diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 1e76b2f..e9c5a00 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 ### Changed
 - Updated build script (`addons/godot_xterm/native/build.sh`). Git submodules will now be initialized if they haven't already. Moved nix-shell related stuff to a seperate shell.nix file so the same build command can be used on all Linux based OSes.
 - Positioned background rect at 0,0 so it is no longer offset if a margin is added when Terminal is a child of a Container node.
+- Moved pre-compiled binary to `addons/godot_xterm/native/dist` directory, and reduced size by ~70M by making it a release build rather than debug.
 
 ## [1.0.0] - 2020-10-05
 ### Added
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 530d596..aa49679 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -15,6 +15,15 @@ Terminal emulator for Godot using GDNative and [libtsm](https://github.com/Aetf/
 
 ## Building
 
+**Important**: It is recommended that you build the native binaries before opening this demo project, otherwise the Godot editor will automatically modify the example scenes when it can't find the native libs, such that they won't work when the files _are_ in place.
+
+If you prefer not to build your own binaries from source, there are some pre-compiled release binaries in the [dist] directory.
+They can be copied to the correct location by:
+```
+cd addons/godot_xterm/native
+cp -rf dist/* bin/
+```
+
 ### All Operating Systems
 
 You will need at least these dependencies in order to build this plugin:
@@ -93,4 +102,5 @@ See the various license files in the [subdirectories](addons/godot_xterm/themes/
 
 
 [build.sh]: /addons/godot_xterm/native/build.sh
+[dist]: /addons/godot_xterm/native/dist
 [SConstruct]: /addons/godot_xterm/native/SConstruct
diff --git a/addons/godot_xterm/native/bin/x11/libgodotxtermnative.so b/addons/godot_xterm/native/bin/x11/libgodotxtermnative.so
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index a17dbf3..0000000
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diff --git a/addons/godot_xterm/native/dist/.gdignore b/addons/godot_xterm/native/dist/.gdignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e69de29
diff --git a/addons/godot_xterm/native/dist/x11/libgodotxtermnative.so b/addons/godot_xterm/native/dist/x11/libgodotxtermnative.so
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index 0000000..fc0f54c
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