In this guide, you will learn how to make the most of Node Essentials.You will learn how to:
Browse and run the demos.
Browse the node guides and find the most useful features of each node.
Find and explore the source code corresponding to a section on the website.
The first thing I recommend is looking at all the node cards on the website. For each node we cover, you will see a short description and a list of use cases. This will give you an idea of what you can do with the node. Then, you can run the project in Godot and play the demos for this node.
Browsing and running the demos
When you open and run the provided Godot project, a menu appears where you can search for nodes by name and run the corresponding demos.
The demos are small scenes that show you how to use the node in a practical way. You have access to the full source code. So when you see a scene you like, you can locate it in the res://screens directory and open it to explore its source code.When running a demo, a heads-up display helps you navigate the various demos:
The left and right arrow buttons let you navigate between the demos.
The Controls panel shows you the keyboard and mouse controls to interact with the demo.
The Show Debug button toggles the display of debug shapes in the demo, which can help you understand how the physics or other mechanics work.
The Reset button resets the demo to its initial state.
We wrote comments in many of the scripts used in the demos to help you understand what's going on. The code is an essential part of the material here. As Node Essentials is an intermediate-level knowledge base, we assume you can read code.
During early access, not all scripts may have comments. There is a very big surface area to cover, so we focused on the most important parts of the code. If you find any piece of code that you don't understand, feel free to ask us about it!
The amount of demos and topics to cover in this project is massive. You will see that we often keep the code surrounding the demo simple to focus on the main topic.In each demo, you can treat all the scaffolding around the mechanic at hand as a canvas to illustrate the main point. We assume that you are experienced enough to know how to adapt the code snippets and recipes to fit your needs.
Browsing the node guides
You can get more information about a node and how to use it by reading the corresponding guide. Every guide has the same structure:
Introduction: A brief description of the node and the guide's contents.
Setting Up the Node: When relevant, a section about setting up the node.
Node Essentials: A curated selection of the most useful features of the node.
In Practice: Concrete examples of how to use the node, with code snippets. The sub-sections correspond to demo scenes in the project.
There are three more optional sections at the end:
Your Questions: A list of common questions and answers about the node.
Troubleshooting: A list of common issues and how to solve them.
Pro tips: Tips and tricks to get the most out of the node.
Every guide starts with a curated selection of the most useful features of the node. Some nodes have an overwhelming number of methods and properties, so their code reference can be a bit difficult to read. So, we put our spin on the node documentation to help you understand the node's basics and what you will do the most with it quickly. When relevant, we also include a section about setting up the node. Some nodes, like physics nodes, require a child collision shape, for example.Feel free to skip to the "in practice" section if you're already familiar with the node. The idea behind Node Essentials is to keep it modular. You can read in any order and jump to the section you need anytime.In the "in practice" section, the demos usually start with the simplest use case and then build up to more complex or less common examples. Each section covers one use of the node.
Finding the source code corresponding to a guide
You can find all the demos corresponding to one node in the res://screens directory of the provided Godot project. Because the demos for a given node work a bit like a slideshow, we call each use case a screen.In the guides on the website, you will get the path to the primary scene for each use case. You can open the scene in Godot and explore the source code from there. We also tried to include the path to scripts used in a given use case that may live in different folders. We reuse some scripts and scenes across multiple demos to keep the project size manageable. All shared files are in the res://common directory.
Sure! You can reuse the code in your projects. We encourage you to do so, even. Copy snippets and adapt them to your needs. The code uses the MIT license, and the assets the CC-By license, so you can use the code in your projects without any issue. You'll find a file named LICENSE in the Godot project folder with the full text of the licenses used in the project.
With that, you have the basic info you need to get started with Node Essentials. If you have any questions, suggestions, or feedback, feel free to reach out! Remember: this is a living resource, and we aim to improve it over time. We truly value your input. You can ask questions at the end of each guide. We'll do our best to answer them as soon as possible.
