Autoload Deprecated?

caith

Hello -

Someone around here (on a very old thread) said that Autoload is "gimmicky" and should be removed from Godot. They did not, however, clarify what could replace autoload for things like global variables. Is this true? And I guess more generally, what is the best way in current version of Godot to manage things like global variables or passing variable data between scripts?

DaveTheCoder

caith They did not, however, clarify what could replace autoload for things like global variables.

I use Autoloads, since they work, and I haven't gone to the trouble of looking for other methods.

I asked Google AI about this, and got a detailed answer which I haven't reviewed for accuracy. I saved it for reference. I'll post it here now if you want it.

fire7side

I think it has to do with code safety. If you have a list of globals, anything can change it so it's hard to find errors. If your game is small, no big deal. If it's large, it can be a lot of extra work. I just checked and there isn't anything I could find about them being deprecated. I guess a lot of people are using resources instead.

DaveTheCoder

fire7side globals

The question wasn't about whether to use globals, but about using autoloads for them.

I wouldn't think the feature would be removed, since an autoload is simply a node that's automatically loaded just under the scene tree root before any other nodes.

Dad3353

fire7side

I use autoloaded scripts and scenes a lot, especially so that they may be addressed, and updated; from anywhere in the Project. I have no issues keeping track of things, as I have a personal protocol for naming stuff which tells any code reader whether it's local or global. I compose names from bunches of four from their 'natural' names, preceded with three letters, meaning global, local or parameter, variable or constant, and type. An object, with a natural name of 'player's health', for example, would become 'gvi_play_heal', indicating that it's global, variable and an integer. The globals would, in general, be autoloaded and initialised in a global script. As play progresses, it would be addressed with 'GlobalVariables.gvi_play_heal += 10' or similar. A lot of my Projects would fail if there was no more autoload; it's a very useful and powerful part of my Godot programming.

fire7side

DaveTheCoder I've never used them for anything other than globals. Any script has access to their methods and properties, which I consider a global.

fire7side

Dad3353 I agree, especially for a single developer it's just not necessary to do something that's considered safer. I don't know if they still do it that way, but python only had public variables when I learned it. I can't remember ever accidentally changing a public variable. For a quick game save, I can just save my public variables and maybe the scene I was in. If I'm doing work with it, I'll create a private variable to equal it, do the work, and then change it afterwards if need be.

kuligs2

i just made a post in here about autoload usage https://godotforums.org/d/44183-for-hire-39-input-map-release-proof-for-godot-4/2 in short i use it to load my keybinds, so that i dont have to mess in the UI every time i start a project. I can just paste aroudn this file and reference it in the autoload and then use my input events for each defined button.

fire7side

kuligs2 I'll have to keep that in mind.