I am confused when gettree() should be used and what are the best practices for using gettree().

Can it be used instead of
@onready var camera = $"/root/World/Camera2D"

Godot version 4

  • xyz replied to this.

  • tsalexey544 You use it whenever you need access to the SceneTree singleton. It can be used in your above example, that is when you need to get to a specific node starting from the root. However using node path shorthand syntax is much more readable than cascading get_node() calls. But technically you could do:

    @onready var camera = get_tree().get_root().get_node("World").get_node("Camera2D")

    Note that SceneTree has a lot more functionality than just getting to nodes. It basically represents game's main loop. Check documentation class reference on SceneTree to see what else you can do with it.

      tsalexey544 You use it whenever you need access to the SceneTree singleton. It can be used in your above example, that is when you need to get to a specific node starting from the root. However using node path shorthand syntax is much more readable than cascading get_node() calls. But technically you could do:

      @onready var camera = get_tree().get_root().get_node("World").get_node("Camera2D")

      Note that SceneTree has a lot more functionality than just getting to nodes. It basically represents game's main loop. Check documentation class reference on SceneTree to see what else you can do with it.