godot-cpp

C++ bindings for the Godot script API

The instructions below feature the new NativeScript 1.1 class structure and will only work for modules created for Godot 3.1 and later. Use the following branches for older implementations:

Version	Branch
Godot 3.0 Nativescript 1.0	3.0
Godot 3.1 Nativescript 1.0	nativescript-1.0

Index:

• Contributing
• Getting Started
• Creating a simple class

Contributing

We greatly appreciate help in maintaining and extending this project. If you wish to help out ensure you have an account on Github and create a "fork" of the this repo. Rémi "Akien" Verschelde wrote an excellent bit of documentation for the main Godot project on this: https://docs.godotengine.org/en/3.0/community/contributing/pr_workflow.html

It is advisible to also install clang-format and copy the files in misc/hooks into .git/hooks so format checking is done before your changes are submitted.

Getting Started

Build latest version of Godot	GitHub	Docs

Setting up a new project

We recommend using git for managing your project and the instructions below assume so. Alternatively you can download the source code directly from GitHub in which case you need to download both godot-cpp and godot_headers.

$ mkdir SimpleLibrary
$ cd SimpleLibrary
$ mkdir bin
$ mkdir src
$ git clone --recursive https://github.com/GodotNativeTools/godot-cpp

Note that if you wish to use a specific branch, add the -b option to the clone command:

$ git clone --recursive https://github.com/GodotNativeTools/godot-cpp -b 3.0

If your project is an existing repository, use git submodule instead:

$ git submodule add https://github.com/GodotNativeTools/godot-cpp
$ git submodule update --init --recursive

Right now our directory structure should look like this:

SimpleLibrary/
├─godot-cpp/
| └─godot_headers/
├─bin/
└─src/

Updating the api.json

Our api.json file contains meta data of all the classes that are part of the Godot core and are needed to generate the C++ binding classes for use in GDNative modules.

This file is supplied with our godot_headers repository for your convinience but if you are running a custom build of Godot and need access to classes that have recent changes a new api.json file must be generated. You do this by starting your Godot executable with the following parameters:

$ godot --gdnative-generate-json-api api.json

Now copy the api.json file into your folder structure so its easy to access. Note the remark below for the extra custom_api_file command line parameter needed to tell scons where to find your file.

Compiling the cpp bindings library

The final step is to compile our cpp bindings library:

$ cd godot-cpp
$ scons platform=<your platform> generate_bindings=yes
$ cd ..

For android: Download the latest Android NDK from the official website and set NDK path.

$ scons platform=android generate_bindings=yes ANDROID_NDK_ROOT="/PATH-TO-ANDROID-NDK/" android_arch=<  >

android_arch can be armv7, arm64v8, x86, x86_64. ANDROID_NDK_ROOT can also be set in the environment variables of your computer if you do not want to include it in your Scons call.

Replace <your platform> with either windows, linux, osx or android.

Include use_llvm=yes for using clang++

Include target=runtime to build a runtime build (windows only at the moment)

The resulting library will be created in godot-cpp/bin/, take note of its name as it will be different depending on platform.

If you want to use an alternative api.json file add use_custom_api_file=yes custom_api_file=../api.json, be sure to specify the correct location of where you placed your file.

Creating a simple class

Create init.cpp under SimpleLibrary/src/ and add the following code

#include <Godot.hpp>
#include <Reference.hpp>

using namespace godot;

class SimpleClass : public Reference {
    GODOT_CLASS(SimpleClass, Reference);
public:
    SimpleClass() { }

    /* _init must exist as it is called by Godot */
    void _init() { }

    void test_void_method() {
        Godot::print("This is test");
    }

    Variant method(Variant arg) {
        Variant ret;
        ret = arg;

        return ret;
    }

    static void _register_methods() {
        register_method("method", &SimpleClass::method);
        
        /**
         * How to register exports like gdscript
         * export var _name = "SimpleClass"
         **/
        register_property<SimpleClass, String>("base/name", &SimpleClass::_name, String("SimpleClass"));

        /* or alternatively with getter and setter methods */
        register_property<SimpleClass, int>("base/value", &SimpleClass::set_value, &SimpleClass::get_value, 0);

        /** For registering signal **/
        // register_signal<SimpleClass>("signal_name");
        // register_signal<SimpleClass>("signal_name", "string_argument", GODOT_VARIANT_TYPE_STRING)
    }
    
    String _name;
    int _value;

    void set_value(int p_value) {
        _value = p_value;
    }

    int get_value() const {
        return _value;
    }
};

/** GDNative Initialize **/
extern "C" void GDN_EXPORT godot_gdnative_init(godot_gdnative_init_options *o) {
    godot::Godot::gdnative_init(o);
}

/** GDNative Terminate **/
extern "C" void GDN_EXPORT godot_gdnative_terminate(godot_gdnative_terminate_options *o) {
    godot::Godot::gdnative_terminate(o);
}

/** NativeScript Initialize **/
extern "C" void GDN_EXPORT godot_nativescript_init(void *handle) {
    godot::Godot::nativescript_init(handle);

    godot::register_class<SimpleClass>();
}

Compiling

Linux

$ cd SimpleLibrary
$ clang -fPIC -o src/init.os -c src/init.cpp -g -O3 -std=c++14 -Igodot-cpp/include -Igodot-cpp/include/core -Igodot-cpp/include/gen -Igodot-cpp/godot_headers
$ clang -o bin/libtest.so -shared src/init.os -Lgodot-cpp/bin -l<name of the godot-cpp>

This creates the file libtest.so in your SimpleLibrary/bin directory.

You will need to replace <name of the godot-cpp> with the file that was created in Compiling the cpp bindings library

Windows

$ cd SimpleLibrary
$ cl /Fosrc/init.obj /c src/init.cpp /nologo -EHsc -DNDEBUG /MDd /Igodot-cpp\include /Igodot-cpp\include\core /Igodot-cpp\include\gen /Igodot-cpp\godot_headers
$ link /nologo /dll /out:bin\libtest.dll /implib:bin\libsimple.lib src\init.obj godot-cpp\bin\<name of the godot-cpp>

This creates the file libtest.dll in your SimpleLibrary/bin directory.

You will need to replace <name of the godot-cpp> with the file that was created in Compiling the cpp bindings library

Finally replace /MDd with /MD if you're generated a runtime build.

macOS For OSX you need to find out what compiler flags need to be used.

Android

$ cd SimpleLibrary
$ aarch64-linux-android29-clang -fPIC -o src/init.os -c src/init.cpp -g -O3 -std=c++14 -Igodot-cpp/include -Igodot-cpp/include/core -Igodot-cpp/include/gen -Igodot-cpp/godot_headers
$ aarch64-linux-android29-clang -o bin/libtest.so -shared src/init.os -Lgodot-cpp/bin -l<name of the godot-cpp>

use armv7a-linux-androideabi29-clang for 32 bit armeabi-v7a library

This creates the file libtest.so in your SimpleLibrary/bin directory.

You will need to replace <name of the godot-cpp> with the file that was created in Compiling the cpp bindings library

Creating .gdnlib and .gdns files

follow godot_header/README.md to create the .gdns

Implementing with gdscript

var simpleclass = load("res://simpleclass.gdns").new();
simpleclass.method("Test argument");

Using Godot classes in C++

Godot expects you to manage its classes the same way the engine does. These rules apply to all Godot classes, including your NativeScripts, but not to any normal C++ classes used in your library.

• Instantiate Objects using _new(), not C++'s new operator.

Sprite *sprite = Sprite::_new();

• Destroy Nodes using queue_free(), not C++'s delete operator.

some_old_node->queue_free();

• Wrap References in Ref instead of passing around raw pointers. They are ref-counted and do not need to be freed manually.

Ref<Texture> texture = resource_loader->load("res://icon.png");

• Pass core types that do not inherit Object by value. The containers (Array, Dictionary, PoolArray, String) manage their own memory and do not need to be explicitly initialized or freed.

Array ints;
ints.append(123);
return ints;

• Initialize your NativeScript classes in their _init() method, not their constructor. The constructor can't access the base class's methods.
• Cast objects using Object::cast_to, not unsafe C-style casts or static_cast.

MeshInstance *m = Object::cast_to<MeshInstance>(get_node("ChildNode"));
// m will be null if it's not a MeshInstance
if (m) { ... }

• Never use Godot types in static or global variables. The Godot API is not loaded until after their constructors are called.

String s; // crashes
class SomeClass {
    static Dictionary d; // crashes

    static Node *node_a = NULL; // fine, it's just a pointer
    static Node *node_b = Node::_new(); // crashes
};