File paths in Godot projects

This page explains how file paths work inside Godot projects. You will learn how to access paths in your projects using the res:// and user:// notations, and where Godot stores project and editor files on your and your users' systems.

Pfad-Trennzeichen

To make supporting multiple platforms easier, Godot uses UNIX-style path separators (forward slash /). These work on all platforms, including Windows.

In Godot sollten Pfade nicht wie C:\Projects\Game, sondern stattdessen wie C:/Projects/Game geschreiben werden.

Windows-style path separators (backward slash \) are also supported in some path-related methods, but they need to be doubled (\\), as \ is normally used as an escape for characters with a special meaning.

This makes it possible to work with paths returned by other Windows applications. We still recommend using only forward slashes in your own code to guarantee that everything will work as intended.

Zugriff auf Dateien im Projektverzeichnis (res://)

Godot geht davon aus, dass ein Projekt in einem beliebigen Ordner existiert, der eine project.godot Textdatei enthält, auch wenn diese Datei leer ist. Der Ordner, der diese Datei enthält, ist das Wurzelverzeichnis des Projekts.

Der Zugriff auf Projektdateien kann durch das Öffnen eines beliebigen Pfades mit res:// (kurz für Ressourcen) als Basis erfolgen. Beispielsweise kann eine Textur spieler.png, die sich im Wurzelverzeichnis des Projektordners befindet, vom folgenden Pfad aus geöffnet werden: res://spieler.png.

Zugriff auf persistente Daten (user://)

To store persistent data files, like the player's save or settings, you want to use user:// instead of res:// as your path's prefix. This is because when the game is running, the project's file system will likely be read-only.

The user:// prefix points to a different directory on the user's device. Unlike res://, the directory pointed at by user:// is created automatically and guaranteed to be writable to, even in an exported project.

The location of the user:// folder depends on what is configured in the Project Settings:

• By default, the user:// folder is created within Godot's editor data path in the app_userdata/[project_name] folder. This is the default so that prototypes and test projects stay self-contained within Godot's data folder.

• If application/config/use_custom_user_dir is enabled in the Project Settings, the user:// folder is created next to Godot's editor data path, i.e. in the standard location for applications data.

  • By default, the folder name will be inferred from the project name, but it can be further customized with application/config/custom_user_dir_name. This path can contain path separators, so you can use it e.g. to group projects of a given studio with a Studio Name/Game Name structure.

On desktop platforms, the actual directory paths for user:// are:

Art	Ort
Standard	Windows: %APPDATA%\Godot\app_userdata\[project_name] MacOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Godot/app_userdata/[project_name] Linux: ~/.local/share/godot/app_userdata/[project_name]
Custom dir	Windows: %APPDATA%\[project_name] macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/[project_name] Linux: ~/.local/share/[project_name]
Custom dir and name	Windows: %APPDATA%\[custom_user_dir_name] macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/[custom_user_dir_name] Linux: ~/.local/share/[custom_user_dir_name]

[project_name] is based on the application name defined in the Project Settings, but you can override it on a per-platform basis using feature tags.

On mobile platforms, this path is unique to the project and is not accessible by other applications for security reasons.

On HTML5 exports, user:// will refer to a virtual filesystem stored on the device via IndexedDB. (Interaction with the main filesystem can still be performed through the JavaScript singleton.)

Converting paths to absolute paths or "local" paths

You can use ProjectSettings.globalize_path() to convert a "local" path like res://path/to/file.txt to an absolute OS path. For example, ProjectSettings.globalize_path() can be used to open "local" paths in the OS file manager using OS.shell_open() since it only accepts native OS paths.

To convert an absolute OS path to a "local" path starting with res:// or user://, use ProjectSettings.localize_path(). This only works for absolute paths that point to files or folders in your project's root or user:// folders.

Editor-Datenpfade

Der Editor verwendet je nach Plattform unterschiedliche Pfade für Editordaten, Editoreinstellungen und Cache. Standardmäßig sind diese Pfade:

Art	Ort
Editor-Daten	Windows: %APPDATA%\Godot\ MacOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Godot/ Linux: ~/.local/share/godot/
Editoreinstellungen	Windows: %APPDATA%\Godot\ MacOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Godot/ Linux: ~/.config/godot/
Cache	Windows: %TEMP%\Godot\ MacOS: ~/Library/Caches/Godot/ Linux: ~/.cache/godot/

• Editor data enthält Exportvorlagen und projektspezifische Daten.

• Editor settings contains the main editor settings configuration file as well as various other user-specific customizations (editor layouts, feature profiles, script templates, etc.).

• Cache enthält temporäre Daten, oder solche, die vom Editor generiert wurden. Er kann sicher entfernt werden, wenn Godot geschlossen ist.

Godot complies with the XDG Base Directory Specification on all platforms. You can override environment variables following the specification to change the editor and project data paths.

Bemerkung

If you use Godot packaged as a Flatpak, the editor data paths will be located in subfolders in ~/.var/app/org.godotengine.Godot/.

Eigenständiger Modus

If you create a file called ._sc_ or _sc_ in the same directory as the editor binary (or in MacOS/Contents/ for a macOS editor .app bundle), Godot will enable self-contained mode. This mode makes Godot write all editor data, settings, and cache to a directory named editor_data/ in the same directory as the editor binary. You can use it to create a portable installation of the editor.

Die Steam-Version von Godot verwendet standardmäßig den eigenständigen Modus.

Bemerkung

Self-contained mode is not supported in exported projects yet. To read and write files relative to the executable path, use OS.get_executable_path(). Note that writing files in the executable path only works if the executable is placed in a writable location (i.e. not Program Files or another directory that is read-only for regular users).