Directions for a beginner w/ questions

Trevor5485

I really need advice. I've obviously just started and there are just little things that I am unaware of, and if the documentation and google are unable to help me, I'm just stuck forever. How did you guys maneuver yourselves around at the beginning? There are quite a few things I'd need to ask, but they're so little and meaningless that I feel like I'd be a spammer if I made a new thread every time something occurs and I can't solve it. It's not about coding or about Godot iself, it's more like just "how does this work over here" things. Like let me give you an example, right now, I'm trying to make my character change level (as in up/down), so to do this, I obviously need to change his collision behaviour, the light node the player has and what's drawn around him. Changing the players z_index and collision masks/layers were easy thanks to set_collision_mask/layer_bit, and getting the subordinate Light2D into the code too.

Now what else that I need is changing the light mask, and of course, I would think that I could use set_visibility_light_mask_bit(), except it doesn't exist and I've tried all possible wordings, no chance. The other problem is that I also need to change all of aforementioned properties in the Light2D object. So, I tried set_item_shadow_cull_mask_bit just like with my character, except, it doesn't exist. For this I at least found an alternative in set_item_shadow_cull_mask(value), although I am not sure if that's the preferred solution, it only accepts a single argument and I suppose if I for example want to have the third and fourth layer used, then I have to set it to 2^{2+3^2,} so 13? Just like for my character, neither in the documentation nor on google I found out how to change the light mask for Light2D in code.

So dear community, what I'd like to know is how do I solve this? Like not only the actual solutions to these simple and probably very easy problems, but also, how do I acquire the meta skill to actually find this out by intuition? Was stuff like this clear for everybody who began and I'm just too stupid? Thanks for reading.

cybereality

It's mostly trial and error. You set a specific (small) goal, to get something working. Then try to see what options there are in the interface. If you don't know what something means, check the documentation. If that doesn't make sense, search online and see if other people have the same problem. Do tutorials if they are relevant to your project. But don't just copy and paste the code. Write it yourself (using the tutorial as a guide), then try to change some things, or add features, make the player jump higher, add a power-up, import your own artwork, play with it and experiment. Eventually you will come to see certain patterns or methods common to all games. Read books, give yourself small projects to learn with. It takes time but it eventually makes sense.