Load a new godot scene not present from compile

[glossy wing]

This is mostly just for prototyping, but how would i add a godot scene for the game to launch at runtime (is that even possible?)

Load a new godot scene not present from compile

[worldly vector]

What you want is likely along the lines of this: https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/tutorials/export/exporting_pcks.html

Using pck files, you can load a file into godot at runtime.

[tacit reef]

For testing you should just be able to use load() normally with a system file path instead of a res:// path

Godot doesn't add any restrictions, you can access any files the OS will allow you to

[glossy wing]

so what i understand from this... the godot .exe is just a glorified launcher and the .pck file is the actual game (scripts, assets, structure, etc)?

[worldly vector]

It can read it all from a pck file, but it doesn't need to. It's just a more efficient way of packing it. But yes, I don't think there's any of your game stored inside the exe, it reads it all from other files. (Though it is a bit more than just a launcher. The entire engine itself that the game runs on is built into the exe.)

[glossy wing]

hmm interesting

[glossy wing]

hmm
so what if there's a resource used in the map file that's included in the main .pck, will godot use the main .pck or the map .pck?

IE like
enemy defined in main.pck, map uses an instance of the enemy in its .pck

does the map file contain the enemy (materials, models, scripts, etc) in the .pck

[worldly vector]

It's not a feature that I've used myself, but I believe you can choose. When you're exporting a pck file, you pick which resources you want to include:

If both contain a copy of the resource, it defaults to replacing it with the ones from the most recent pck, but there's an argument you can set to change this behaviour when you're loading the pck.

[glossy wing]

i'm trying to do it from the stance of space efficiency, i dont need the level file to store model data, etc on a pack that already exists. is there a way to trim this?

i dont want multiple level files to store model data, code, etc of* the same enemy ^^;

(if possible)

although tbh i could just use enemy spawners

or rather node spawners

[worldly vector]

Unless you're using it for patches, dlc, etc., you'll likely only have the one pck file, and Godot is smart enough to only store one copy unless you explicitly tell it to store more copies of a resource. A pck file is kind of like a zip, containing all of the game's resources.

And if you do plan on having more than one, you can use the menu I screenshotted above to tell it which ones to include. If you don't include them, it will still know to look for enemy.gd or whatever, it just won't have a copy of them stored. There's details here https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/tutorials/export/exporting_projects.html and here https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/tutorials/export/exporting_pcks.html

[glossy wing]

ah alr

so it is smart to not duplicate scene refs

yeah that works

thanks