Contents

migueldeicaza/swiftgodotkit

SwiftGodotKit provides a way of embedding Godot into an existing Swift

Sample Code

macOS Sample Code

This module contains a TrivialSample example code that shows both how to embed a Godot-packaged game (PCK files), as well as how to embed Godot UI elements are created programmatically. This sample runs on macOS.

iOS Sample Code

Samples/AxolotlDemo is a SwiftUI container for macOS and iOS. It shows both directions of communication: a SwiftUI button calls Godot's new_game() method, and a Godot score_changed signal updates a SwiftUI score label. The sample includes a main.pck game pack and supports iOS devices and the iOS simulator. See the sample README for build and run instructions.

Using this

Just reference this module from your Package.swift file or from Xcode.

Use Swift 6.3 or later. The package uses Swift 5 language mode. SwiftPM supports Apple's prebuilt SwiftSyntax libraries. However, the pinned SwiftGodot revision also uses SwiftSyntax in its code generators. Builds with Swift 6.4 still compile SwiftSyntax from source. The tools version change alone does not remove this build step.

To build the macOS sample:

swift build --product TrivialSample

Faster builds with the binary branch

SwiftGodot and SwiftSyntax can take a long time to compile. The binary branch uses SwiftGodotBinary instead. That package contains prebuilt SwiftGodot XCFrameworks for macOS and iOS, so SwiftPM does not compile SwiftGodot or SwiftSyntax. The API is the same as on main.

To use it, reference the binary branch:

.package(url: "https://github.com/migueldeicaza/SwiftGodotKit", branch: "binary")

If your code also imports SwiftGodot, get it from SwiftGodotBinary. Do not add the SwiftGodot source package, because then your app gets two different copies of SwiftGodot:

.product(name: "SwiftGodot", package: "SwiftGodotBinary")

If you change an existing project from main to binary, do a clean build first. In Xcode, select Product ▸ Clean Build Folder, or delete the project folder in DerivedData. With SwiftPM, run swift package clean. If you do not, the linker can use the old source-built SwiftGodot.framework, and the app stops at launch with this error:

dyld: Symbol not found: _$s17SwiftGodotRuntime7WrappedCMn

Sample

A simple SwiftUI API is provided.

In the example below, in an existing iOS project type using SwiftUI, add a Godot PCK file to your project, and then call it like this:

import SwiftUI
import SwiftGodot
import SwiftGodotKit

struct ContentView: View {
    @State var app = GodotApp(packFile: "game.pck")

    var body: some View {
        VStack {
            Text("Game is below:")
            GodotAppView()
                .padding()
        }
	.environment(\.godotApp, app)
    }
}

There can only be one GodotApp in your application, but you can reference different scenes from it.

Discussions

You can join our Discussions on GitHub or the #swiftgodotkit channel on the Swift on Godot Slack server.

Godot 4.7 payloads

This branch uses the v4.7.3-rc-swiftgodotkit.1 macOS and iOS payloads. Package.swift pins the matching SwiftGodot commit. SwiftPM downloads the binaries when it builds the package.

SwiftGodotKit pins a SwiftGodot main commit with the Godot 4.7 API. Kit calls its custom surface and display methods through cached GDExtension method binds, so those methods do not need generated SwiftGodot classes.

Rebuild the payloads locally

Keep these three checkouts next to each other:

  • godot: branch swiftgodotkit-4.7, based on upstream/4.7.
  • SwiftGodot: the pinned main commit in Package.swift.
  • SwiftGodotKit: branch swiftgodotkit-4.7.

To reproduce the payloads, build the engine archives and XCFrameworks:

cd SwiftGodotKit/scripts
make release-payloads

This builds macOS arm64 and x86_64 dylibs, and iOS device and simulator archives. It creates build/mac/libgodot.xcframework and build/ios/libgodot.xcframework, with zip files and checksums next to them. The process can take several minutes. If the five engine slices already exist for the current 4.7 commit, run make package to package them again. To test a new local engine build, change the two binary targets in Package.swift from url and checksum to these local XCFramework paths.

You need Xcode command-line tools and scons in PATH. The default paths use the adjacent checkouts. You can set SWIFTGODOT, GODOT, and OUTPUT when you run make.

To build the SwiftUI sample, run:

cd SwiftGodotKit/Samples/AxolotlDemo
make
make build-macos
make build-ios-simulator

The sample pack script uses /Applications/Godot-47.app. Set GODOT_APP if you keep the Godot 4.7 editor at a different path.

For the next payload release, push the matching Godot commit. Then run make publish-release VERSION=<new tag> from scripts/. This uploads the two zip files to a Godot release and updates the binary URLs and checksums in Package.swift. Set RELEASE_PRERELEASE=1 for a prerelease. Update the SwiftGodot revision if its bindings changed. Use a new tag for each payload because SwiftPM caches the URL.

Use the 4.7 branch

Add the current 4.7 branch through SwiftPM or Xcode:

.package(url: "https://github.com/migueldeicaza/SwiftGodotKit", branch: "swiftgodotkit-4.7")

and depend on the product:

.product(name: "SwiftGodotKit", package: "SwiftGodotKit")

SwiftPM downloads libgodot-macos.xcframework.zip or libgodot-ios.xcframework.zip automatically for the target platform.

Note for Godot 4.7 on macOS: template libgodot builds usually expose only macos/headless display drivers. TrivialSample therefore defaults to macos on macOS. If you want true embedded rendering (--display-driver embedded) you need a libgodot build that registers the embedded display driver.

Legacy notes

For older setups, you may still find notes referring to libgodot_44_stable. Compile libgodot, this sample shows how I do this myself, but you can pass the flags that make sense for your scenarios:

cd libgodot
scons target=template_debug dev_build=yes library_type=shared_library debug_symbols=yes

The above will produce the binary that you want, then create an xcframework out of it, using the script in this directory or in the SwiftGodot scripts folder.

Package Metadata

Repository: migueldeicaza/swiftgodotkit

Default branch: main

README: README.md