Resource

Inherits: RefCounted < Object

Inherited By: Animation, AnimationLibrary, AnimationNode, AnimationNodeStateMachinePlayback, AnimationNodeStateMachineTransition, AudioBusLayout, AudioEffect, AudioStream, BitMap, BoneMap, ButtonGroup, CameraAttributes, Compositor, CompositorEffect, CryptoKey, Curve, Curve2D, Curve3D, EditorNode3DGizmoPlugin, EditorSettings, Environment, Font, GDExtension, GLTFAccessor, GLTFAnimation, GLTFBufferView, GLTFCamera, GLTFDocument, GLTFDocumentExtension, GLTFLight, GLTFMesh, GLTFNode, GLTFPhysicsBody, GLTFPhysicsShape, GLTFSkeleton, GLTFSkin, GLTFSpecGloss, GLTFState, GLTFTexture, GLTFTextureSampler, Gradient, Image, ImporterMesh, InputEvent, JSON, LabelSettings, LightmapGIData, Material, Mesh, MeshLibrary, MissingResource, MultiMesh, NavigationMesh, NavigationMeshSourceGeometryData2D, NavigationMeshSourceGeometryData3D, NavigationPolygon, Noise, Occluder3D, OccluderPolygon2D, OggPacketSequence, OpenXRAction, OpenXRActionMap, OpenXRActionSet, OpenXRInteractionProfile, OpenXRIPBinding, PackedDataContainer, PackedScene, PhysicsMaterial, PolygonPathFinder, RDShaderFile, RDShaderSPIRV, RichTextEffect, SceneReplicationConfig, Script, Shader, ShaderInclude, Shape2D, Shape3D, Shortcut, SkeletonModification2D, SkeletonModificationStack2D, SkeletonProfile, Skin, Sky, SpriteFrames, StyleBox, SyntaxHighlighter, Texture, Theme, TileMapPattern, TileSet, TileSetSource, Translation, VideoStream, VideoStreamPlayback, VisualShaderNode, VoxelGIData, World2D, World3D, X509Certificate

Base class for serializable objects.

Description

Resource is the base class for all Godot-specific resource types, serving primarily as data containers. Since they inherit from RefCounted, resources are reference-counted and freed when no longer in use. They can also be nested within other resources, and saved on disk. PackedScene, one of the most common Objects in a Godot project, is also a resource, uniquely capable of storing and instantiating the Nodes it contains as many times as desired.

In GDScript, resources can loaded from disk by their resource_path using @GDScript.load or @GDScript.preload.

The engine keeps a global cache of all loaded resources, referenced by paths (see ResourceLoader.has_cached). A resource will be cached when loaded for the first time and removed from cache once all references are released. When a resource is cached, subsequent loads using its path will return the cached reference.

Note: In C#, resources will not be freed instantly after they are no longer in use. Instead, garbage collection will run periodically and will free resources that are no longer in use. This means that unused resources will remain in memory for a while before being removed.

Tutorials

Properties


bool	resource_local_to_scene	false
String	resource_name	""
String	resource_path	""
String	resource_scene_unique_id

Methods


RID	_get_rid() virtual
void	_setup_local_to_scene() virtual
Resource	duplicate(subresources: bool = false) const
void	emit_changed()
String	generate_scene_unique_id() static
Node	get_local_scene() const
RID	get_rid() const
void	setup_local_to_scene()
void	take_over_path(path: String)

Signals

changed() 🔗

Emitted when the resource changes, usually when one of its properties is modified. See also emit_changed.

Note: This signal is not emitted automatically for properties of custom resources. If necessary, a setter needs to be created to emit the signal.

setup_local_to_scene_requested() 🔗

Deprecated: This signal is only emitted when the resource is created. Override _setup_local_to_scene instead.

Emitted by a newly duplicated resource with resource_local_to_scene set to true.

Property Descriptions

bool resource_local_to_scene = false 🔗

void set_local_to_scene(value: bool)
bool is_local_to_scene()

If true, the resource is duplicated for each instance of all scenes using it. At run-time, the resource can be modified in one scene without affecting other instances (see PackedScene.instantiate).

Note: Changing this property at run-time has no effect on already created duplicate resources.

String resource_name = "" 🔗

void set_name(value: String)
String get_name()

An optional name for this resource. When defined, its value is displayed to represent the resource in the Inspector dock. For built-in scripts, the name is displayed as part of the tab name in the script editor.

Note: Some resource formats do not support resource names. You can still set the name in the editor or via code, but it will be lost when the resource is reloaded. For example, only built-in scripts can have a resource name, while scripts stored in separate files cannot.

String resource_path = "" 🔗

void set_path(value: String)
String get_path()

The unique path to this resource. If it has been saved to disk, the value will be its filepath. If the resource is exclusively contained within a scene, the value will be the PackedScene's filepath, followed by a unique identifier.

Note: Setting this property manually may fail if a resource with the same path has already been previously loaded. If necessary, use take_over_path.

String resource_scene_unique_id 🔗

void set_scene_unique_id(value: String)
String get_scene_unique_id()

An unique identifier relative to the this resource's scene. If left empty, the ID is automatically generated when this resource is saved inside a PackedScene. If the resource is not inside a scene, this property is empty by default.

Note: When the PackedScene is saved, if multiple resources in the same scene use the same ID, only the earliest resource in the scene hierarchy keeps the original ID. The other resources are assigned new IDs from generate_scene_unique_id.

Note: Setting this property does not emit the changed signal.

Warning: When setting, the ID must only consist of letters, numbers, and underscores. Otherwise, it will fail and default to a randomly generated ID.

Method Descriptions

RID _get_rid() virtual 🔗

Override this method to return a custom RID when get_rid is called.

void _setup_local_to_scene() virtual 🔗

Override this method to customize the newly duplicated resource created from PackedScene.instantiate, if the original's resource_local_to_scene is set to true.

Example: Set a random damage value to every local resource from an instantiated scene.

gdscript

extends Resource

var damage = 0

func _setup_local_to_scene():
    damage = randi_range(10, 40)

Resource duplicate(subresources: bool = false) const 🔗

Duplicates this resource, returning a new resource with its exported or @GlobalScope.PROPERTY_USAGE_STORAGE properties copied from the original.

If subresources is false, a shallow copy is returned; nested resources within subresources are not duplicated and are shared with the original resource (with one exception; see below). If subresources is true, a deep copy is returned; nested subresources will be duplicated and are not shared (with two exceptions; see below).

subresources is usually respected, with the following exceptions:

Subresource properties with the @GlobalScope.PROPERTY_USAGE_ALWAYS_DUPLICATE flag are always duplicated.
Subresource properties with the @GlobalScope.PROPERTY_USAGE_NEVER_DUPLICATE flag are never duplicated.
Subresources inside Array and Dictionary properties are never duplicated.

Note: For custom resources, this method will fail if Object._init has been defined with required parameters.

void emit_changed() 🔗

Emits the changed signal. This method is called automatically for some built-in resources.

Note: For custom resources, it's recommended to call this method whenever a meaningful change occurs, such as a modified property. This ensures that custom Objects depending on the resource are properly updated.

gdscript

var damage:
    set(new_value):
        if damage != new_value:
            damage = new_value
            emit_changed()

String generate_scene_unique_id() static 🔗

Generates a unique identifier for a resource to be contained inside a PackedScene, based on the current date, time, and a random value. The returned string is only composed of letters (a to y) and numbers (0 to 8). See also resource_scene_unique_id.

Node get_local_scene() const 🔗

If resource_local_to_scene is set to true and the resource has been loaded from a PackedScene instantiation, returns the root Node of the scene where this resource is used. Otherwise, returns null.

RID get_rid() const 🔗

Returns the RID of this resource (or an empty RID). Many resources (such as Texture2D, Mesh, and so on) are high-level abstractions of resources stored in a specialized server (DisplayServer, RenderingServer, etc.), so this function will return the original RID.

void setup_local_to_scene() 🔗

Deprecated: This method should only be called internally.

Calls _setup_local_to_scene. If resource_local_to_scene is set to true, this method is automatically called from PackedScene.instantiate by the newly duplicated resource within the scene instance.

void take_over_path(path: String) 🔗

Sets the resource_path to path, potentially overriding an existing cache entry for this path. Further attempts to load an overridden resource by path will instead return this resource.

Resource ​