Hi, I set up the GDExtension to work with Godot 4, I also set up VS Code and everything runs ok. I just have a problem when I want to debug the c++ code of my GDExtension. If I set breakpoints in VS Code nothing happens, it seems like it does not have debug symbols loaded or something else that does not work. There is a guide or a procedure to enable the debugging?

Try attaching the debugger to a running instance of your game. This works for me.

  • Sox replied to this.
    6 days later

    Haystack With visual Studio Code? How do you do that? I know how to do that with Visual Studio, but not with VSC, I searched over the internet but I did not found any solution about it,
    Thanks.

      Often times IDEs just are in the way of productive work :-)

      I am on Linux, here are my options:
      Compile your work (and maybe the engine while you're at it) with debug symbols, have the source files ready. Start the engine in a debugger with your project included and set breakpoints where needed. I use gdb for this, or Eclipse CDT (which wraps around gdb as well) as an IDE.

      If that's too much hassle, there always the classical way: debug output of neuralgic information, tests of fringe cases in your code to assure invariants, assert() wherever needed.

      Also, if your stuff isn't integrated too tightly into the engine, you can test it offline and include it in the engine when ready(tm).

      (Caveat: I don't use VSCode for debugging, I use VS, so I'm giving you advice I haven't tried.)

      See here: https://code.visualstudio.com/Docs/editor/debugging#_launch-configurations
      Search for "attach".

      The reason this is necessary that if you launch your game directly from the IDE debugger, it's really launching the godot editor, and then the godot-editor launches your game, but it runs the game in a separate process. Your debugger is attached to the godot editor process, not the game process.


      I haven't tried Godot 4.0 C++ yet. But I recall with VS Code you can choose an app to attach the debugger to manually.

      So you can export the project in debug mode, then attach the debugger to that. I can't recall the menu though, but I know it's possible.

      Ok, my problem is that I'm not able to create the debug symbols.
      I found this tutorial

      but it's quite old and if I follow it it does not work.
      I'm not an expert on scons and I just modified the scons file in the godot-cpp/test folder, but I noticed that even if I compile with debug_templat that project it does not create the *.pdb files.
      So my question is, what option should I enable to create the *.pdb files?

      my SConstruct file looke like this:

      #!/usr/bin/env python
import os
import sys

env = SConscript("godot-cpp/SConstruct")

# For the reference:
# - CCFLAGS are compilation flags shared between C and C++
# - CFLAGS are for C-specific compilation flags
# - CXXFLAGS are for C++-specific compilation flags
# - CPPFLAGS are for pre-processor flags
# - CPPDEFINES are for pre-processor defines
# - LINKFLAGS are for linking flags

# tweak this if you want to use different folders, or more folders, to store your source code in.
env.Append(CPPPATH=["src/"])
#env.Append(CPPPATH=["src/tbs/"])

# Local dependency paths, adapt them to your setup
godot_headers_path = "godot-cpp/godot-headers/"
cpp_bindings_path = "godot-cpp/"
cpp_library = "libgodot-cpp"

# only support 64 at this time..
bits = 64

sources = Glob("src/*.cpp") + Glob("src/tbs/*.cpp") + Glob("src/common/*.cpp") + Glob("src/common/players/*.cpp") + Glob("src/tbs/players/*.cpp") + Glob("src/tbs/game_logic/*.cpp") + Glob("src/tbs/unit_avatar_actions/*.cpp")

if env["target"] == "debug":
    env.Append(CPPDEFINES=["DEBUG_ENABLED", "DEBUG_METHODS_ENABLED"])

if env["platform"] == "macos":
    library = env.SharedLibrary(
        "project/bin/hea.{}.{}.framework/hea.{}.{}".format(
            env["platform"], env["target"], env["platform"], env["target"]
        ),
        source=sources,
    )
else:
    library = env.SharedLibrary(
        "project/bin/hea{}{}".format(env["suffix"], env["SHLIBSUFFIX"]),
        source=sources,
    )

Default(library)

      Everything works and compiles but without the debug symbols.

      Thank you.

      Ok, solved it by calling scons with the dev_build=yes parameter! Is this the right way?
      Thanks.

      Yes. You may also need to tell your debugger where to find the godot pdb file. e.g. for my gd_extension testing, I copied the godot pdb file to the same directory as my extension dll.

      • Sox replied to this.
        3 months later

        Can someone provide step by step instruction please?
        Do i need to compile both godot and extension with dev_build=yes?
        How do I set pdb files both for godot and extension in studio?

        do I need to add these lines?

        if env["target"] == "debug":
        env.Append(CPPDEFINES=["DEBUG_ENABLED", "DEBUG_METHODS_ENABLED"])

        I've managed to get debugging symbols in engine code by compiling it with dev_build=yes.
        But cant get debugging working for extension even compiling it with dev_build=yes. Does anyone know how to make visual studio look for dll debugging symbols?

        You may want to ask on the Godot chat in the Godot community tab on the main Godot site, as the Godot developers are more frequent there and they’d likely have more information on GDExtensions.

        Yan, did you see my previous comment in this thread? Repeated here: "You may also need to tell your debugger where to find the godot pdb file. e.g. for my gd_extension testing, I copied the godot pdb file to the same directory as my extension dll.'

        Does anyone know how to make visual studio look for dll debugging symbols?

        Copying the godot pdb to your bin directory should work, but you have to do it for every project you want to debug. If you want a more general solution:

        https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/debugger/specify-symbol-dot-pdb-and-source-files-in-the-visual-studio-debugger?view=vs-2022

        1. In Visual Studio 2019, select menu "Tools >> Options"
        2. In the Options dialog, on the left-hand column, select "Debugging >> Symbols"
        3. On the top right-hand side of the options dialog, select the "+" symbol to add a search directory. Enter the path to the 'bin' directory where you built the Godot game engine, (on my system, it's "D:\Godot\godot\bin", but it will be different on each system) (Double check that the pdb file exists in this directory. If not, rebuild Godot with symbols enabled)
        4. Start the debugger.

        I've figured out how to debug gdetension with Visual Studio (or Rider).
        1. First you need to compile your engine and your extension with dev_build=yes
        2. You'll get dll with "dev" name in it. Provide path to it i your extension file.
        3. Create an empty Visual Studio solution. And an empty NMake project.
        4. Setup studio to build your code for you with debug button. Type in NMake tab of project properties, in the "build command line" the command: scons dev_build=yes. This way studio will compile project for you.
        5. In the Dedugger tab set launch command to "$your_path\godot.windows.editor.dev.x86_64.exe"
        6. Set command line arguments with "--path" command that will tell engine to start game immediately. like this: --path "$(SolutionDir)../"
        6.a. If you'll provide in argument path to your godot.project engine will start in editor mode. Thats fine if you want to debug editor, but if you'll start game from the editor the c++ debugger wont attach to it. For debugging editor I've created another NMake configuration for it.
        6.b. Probably a studio bug, but in order to intell issence to see godot-cpp code it wants its path to be included in "additional include" field of c++ configuration tab which is missing in NMake configuration. you might want to switch to c++ configuration, add additional includes path that lead to godot-cpp source, and then switch back to NMake. Or you can manually edit project file in text editor by adding there something like (in my case):

        <ItemDefinitionGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)|$(Platform)'=='GDExt|x64'">
    <ClCompile>
      <AdditionalIncludeDirectories>$(SolutionDir)godot-cpp\gdextension;$(SolutionDir)godot-cpp\include;$(SolutionDir)godot-cpp\gen\include;%(AdditionalIncludeDirectories)</AdditionalIncludeDirectories>
    </ClCompile>
  </ItemDefinitionGroup>

        7. That pretty much it. you are ready to go. you can also add godot engine project to your solution if you want. this way you don't need to copy pdb anywhere (it did not work for me anyway)

          a year later

          YanDaik
          Thanks ...
          Do i have to compile the godot engine ? to able to debug my extension ? isn't compiling just the godot-cpp with debug is enough?

            4 months later

            @YanDaik thanks a lot! You greatly helped me!

            My little addition is just setting C++17 standard for proper work of IntelliSense:

            <ItemDefinitionGroup>
    <ClCompile>
        <AdditionalIncludeDirectories>$(SolutionDir)godot-cpp\gdextension;$(SolutionDir)godot-cpp\include;$(SolutionDir)godot-cpp\gen\include;%(AdditionalIncludeDirectories)</AdditionalIncludeDirectories>
        <LanguageStandard>stdcpp17</LanguageStandard>
    </ClCompile>
</ItemDefinitionGroup>

            I'm able to debug and even code in Visual Studio 😃

            7 months later