See all glossary termsLow-level programming refers to the practice of writing code close to how a computer's hardware (processor, graphics card, memory, etc.) works.
This is in contrast to high-level programming, which is writing code that is more abstract and further away from how the hardware really works.
The scripting languages Godot supports, GDScript and C#, are both high-level languages. On the other hand, the language of the Godot engine itself, C++, is a low-level language.
When you write a game in Godot, you are writing high-level code executed by the engine's low-level code. It allows you to code games fast without worrying about the details of how the hardware works at the cost of control and performance.
However, there are times when you need to write low-level code. For example, you might need to write a custom shader, optimize a performance-critical part of your game, or you might want to integrate an open-source code library written in C or C++ into your game. In those cases, you may use a low-level language like C++ to write the code.