Detect "top" area2d under mouse

[entangledloops]

Godot Version

4.3.stable

Question

I realize this has been asked several times before, but I still can’t seem to find a good solution.

I have multiple objects in my game that derive from Area2D and may be over/under each other. When the user clicks one, the particular Area2D that receives the MouseInputEvent seems arbitrary, and I want it to be the Area2D that is “on top” (i.e. rendered last).

This is what my input code looks like for my objects:

func _input_event(viewport: Viewport, event: InputEvent, shape_idx: int) -> void:
	# need to check if InputEventMouseButton b/c input order arrival varies
	# and Input.is_action_just_pressed("select") can be true but this
	# event could be another event arriving first
	if event is InputEventMouseButton and Input.is_action_just_pressed("select"):
		get_viewport().set_input_as_handled()
		Globals.select.emit(self)

I have a handler hooked up to that which is able to deselect the previous object and select the clicked object.

Does anyone know what the best approach here is?

I tried making all my objects derive from Control nodes, but that introduced new problems (can’t control the size directly, so click region is incorrect).

[Sauermann]

You should be able to achieve that for Area2D nodes by using Viewport.physics_object_picking_sort and Viewport.physics_object_picking_first_only.

[entangledloops]

Thanks, that did it! For anyone else, I added this to my scene _ready():

	get_viewport().physics_object_picking_first_only = false
	get_viewport().physics_object_picking_sort = true