[Solved] PackedByteArray not saving in PackedScene

Help Programming
, ,
1

Godot Version

Godot 4.4

Question

I’ve built a level editor that can export packed scenes so I can more easily build levels for my game - and so far everything seems to work properly. My editor generates a level mesh, a skybox, static objects, and spawners - which all save properly.

However, I’m also saving a 256x256 grid alongside my level (making a hex grid strategy game)
I’m giving each cell 16 bits of data - or 2 bytes - leading to me having a 256x256x2 PackedByteArray (131072 elements)

When saving my level into a PackedScene, the PackedByteArray doesn’t get saved with it - and it seems to be the only thing not getting saved.

Is there some behavior in Godot preventing it from saving large pieces of data? Or why would this happen / how could I circumvent it?

EDIT:
Forcing the PackedByteArray to be a much smaller size (I tried 5 elements) didn’t fix the issue.
So I guess it’s just that PackedByteArrays don’t save into PackedScenes?

EDIT 2:
Converting the PackedByteArray into a non-packed array of integers seems to save properly - but that feels like an unnecessary conversion for saving and loading a level

2

If you really want to know why, your best bet might be to see if there are any bugs or feature requests on the GitHub project that talk about this.

3

This code works just fine:

my_node.gd

extends Node

@export_storage var data:PackedByteArray

extends Node


func _ready() -> void:
	var n = preload("res://my_node.gd").new()
	for x in 256:
		for y in 256:
			n.data.append(randi() % 256)
			n.data.append(randi() % 256)

	prints("Written", n.data.size())

	var ps = PackedScene.new()
	ps.pack(n)
	ResourceSaver.save(ps, "user://scene.tscn")

	var scn = ResourceLoader.load("user://scene.tscn").instantiate()
	prints("Loaded", scn.data.size())

Prints:

Written 131072
Loaded 131072

The saved data:

image
image720×289 108 KB

How are you saving that scene? How are you exporting the PackedByteArray?

1 Like
4

Ah - good to know about @export_storage, I had just been using @export

Here’s what I use for saving my scene:

func _on_export_pressed() -> void:
	MapGen.PrepareForExport()
	var toSave = PackedScene.new()
	if toSave.pack(PreviewGrid) == OK:
		var path = ExportPath + FileName + "/"
		DirAccess.make_dir_recursive_absolute(path)
		ResourceSaver.save(toSave, path + FileName + ".tscn")

And notably, here’s the implementation of PrepareForExport():

func PrepareForExport():
	for i in GridPreview.multimesh.instance_count:
		var data: Color = Color(CoreTypes.CELL_COLOR.EMPTY,0.0,0.0,0.0)
		GridPreview.multimesh.set_instance_custom_data(i, data)
	GridPreview.Lightmap = load("res://Scenes/Grid/Skybox/level_lightmap.tscn").instantiate()
	GridPreview.add_child(GridPreview.Lightmap)
	GridPreview.Lightmap.owner = GridPreview

This wasn’t saving GridPreview.Grid - so I updated it to this (which works but is ugly):

func PrepareForExport():
	for i in GridPreview.multimesh.instance_count:
		var data: Color = Color(CoreTypes.CELL_COLOR.EMPTY,0.0,0.0,0.0)
		GridPreview.multimesh.set_instance_custom_data(i, data)
	GridPreview.Lightmap = load("res://Scenes/Grid/Skybox/level_lightmap.tscn").instantiate()
	GridPreview.add_child(GridPreview.Lightmap)
	GridPreview.Lightmap.owner = GridPreview
	GridPreview.SaveGrid.clear()
	var intArray = GridPreview.Grid.to_int64_array()
	for i in intArray:
		GridPreview.SaveGrid.push_back(i)

And the variables in question are currently setup like so:

var Grid: PackedByteArray = []
@export_storage var SaveGrid: Array[int] = []

I’ve tried adding @export or @export_storage to Grid, but no matter what I do it won’t save but SaveGrid will

5

Oh!
The issue was setting the PackedByteArray to an empty array in its declaration

Changing

@export_storage var Grid: PackedByteArray = []

into

@export_storage var Grid: PackedByteArray

Fixes the issue

Odd - but glad to have it working

1 Like