godot - Man Page

multi-platform 2D and 3D game engine with a feature-rich editor

Examples (TL;DR)

Synopsis

godot [options] [path to scene or 'project.godot' file]

Description

Godot Engine is an advanced, feature-packed, multi-platform 2D and 3D game engine.
It provides a huge set of common tools, so you can just focus on making your game without reinventing the wheel.

General options

-h,  --help

Display this help message.

--version

Display the version string.

-v,  --verbose

Use verbose stdout mode.

--quiet

Quiet mode, silences stdout messages. Errors are still displayed.

Run options

-e,  --editor

Start the editor instead of running the scene.

-p,  --project-manager

Start the project manager, even if a project is auto-detected.

-q,  --quit

Quit after the first iteration.

-l,  --language <locale>

Use a specific locale (<locale> being a two-letter code).

--path <directory>

Path to a project (<directory> must contain a 'project.godot' file).

-u,  --upwards

Scan folders upwards for project.godot file.

--main-pack <file>

Path to a pack (.pck) file to load.

--render-thread <mode>

Render thread mode ('unsafe', 'safe', 'separate').

--remote-fs <address>

Remote filesystem (<host/IP>[:<port>] address).

--remote-fs-password <password>

Password for remote filesystem.

--audio-driver <driver>

Audio driver ('PulseAudio', 'ALSA', 'Dummy').

--audio-output-latency <ms>

Override audio output latency in milliseconds (default is 15 ms). Lower values make sound playback more reactive but increase CPU usage, and may result in audio cracking if the CPU can't keep up.

--video-driver <driver>

Video driver ('Vulkan', 'GLES2').

Display options

-f,  --fullscreen

Request fullscreen mode.

-m,  --maximized

Request a maximized window.

-w,  --windowed

Request windowed mode.

-t,  --always-on-top

Request an always-on-top window.

--resolution <W>x<H>

Request window resolution.

--position <X>,<Y>

Request window position.

--low-dpi

Force low-DPI mode (macOS and Windows only).

--no-window

Disable window creation (Windows only). Useful together with --script.

Debug options

-d,  --debug

Debug (local stdout debugger).

-b,  --breakpoints

Breakpoint list as source::line comma-separated pairs, no spaces (use %20 instead).

--profiling

Enable profiling in the script debugger.

--remote-debug <address>

Remote debug (<host/IP>:<port> address).

--debug-collisions

Show collisions shapes when running the scene.

--debug-navigation

Show navigation polygons when running the scene.

--max-fps <fps>

Set a maximum number of frames per second rendered (can be used to limit power usage). A value of 0 results in unlimited framerate.

--frame-delay <ms>

Simulate high CPU load (delay each frame by <ms> milliseconds). Do not use as a FPS limiter; use --max-fps instead.

--time-scale <scale>

Force time scale (higher values are faster, 1.0 is normal speed).

--disable-render-loop

Disable render loop so rendering only occurs when called explicitly from script.

--disable-crash-handler

Disable crash handler when supported by the platform code.

--fixed-fps <fps>

Force a fixed number of frames per second. This setting disables real-time synchronization.

--print-fps

Print the frames per second to the stdout.

Standalone tools

-s,  --script <script>

Run a script.

--check-only

Only parse for errors and quit (use with --script).

--export-release <preset> <path>

Export the project in release mode using the given preset and output path. The preset name should match one defined in export_presets.cfg.
<path> should be absolute or relative to the project directory, and include the filename for the binary (e.g. 'builds/game.exe').
The target directory must exist.

--export-debug <preset> <path>

Export the project in debug mode using the given preset and output path. The preset name should match one defined in export_presets.cfg.
<path> should be absolute or relative to the project directory, and include the filename for the binary (e.g. 'builds/game.exe').
The target directory must exist.

--export-pack <preset> <path>

Export the project data only using the given preset and output path. The <path> extension determines whether it will be in PCK or ZIP format.

--doctool <path>

Dump the engine API reference to the given <path> in XML format, merging if existing files are found.

--no-docbase

Disallow dumping the base types (used with --doctool).

--build-solutions

Build the scripting solutions (e.g. for C# projects). Implies --editor and requires a valid project to edit.

--dump-gdextension-interface

Generate GDExtension header file 'gdextension_interface.h' in the current folder. This file is the base file required to implement a GDExtension.

--dump-extension-api

Generate JSON dump of the Godot API for GDExtension bindings named 'extension_api.json' in the current folder.

--test <test>

Run a unit test ('string', 'math', 'physics', 'physics_2d', 'render', 'oa_hash_map', 'gui', 'shaderlang', 'gd_tokenizer', 'gd_parser', 'gd_compiler', 'gd_bytecode', 'ordered_hash_map', 'astar').

Files

XDG_DATA_CONFIG/godot/ or ~/.config/godot/

User-specific configuration folder, contains persistent editor settings, script and text editor templates and projects metadata.

XDG_DATA_HOME/godot/ or ~/.local/share/godot/

Contains the default configuration and user data folders for Godot-made games (user:// path), as well as export templates.

XDG_DATA_CACHE/godot/ or ~/.cache/godot/

Cache folder for generated thumbnails and scene previews, as well as temporary location for downloads.

/usr/share/doc/godot/

Additional documentation files.

/usr/share/licenses/godot/

Detailed licensing information.

See Also

See the project website at https://godotengine.org and the source code repository at https://github.com/godotengine/godot for more details.

Bugs

Godot Engine is a free and open source project and welcomes any kind of contributions. In particular, you can report issues or make suggestions on Godot's issue tracker at https://github.com/godotengine/godot/issues.

Author

Man page written by Rémi Verschelde <remi@godotengine.org> on behalf of the Godot Engine development team.

Info

January 2020 godot 4.0 Games