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Node¶
Inherits: Object
Inherited By: AnimationPlayer, AnimationTree, AudioStreamPlayer, CanvasItem, CanvasLayer, EditorFileSystem, EditorInterface, EditorPlugin, EditorResourcePreview, HTTPRequest, InstancePlaceholder, MissingNode, MultiplayerSpawner, MultiplayerSynchronizer, NavigationAgent2D, NavigationAgent3D, NavigationObstacle2D, NavigationObstacle3D, Node3D, ResourcePreloader, ShaderGlobalsOverride, SkeletonIK3D, Timer, Viewport, WorldEnvironment
Base class for all scene objects.
Description¶
Nodes are Godot's building blocks. They can be assigned as the child of another node, resulting in a tree arrangement. A given node can contain any number of nodes as children with the requirement that all siblings (direct children of a node) should have unique names.
A tree of nodes is called a scene. Scenes can be saved to the disk and then instantiated into other scenes. This allows for very high flexibility in the architecture and data model of Godot projects.
Scene tree: The SceneTree contains the active tree of nodes. When a node is added to the scene tree, it receives the NOTIFICATION_ENTER_TREE notification and its _enter_tree callback is triggered. Child nodes are always added after their parent node, i.e. the _enter_tree callback of a parent node will be triggered before its child's.
Once all nodes have been added in the scene tree, they receive the NOTIFICATION_READY notification and their respective _ready callbacks are triggered. For groups of nodes, the _ready callback is called in reverse order, starting with the children and moving up to the parent nodes.
This means that when adding a node to the scene tree, the following order will be used for the callbacks: _enter_tree of the parent, _enter_tree of the children, _ready of the children and finally _ready of the parent (recursively for the entire scene tree).
Processing: Nodes can override the "process" state, so that they receive a callback on each frame requesting them to process (do something). Normal processing (callback _process, toggled with set_process) happens as fast as possible and is dependent on the frame rate, so the processing time delta (in seconds) is passed as an argument. Physics processing (callback _physics_process, toggled with set_physics_process) happens a fixed number of times per second (60 by default) and is useful for code related to the physics engine.
Nodes can also process input events. When present, the _input function will be called for each input that the program receives. In many cases, this can be overkill (unless used for simple projects), and the _unhandled_input function might be preferred; it is called when the input event was not handled by anyone else (typically, GUI Control nodes), ensuring that the node only receives the events that were meant for it.
To keep track of the scene hierarchy (especially when instancing scenes into other scenes), an "owner" can be set for the node with the owner property. This keeps track of who instantiated what. This is mostly useful when writing editors and tools, though.
Finally, when a node is freed with Object.free or queue_free, it will also free all its children.
Groups: Nodes can be added to as many groups as you want to be easy to manage, you could create groups like "enemies" or "collectables" for example, depending on your game. See add_to_group, is_in_group and remove_from_group. You can then retrieve all nodes in these groups, iterate them and even call methods on groups via the methods on SceneTree.
Networking with nodes: After connecting to a server (or making one, see ENetMultiplayerPeer), it is possible to use the built-in RPC (remote procedure call) system to communicate over the network. By calling rpc with a method name, it will be called locally and in all connected peers (peers = clients and the server that accepts connections). To identify which node receives the RPC call, Godot will use its NodePath (make sure node names are the same on all peers). Also, take a look at the high-level networking tutorial and corresponding demos.
Note: The script property is part of the Object class, not Node. It isn't exposed like most properties but does have a setter and getter (set_script() and get_script()).
Tutorials¶
Properties¶
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Methods¶
Signals¶
child_entered_tree ( Node node )
Emitted when a child node enters the scene tree, either because it entered on its own or because this node entered with it.
This signal is emitted after the child node's own NOTIFICATION_ENTER_TREE and tree_entered.
child_exiting_tree ( Node node )
Emitted when a child node is about to exit the scene tree, either because it is being removed or freed directly, or because this node is exiting the tree.
When this signal is received, the child node is still in the tree and valid. This signal is emitted after the child node's own tree_exiting and NOTIFICATION_EXIT_TREE.
ready ( )
Emitted when the node is ready. Comes after _ready callback and follows the same rules.
renamed ( )
Emitted when the node is renamed.
tree_entered ( )
Emitted when the node enters the tree.
This signal is emitted after the related NOTIFICATION_ENTER_TREE notification.
tree_exited ( )
Emitted after the node exits the tree and is no longer active.
tree_exiting ( )
Emitted when the node is still active but about to exit the tree. This is the right place for de-initialization (or a "destructor", if you will).
This signal is emitted before the related NOTIFICATION_EXIT_TREE notification.
Enumerations¶
enum ProcessMode:
ProcessMode PROCESS_MODE_INHERIT = 0
Inherits process mode from the node's parent. For the root node, it is equivalent to PROCESS_MODE_PAUSABLE. Default.
ProcessMode PROCESS_MODE_PAUSABLE = 1
Stops processing when the SceneTree is paused (process when unpaused). This is the inverse of PROCESS_MODE_WHEN_PAUSED.
ProcessMode PROCESS_MODE_WHEN_PAUSED = 2
Only process when the SceneTree is paused (don't process when unpaused). This is the inverse of PROCESS_MODE_PAUSABLE.
ProcessMode PROCESS_MODE_ALWAYS = 3
Always process. Continue processing always, ignoring the SceneTree's paused property. This is the inverse of PROCESS_MODE_DISABLED.
ProcessMode PROCESS_MODE_DISABLED = 4
Never process. Completely disables processing, ignoring the SceneTre