.

Sorry for the delay in response. I'm afraid just based on the information you gave, it's hard to say what might be the issue, especially since our pre-built binaries work as intended.

Can you describe what modifications you made to the build? Are you sure you are pulling in the same spine-cpp sources as our pre-built binaries? Does "not playing" mean you get an error loading the skeleton data, or that it simply won't display anything?

jakecard If you need to send confidential information, please send it to our email address: contact@esotericsoftware.com
When you send us your project files, please keep them to the bare minimum that will allow us to reproduce the problem. We cannot debug complex projects that contain elements unrelated to the problem, so we would appreciate it if you could provide us with a project that demonstrates only the problem.
Please include the URL of this forum thread in the email so we know the context. Then we can take a look at what's wrong.

Sorry, I can not offer synchronous debugging sessions. I can however try to debug a boiled down project you send locally to figure things out.

It's very strange that you'd see different results between your build and ours without having modified the build at all.

I suggest you create a simple scene that simulates your real setup, that fails with your build and works with our build. I can then try to reproduce this on my end.

I am writing here to clarify that this issue has already been resolved in our email correspondence: the cause of the problem was the use of preview animations/skins to define the animations that would play at runtime. This was possible in older versions, but when the animations/skins were set in both the preview and the code, the content set for the preview caused the problem of overwriting the content set by the code, so it was fixed in the following commit:
EsotericSoftware/spine-runtimes25d5585

The solution is simply to set the animation and skin from the code.