Referencing Nodes from your Scene

You will find yourself referencing nodes from a scene in your code. In GDScript, that is usually achieved by using the dollar sign and the name of the object you want to reference (e.g. $MyNode).

With SwiftGodot, you can achieve the same behavior by using:

1. [[#the-scenetreemacro-macro|the SceneTreeMacro macro]] or
2. [[#the-bindnode-property-wrapper|the BindNode property wrapper]]¹.

the SceneTreeMacro macro

For more see @SceneTree macro

You typically use the path parameter to specify the path to the node in your scene that you want to reference:

@Godot
class Main: Node {
    @SceneTree(path: "CharacterBody2D") var player: PlayerController?
    @SceneTree(path: "locations/spawnpoint") var spawnpoint: Node2D?
    @SceneTree(path: "Telepoint") var teleportArea: Area2D?
}

the BindNode property wrapper

For more see @BindNode property wrapper

BindNode is an older version, but is not as convenient as using the @SceneTree macro.

In your class declaration, use the BindNode property wrapper like this to reference the nodes that you created with the Godot Editor:

@Godot
class Main: Node {
    @BindNode(withPath:"timer") var startTimer: SwiftGodot.Timer
    @BindNode(withPath:"music") var music: AudioStreamPlayer
    @BindNode(withPath:"mobTimer") var mobTimer: SwiftGodot.Timer
 
 
    func newGame () {
        startTimer.start ()
    }
}

Footnotes

1. Use this if you are not using Macros ↩