How to get acces to file in the same folder of the game (Godot engine) - godot

Question

So i wanted to load external file in my godot game but I can't find any answer. I want to load file (sound, image, ...) in the same folder of the game (.exe).
By the way I can always do it directly include all the file in the engine but it's more easy to modify the external file than file in the editor

Answer 1

You can use OS.get_executable_path() to get the path of the executable. Except, it will give you the path to the Godot executable if you are running from the editor.
You can check if your code is running from the editor with OS.has_feature("standalone").
And of course, you don't really want the path to the executable, but to the folder it is in. So we use get_base_dir.
Like this:
if OS.has_feature("standalone"):
var folder := OS.get_executable_path().get_base_dir()
Also be aware of OS.get_user_data_dir() which gives you an appropriate folder for your game depending on the operating system (there is also where the "logs" folder will be). Plus OS.get_user_data_dir() will work even when running form the editor, and it gives you a folder path directly.
Then we can either build a path to another file in the same folder:
if OS.has_feature("standalone"):
var path := OS.get_executable_path().get_base_dir()
var file_name := folder.plus_file("my_file.png")
Or we can enumerate files:
if OS.has_feature("standalone"):
var path := OS.get_executable_path().get_base_dir()
var dir = Directory.new()
if dir.open(path) == OK:
dir.list_dir_begin()
var file_name:String = dir.get_next()
while file_name != "":
if not dir.current_is_dir():
if file_name.get_extension() == "png":
print("Found file: " + file_name)
file_name = dir.get_next()
else:
print("An error occurred when trying to access the path.")
Now, you want to load them. Except load et.al. won't work because they are not resources in your project.
You can read the contents of a file into a buffer like this:
var file := File.new()
file.open(file_name, File.READ)
var buffer := file.get_buffer(file.get_len())
file.close()
Then from the buffer you can create an Image like this:
var my_image := Image.new()
my_image.load_png_from_buffer(buffer)
If you happen to need a Texture you can do this:
var my_texture := ImageTexture.new()
my_texture.create_from_image(my_image)
I'll also mention that you can set the flags of the Texture.
And for sound…
I will point you to GDScriptAudioImport because, sadly, it is not as straightforward.
And as you can imagine anything else you want to load from external files will different code to support it.
By the way I can always do it directly include all the file in the engine but it's more easy to modify the external file than file in the editor
You can always edit files in the project folder with any other external software and when you switch back to Godot it will detect the changes and re-import. So you don't need to modify anything within Godot.
And for any other software modifying files in the project folder should not be any harder than modifying files located elsewhere.