We read the documentation, so you don't
have to. And this is what we learned.
Number 1: An easy trail
You can make a trail in a very easy way. Just use a line2D and
add a point to it every physics frame.
If you want your trail to be limited,
remove points when a certain number of points is reached or it got too long.
With a scale curve, this looks really cool.
Related to this: If you want to have a node
with a transform independent of their parent, use set_as_toplevel.
It then acts as if it was a direct child of the scene tree root, and
therefore its position is its global position.
That way we can add the trail
as a child of a node!
Number 2: Helps to have a map!
Organizing your project can be a hassle.
But L4Vo5 showed us a great solution.
With this neat plugin called Project Map, you can organize your assets in a map and group
your nodes. This can drastically reduce the time you waste searching that one script.
Just drag files from the file system panel onto the map. To open the file,
you can click on the node name.
You can simply download this plugin from
GitHub or install it via the Asset Library. Enable it in your project and you get this
tab on the top to open the project map.
Number 3: How can you even interpolate methods?!
Tweens can actually interpolate methods, not just properties. Simply use “interpolate_method”
with the node, the method name, starting value, target value and duration.
The method will be called every frame with the interpolated values. You can do very complex
stuff with that, like adding points to a line by interpolating from the start to end position.
It’s also super helpful whenever you want to react to a property change.
Note that you can only interpolate a single parameter.
Number 4: Inconstant Constants
In Gdscript you can declare variables
as “const”. This has a large advantage: They do not need to be stored multiple
times for multiple instances of the class. The most common usage of const is for a preload
because preloads are expensive and do not change.
The name “const” for “constant” implies that these
variables can not change. And this is true for primitive types like an int. But for objects
“not changing” just refers to their identity, not their state. So you can declare a const
String, Color or Array and still...change it. It will be shared between all nodes. I
still would not advise doing that.
Number 5: Preload database
If you ever find yourself preloading the same scene in multiple scripts, it gets tedious
to update all of them when the path changes.
An easy fix is brought by skaruts:
Just put all of them in a data-class where you reference them from.
You can make it a node so you can put it into your project’s autoloads and
access it from everywhere in your code.
Number 6: Fake 3d and diagonal squishing
If you have a 2D node such as a sprite, you can scale it in x and y-direction. But you can not
squish it sideways for shearing. If you want this, you can use a vertex shader, we explained that
here. But you can also put another Node2D above, and scale that one in the y-direction. You can
see, the sprite is now squished diagonally. If you rotate the child node you have this kind
of pseudo-3d effect that looks pretty cool.
Number 7: Check your performance
Most code is not performance-critical at all and you should not bother optimizing it. But some
code is. To find out what code that is for your project, you can use the profiler.
Just go to debugger -> Profiler on the bottom when you play. You can
see which functions take how long. You can add and remove specific functions to the
plot, to see which ones contribute to a spike.
In this particular example, you can see that
instantiating becomes more and more expensive as the scene tree is filled with sprites, while
the loop’s cost is identical in every frame.
Number 8: Engine shortcuts
When working with Godot, you tend to switch very often from the 2D/3D editor to
the script editor. And every second saved there, is a bit of extra productivity. You can switch
faster than clicking using keyboard shortcuts. The standard shortcut is Control + F1/ F2 / F3
depending on the tab. But you can change it, like marbles did. For example to Alt+ Q/W and E.
Just go to Editor -> Editor Settings -> Shortcuts and search for ‘open’.
Number 9: Iterate everything
If you have a custom class that you
want to iterate, you can do this.
But you have to implement
the necessary functions.
These are _iter_init(),
_iter_next() and _iter_get().
This is most interesting if you
implement some kind of container like a 2d array or maybe a dialog script.
Usually, you keep an index to the current element within the class.
In _iter_init, you reset that index to the first element.
In _iter_next, you advance the index to the next element and check if you reached
the end of your data structure. You need to return the result of that check.
In _iter_get, you just return the value at the current index.
Now, you can just create an instance of the iteratable class and iterate it with a for loop.
By the way: We discover this stuff by working on our own game Furcifer’s Fungeon. A roguelike where
we draw everything that hurts you on the ground, so we can throw randomized death at you.
Go to the description, click the link and wishlist that thing. Give this video a like,
subscribe, share it with your grandma while you are at it, and sell us your soul!
Number 10: Animation player tricks
The animation player has a lot of cool features
hidden inside, as Dark Peace pointed out.
You can select keyframes, go to Edit -> Duplicate
selection and duplicate the selected part of an animation. As a shortcut, use Ctrl+D.
And down there, you have two helpful buttons I always ignored.
This little funnel there hides all tracks except the ones referring to the
node you currently select in the scene tree. Really nice if you have many tracks.
And the list icon right next to it removes the grouping which makes the list much
shorter if you use many different nodes.
So we hope some of these were
helpful. Let us know your tricks!
If you want to watch more of
this: Here are 10 more tricks!
And here are games made with Godot!
I've never used
set_as_toplevel(true)so far but it seems incredibly useful! Thanks for making these, I love this video format!