110 lines
5.2 KiB
ReStructuredText
110 lines
5.2 KiB
ReStructuredText
.. _doc_about_intro:
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Introduction
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============
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::
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func _ready():
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$Label.text = "Hello world!"
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Welcome to the official documentation of Godot Engine, the free and open source
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community-driven 2D and 3D game engine! Behind this mouthful, you will find a
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powerful yet user-friendly tool that you can use to develop any kind of game,
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for any platform and with no usage restriction whatsoever.
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This page gives a broad presentation of the engine and of the contents
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of this documentation, so that you know where to start if you are a beginner or
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where to look if you need info on a specific feature.
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Before you start
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----------------
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The :ref:`Tutorials and resources <doc_community_tutorials>` page lists
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video tutorials contributed by the community. If you prefer video to text,
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those may be worth a look.
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In case you have trouble with one of the tutorials or your project,
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you can find help on the various :ref:`Community channels <doc_community_channels>`,
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especially the Godot Discord community, Q&A, and IRC.
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About Godot Engine
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------------------
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A game engine is a complex tool, and it is therefore difficult to present Godot
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in a few words. Here's a quick synopsis, which you are free to reuse
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if you need a quick writeup about Godot Engine.
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Godot Engine is a feature-packed, cross-platform game engine to create 2D
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and 3D games from a unified interface. It provides a comprehensive set of
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common tools, so users can focus on making games without having to
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reinvent the wheel. Games can be exported in one click to a number of
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platforms, including the major desktop platforms (Linux, macOS, Windows)
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as well as mobile (Android, iOS) and web-based (HTML5) platforms.
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Godot is completely free and open source under the permissive MIT
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license. No strings attached, no royalties, nothing. Users' games are
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theirs, down to the last line of engine code. Godot's development is fully
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independent and community-driven, empowering users to help shape their
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engine to match their expectations. It is supported by the `Software
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Freedom Conservancy <https://sfconservancy.org>`_ not-for-profit.
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For a more in-depth view of the engine, you are encouraged to read this
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documentation further, especially the :ref:`Step by step
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<toc-learn-step_by_step>` tutorial.
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About the documentation
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-----------------------
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This documentation is continuously written, corrected, edited, and revamped by
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members of the Godot Engine community. It is edited via text files in the
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`reStructuredText <http://www.sphinx-doc.org/en/stable/rest.html>`_ markup
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language and then compiled into a static website/offline document using the
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open source `Sphinx <http://www.sphinx-doc.org>`_ and `ReadTheDocs
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<https://readthedocs.org/>`_ tools.
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.. note:: You can contribute to Godot's documentation by opening issue tickets
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or sending patches via pull requests on its GitHub
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`source repository <https://github.com/godotengine/godot-docs>`_, or
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translating it into your language on `Hosted Weblate
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<https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/godot-engine/godot-docs/>`_.
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All the contents are under the permissive Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
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(`CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/>`_) license, with
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attribution to "Juan Linietsky, Ariel Manzur and the Godot Engine community".
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Organization of the documentation
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---------------------------------
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This documentation is organized in five sections with an impressively
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unbalanced distribution of contents – but the way it is split up should be
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relatively intuitive:
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- The :ref:`sec-general` section contains this introduction as well as
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information about the engine, its history, its licensing, authors, etc. It
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also contains the :ref:`doc_faq`.
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- The :ref:`sec-learn` section is the *raison d'être* of this
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documentation, as it contains all the necessary information on using the
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engine to make games. It starts with the :ref:`Step by step
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<toc-learn-step_by_step>` tutorial which should be the entry point for all
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new users.
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- The :ref:`sec-tutorials` section can be read as needed,
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in any order. It contains feature-specific tutorials and documentation.
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- The :ref:`sec-devel` section is intended for advanced users and contributors
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to the engine development, with information on compiling the engine,
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developing C++ modules or editor plugins.
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- The :ref:`sec-community` section gives information related to contributing to
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engine development and the life of its community, e.g. how to report bugs,
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help with the documentation, etc. It also points to various community channels
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like IRC and Discord and contains a list of recommended third-party tutorials
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outside of this documentation.
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- Finally, the :ref:`sec-class-ref` is the documentation of the Godot API,
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which is also available directly within the engine's script editor. It is
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generated automatically from a file in the main source repository, therefore
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the generated files of the documentation are not meant to be modified. See
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:ref:`doc_updating_the_class_reference` for details.
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In addition to this documentation you may also want to take a look at the
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various `Godot demo projects <https://github.com/godotengine/godot-demo-projects>`_.
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Have fun reading and making games with Godot Engine!
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