HOW DO I CHANGE A NODE'S TYPE VIA SCRIPT???

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:information_source: Attention Topic was automatically imported from the old Question2Answer platform.
:bust_in_silhouette: Asked By IndigoGames
2
:bust_in_silhouette: Reply From: Zylann

When you change a node type from the editor using Change Type, what the editor node is actually deleting your node, creating a new one, and somehow assign some of the properties they have in common.

This operation is not a light one, and information may be lost when you do this, so I’d advise you to consider alternatives before doing this at runtime in your game.

I’m not aware of a function in GDScript doing this, but the whole thing can be done with a few lines of code:

# Replacing a Sprite with an AnimatedSprite.
# I assume you have the `parent` node in a variable.
# -----------------

# Get the old node
var old_node = parent.get_node("TheSprite")

# Remove it from the tree
parent.remove_child(old_node)

# Destroy it (not immediately, some code might still use it)
parent.call_deferred("free")

# Create new node
var new_node = AnimatedSprite.new()

# Add the new node to the tree, under the same parent
parent.add_child(new_node)

# Move it to same order within children
parent.move_child(new_node, old_node.index)

# Set properties you want to be the same
new_node.name = old_node.name
new_node.position = old_node.position
new_node.rotation = old_node.rotation
new_node.scale = old_node.scale
# Etc...

There are variants of this, so you may want to change this code to suits your needs.