Is there a prefab variant system in Godot?

UnknownUser

Coming over from Unity, really enjoying using Godot currently.

I learned that the "prefab" implementation in Godot is handled with individual scenes, where you can then instance these scenes into the main scene as a prefab.

I have a base enemy prefab, but I want to create a variant of it with small variable changes (health, name, etc). However, I occasionally want to add additional features onto the base enemy prefab, such as connecting new signals to add new opportunities for abilities.

I was wondering if these changes to the base enemy prefab could then me applied onto all of the variants of it?

EDIT: The reason I want to find out if such a solution exists is that every time I modify the base enemy scene/prefab, I have to manually recreate all of the variants of the scene (that I duplicated).

TwistedTwigleg

I do not think there is a way to extend a scene where it inherits the base properties in Godot, not that I'm aware of.

That said, you can use script inheritance though to work around things like variable changes. Additionally, if you are okay with using scripting to connect signals, they should also be inherited and work as long as the node names are consistent.

You just need to use something like this, if I recall correctly (untested):

extends Node
class_name base_class

export var health = 10;	

func _ready():
	# The reason we use a function for this is because if we have a _ready
	# function in the child script, it will override the _ready function
	# in this script. To work around this, we'll just use another function.
	# (this won't be an issue in GDScript in Godot 4.0)
	_base_setup()

func _base_setup():
	print ("health is: ", health)
	# connect signals example
	$Button.connect("pressed", this, "on_button_pressed")

func on_button_pressed():
	print ("Button pressed!")

Then in the child script:

extends base_class
export var speed = 10
func _ready():
	_base_setup();
	print ("speed is: ", speed)

It's not quite as UI friendly as Unity's prefab system, but it should work with a little tinkering. :smile:

UnknownUser

There of course is the way to inherit scenes, just create a scene via top menu [ Scene > New Inherited Scene ].

Simplest tutorial from GDQuest series about this topic is probably this one:

But it's multiple times well described also on these (and many others):

UnknownUser

@Reloecc said: There of course is the way to inherit scenes, just create a scene via top menu [ Scene > New Inherited Scene ].

My main problem was that I couldn't get the collision shape to not apply to the parent scene, but I realised that I just had to create a new collision shape. Thank you

Kequc

This may be a matter of preference but I think I'd have a factory method. That method could be responsible for setting up the character with characteristics or traits that you want.

In that way you could have just a single scene, instance it and modify it before returning from the factory.

On the other hand if your characters will look different from on another you probably need different scenes anyway. In which case you can use inheritance and do it that way.