how can I learn Godot? I'm good at programming but new to godot and it's API. How do you guys learn about functions and classes features and components of Godot and GDScript? Like the look_at() function and Random number generator class? Like how do you guys know about every component and function() suppose someone wants to make the player rotate towards the mouse. How would he figure it out if he doesn't know the API? And without tutorials you would have to go to the docs but I don't think they would be able to find the function look_at()
Personally I started with the this GDScript overview then just tried things out. Then I did the Godot your first 2D game tutorial in the Godot Doco. I’ve not used any other tutorials.
Godot Doco I’ve found to be quite good. Especially for GDScript. If you’re using the Godot editor you can right click on any type or function and open it directly in the online doco. Then you can also see all the other methods and properties of that type.
Take a time of your day and read some part of documentation you didn’t read yet every day, you’ll learn lot of stuff you even imagine was possible. @GDScript and @GlobalScope classes docs are mandatory reading for anyone coding in GDScript.
Also in docs are two sections for you learn step by step the basics of work with Godot (which i can garantee 50% or more of people that post here didn’t touched)
Simple, look the node/classe documentation you’re working and if you don’t find what you want, keep going back in the inheritance tree until you reach the base class, 90% of the time you’ll find what you need and in the other 10% is a nice reading of things you can do with the classes. I know that myself because i answer a lot of questions here and some of these i don’t know the answer too, but surprise! I open the docs of the related node/class and the answer is there!
Fully agree. The Godot docs are your friends. They’re well done, and the fastest, most effective way to get answers for someone who’s experienced.
Getting comfortable using the docs at the offset means that you’ll gain experience with them (and using API docs in general) and you’ll be able to get answers even faster.
As a bonus, at places where they may be lacking somehow, the nature of Godot is you can open an issue to request that they be updated. The docs are constantly improving.
Tutorial videos and other helpful tools (like forums, of course!) have a place, no doubt … it all comes together to form an ecosystem. But way too many people sleep on reading the docs. Reading a high quality source is still the best way to take personal ownership of one’s understanding of the material.
It’s like the calculus student who refuses to read the book and watches videos to solve problems and struggle through class, and then doesn’t get why they still don’t understand the topic even if they scrape by in the class. The things that “make it easy” are often actively avoiding real learning.
Have you read the “Getting Started” and the “Manual” sections? Because these two parts explain everything about what they showing. About the rest of docs is expetected don’t give exemples, after all you can do different things with the classes, that will use your logic as programmer to assemble everything to make a task.
I’m slowly getting to a certain level in Godot. But do you guys know every single thing in Godot or do you guys just go to the docs and know about that thing?
We don’t know everything about Godot. I personally have simple/common things memorized (if you are working with 2D, it’s useful to have the transform properties memorized). Beyond that, I either look it up and find someone else with the same issue or take a guess at where it is in the docs (all things related to input will be children of the Input or InputEvent classes).
We don’t know every single aspect of Godot, but if you read the docs a lot you’ll remember almost everything you need, and when you don’t remember you can search in the necessary classes docs.
I certainly don’t know everything, but when I go to the docs I’ll look at what other methods and properties there are that I could use.
Also I’ll sometimes just hop into the docs and have a read, always learn something. This approach has really helped far more than copying someone’s code from a tutorial. But that’s just me and everyone learns differently.
Mostly yes, though I would never call myself a PRO with Godot, I found the docs to be invaluable. I always use them as my first place to look if I’m stuck.
Hahaha if you think im a pro, your mind will explode when you see a true pro. Im just a hobbyst that loves programming, im far from being a pro.
But yes, the search in docs works more than people think, as the link i put as example, if you want to deal with the mouse image, search for the keyword mouse or cursor in the docs and all the related methods will appear.
