Godot Guide First Game Tutorial error node not found

rylan

Trying to do Godot first game tutorial. I get the same error every time: get_node: (Node not found: "Player" (relative to "/root/Main").)

i think the problem exists within NewGame() method

please help i am lost

using Godot;
using System;

public class Main : Node
{
    [Export] public PackedScene Mob;

    private int score; 

    private Random random = new Random();

    public override void _Ready()
    {
        NewGame(); 
    }

    // using tihs later because C# doesnt support GDScript's randi();
    public float RandRange(float min, float max)
    {
        return (float)random.NextDouble() * (max - min) + min;
    }

    public void GameOver()
    {
        GetNode<Timer>("MobTimer").Stop();
        GetNode<Timer>("ScoreTimer").Stop();
    }

    public void NewGame()
    {
        score = 0; 
        var playerInstance = GetNode<Player>("Player");
        var StartPosition = GetNode<Position2D>("StartPosition");
        playerInstance.Start(StartPosition.Position);

        GetNode<Timer>("StartTimer.Start").Start();
    }

    public void OnStartTimerTimeout()
    {
        GetNode<Timer>("MobTimer").Start();
        GetNode<Timer>("ScoreTimer").Start();
    }

    public void OnScoreTimerTimeout()
    {
        score++;
    }

    public void OnMobTimerTimeout()
    {
        // choose a random location on path 2d
        var mobSpawnLocation = GetNode<PathFollow2D>("MobPath/MobSpawnLocation");
        mobSpawnLocation.Offset = random.Next();

        // create a mob isntance and add it to the scene
        var mobInstance = (RigidBody2D)Mob.Instance();
        AddChild(mobInstance);

        // set the mob's direction perpendicular to the path direction
        float direction = mobSpawnLocation.Rotation + Mathf.Pi / 2;

        // set the mob's position to a random location.
        mobInstance.Position = mobSpawnLocation.Position;

        // add osme randomness to the direction
        direction += RandRange(-Mathf.Pi / 4, Mathf.Pi / 4);
        mobInstance.Rotation = direction;

        // choose the velocity
        mobInstance.LinearVelocity = new Vector2(RandRange(150f,25f), 0).Rotated(direction);
    }
}

fire7side

It's more or less giving you what's wrong. You need to specify the node in relation to the scene tree so: get_node("/root/Main/Player") Assuming player is a child of main.

TwistedTwigleg

Welcome to the forums @rylan!

What does the scene tree you are using look like and what node is the script attached to?

As @fire7side said, the issue is that the code cannot find the node relative to the scene tree. So for example, if you have the following scene tree:

Main
- Objects
  - Player
- Other

If your script is attached to Main in the above example scene tree, then you can get the node using:

// Local NodePath (starts from the current node and travels down)
var playerInstance = GetNode<Player>("Objects/Player");
// Global NodePath (starts from the root of the scene and travels down)
// var playerInstance = GetNode<Player>("/root/Main/Objects/Player");

The GetNode function takes a NodePath, which tells the function how to get the node. The NodePath can go from either the current node (local) or the root (global) and travel down the scene tree until it gets to the node you specify.

If possible, I would recommend using local NodePaths (Objects/Player), as they tend to be a bit more flexible. Because it is relative, as long as the children node are what you expect, the code should always work. That said, sometimes a global NodePath is the easiest way to get a node. For example, if you are trying to get "Player" from "Other" in the example scene tree, a global NodePath (/root/Main/Objects/Player) is probably the best way to get the node.

(Side note: You can also use FindNode("Player"), which will look through all the children until it finds a node with the same name as the first argument. However, this is costly for performance compared to using GetNode).