Godot interfaces

Often one needs scripts that rely on other objects for features. There are 2 parts to this process:

1. Acquiring a reference to the object that presumably has the features.

2. Accessing the data or logic from the object.

The rest of this tutorial outlines the various ways of doing all this.

Acquiring object references

For all Objects, the most basic way of referencing them is to get a reference to an existing object from another acquired instance.

GDScriptC#

var obj = node.object # Property access.
var obj = node.get_object() # Method access.

The same principle applies for RefCounted objects. While users often access Node and Resource this way, alternative measures are available.

Instead of property or method access, one can get Resources by load access.

GDScriptC#

# If you need an "export const var" (which doesn't exist), use a conditional
# setter for a tool script that checks if it's executing in the editor.
# The `@tool` annotation must be placed at the top of the script.
@tool

# Load resource during scene load.
var preres = preload(path)
# Load resource when program reaches statement.
var res = load(path)

# Note that users load scenes and scripts, by convention, with PascalCase
# names (like typenames), often into constants.
const MyScene = preload("my_scene.tscn") # Static load
const MyScript = preload("my_script.gd")

# This type's value varies, i.e. it is a variable, so it uses snake_case.
@export var script_type: Script

# Must configure from the editor, defaults to null.
@export var const_script: Script:
    set(value):
        if Engine.is_editor_hint():
            const_script = value

# Warn users if the value hasn't been set.
func _get_configuration_warnings():
    if not const_script:
        return ["Must initialize property 'const_script'."]

    return []

Note the following:

1. There are many ways in which a language can load such resources.

2. When designing how objects will access data, don't forget that one can pass resources around as references as well.

3. Keep in mind that loading a resource fetches the cached resource instance maintained by the engine. To get a new object, one must duplicate an existing reference or instantiate one from scratch with new().

Nodes likewise have an alternative access point: the SceneTree.

GDScriptC#

extends Node

# Slow.
func dynamic_lookup_with_dynamic_nodepath():
    print(get_node("Child"))

# Faster. GDScript only.
func dynamic_lookup_with_cached_nodepath():
    print($Child)

# Fastest. Doesn't break if node moves later.
# Note that `@onready` annotation is GDScript-only.
# Other languages must do...
#     var child
#     func _ready():
#         child = get_node("Child")
@onready var child = $Child
func lookup_a