How do I generate platforms in a specific position in godot?

Question

I am making a rogue-like game in Godot. Currently, I am stuck with the world generation. I know how to add children, but I am wondering if there is a way to add those children in a specific position. I also need to know how to add nodes to an array, and then choose one from the array to spawn.

Answer 1

Placing Nodes from code

To change the position you need to…

• For a Node2D set the position or transform2D.
• For a Control set the rect_position (call set_position).
• For a Node(3D) set the transform.

If you have a Node (scene loaded and instantiated) you want to add to the scene, you can do that before you call add_child on the pregnant future parent Node.

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Adding and removing from arrays

To add an element to an Array, you can call on the Array either push_back (adds at the end, alias: append), push_frost (adds at the beginning), or insert (adds at the specified position).

To remove, you have pop_back (removes from the end, returns the value, null when empty), pop_front (remove from the beginning, returns the value, null when empty) and remove (removes at a given position, no return). You also have erase to remove by value instead of position. And clear to remove all.

To access an item (to read it or write to it with assignment) you can use square brackets (e.g. array[2]).

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On the ways to use arrays and scene nodes

If you want to make a Node pool, you can treat the Array as a queue. Pushing at one end and popping form the other. When you need an object, pop, if null create a new one. When you no longer need an object, push.

If you are making an Array for the objects that are in the scene… There is no need. You can add to the scene with add_child, remove with remove_child, get by index with get_child and so on.

Although, there is value in working with other structures such as a Dictionary or a multidimensional array (There are no true multidimensional arrays in GDScript, only jagged arrays (arrays within arrays, just like these parenthesis), but there are in C#), there are also third party oct and quad tree solutions.

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To randomize your Array, call shuffle on it. For example, you could make an Array of Node that you will add, shuffle it, and then add them one by one in the resulting order.

There is also a RandomNumberGenerator type you could find useful in GDScript. For example, you could have an Array of PackedScene (scenes loaded, but not instantiated), and use the random number generator (call randi_range) to pick which to instantiate (or use a pool here) and then add to the scene. Don't forget to call randomize on the RandomNumberGenerator to seed it (this is usually done in _ready).