Glossary — Godot terms and parallels

A consolidated list of the key Godot terms mentioned in the encyclopedia. In parentheses — the Unity equivalent, if there is one.

Scene and nodes

Node — the base class of everything in the scene tree. Derived classes: Node2D, Node3D, Control, CanvasItem. (Unity: GameObject, but without a stack of components — one script per node.)

Node3D (formerly Spatial) — a node with a 3D transform. (Unity: GameObject + Transform.)

Control — the base class of UI nodes. With anchors, offsets, layout. (Unity: RectTransform / Control in uGUI.)

Scene Tree — the hierarchy of live nodes in a running game. Accessed via get_tree().

PackedScene — a serialized .tscn scene. (Unity: Scene + Prefab in one.)

Inherited Scene — a scene inherited from another, with the ability to override. (Unity: Prefab Variant.)

Group — a label category for nodes: add_to_group("enemies"). (Unity: Tag.)

Scripting

GDScript — Godot’s native language. Python-like, with optional static typing.

@export — an annotation: show a field in the Inspector. (Unity: [SerializeField].)

@onready — assign a field in _ready (often $ChildNode via the shortcut).

class_name — global registration of a class in the editor.

Signal — a built-in pub-sub on any node. (Unity: UnityEvent / C# event.)

@rpc — an annotation for a remote call in multiplayer.

Lifecycle

_init — the object’s constructor (before the scene tree).

_enter_tree — the node has been added to the tree. (Unity: Awake.)

_ready — all children are ready. (Unity: Start.)

_input / _unhandled_input — input event handling.

_process(delta) — every frame. (Unity: Update.)

_physics_process(delta) — a fixed 60 Hz tick. (Unity: FixedUpdate.)

_exit_tree — removal from the tree. (Unity: OnDestroy / OnDisable.)

Physics

StaticBody3D — an immovable body. (Unity: Static collider, without a Rigidbody.)

AnimatableBody3D — moves via script/animation, pushes others. (Unity: Kinematic Rigidbody.)

RigidBody3D — full dynamics. (Unity: Rigidbody.)

CharacterBody3D — kinematics for a character, the move_and_slide() method. (Unity: CharacterController.)

Area3D — an invisible region with trigger signals. (Unity: Collider with isTrigger=true.)

CollisionShape3D — a separate child node with a shape resource. (Unity: Collider component.)

SoftBody3D — soft bodies (cloth, flags). Mesh-based soft body simulation.

Jolt — the recommended 3D physics engine since 4.6 (default for new projects).

Godot Physics — built-in, still the default for 2D, an option for 3D.

Rendering

Forward+ — the main renderer for desktop/consoles. Vulkan/Metal/D3D12.

Mobile — for mobile and VR. Single-pass forward.

Compatibility — OpenGL ES 3 / WebGL 2, the only path for the web.

BaseMaterial3D / StandardMaterial3D / ORMMaterial3D — the standard PBR materials.

ShaderMaterial — a wrapper for a custom .gdshader.

gdshader — Godot’s shader language, a dialect of GLSL ES 3.0.

Visual Shader — the visual shader editor. (Unity: Shader Graph.)

MultiMeshInstance3D — renders N instances of a mesh in a single draw call. (Unity: GPU Instancing.)

WorldEnvironment + Environment — post-processing and scene settings. (Unity: Volume Framework.)

Lighting

DirectionalLight3D — the sun. (Unity: Directional Light.)

OmniLight3D — a point light. (Unity: Point Light.)

SpotLight3D — a cone. (Unity: Spot Light.)

LightmapGI — lightmap baking for static geometry. (Unity: Progressive Lightmapper.)

VoxelGI — voxel-based realtime GI.

SDFGI — signed distance field GI, dynamic.

LightmapProbe — a point for GI on dynamic objects. (Unity: Light Probe.)

ReflectionProbe — an environment map for reflections. (Unity: Reflection Probe.)

Animation

AnimationPlayer — the main node for playing animations.

Animation + AnimationLibrary — a clip and its container.

AnimationTree — a state machine + blend spaces. (Unity: Animator Controller.)

AnimationNodeStateMachine — an FSM in the AnimationTree.

AnimationNodeBlendSpace1D / 2D — parametric blending. (Unity: Blend Tree.)

Skeleton3D — a hierarchy of bones. (Unity: Avatar / Skeleton.)

BoneAttachment3D — a node that follows a bone. (Unity: AvatarBone parenting.)

SkeletonModifier3D / IKModifier3D — base classes for skeleton modifiers (including IK).

TwoBoneIK3D / ChainIK3D / SplineIK3D / IterateIK3D / FABRIK3D / CCDIK3D / JacobianIK3D — IK solvers (in 4.6+). Derived from IKModifier3D.

Audio

AudioStreamPlayer / 2D / 3D — playback nodes. (Unity: AudioSource.)

AudioStreamInteractive — dynamic music with transitions.

AudioBus — a mixer channel. (Unity: AudioMixer Group.)

AudioListener3D — the listener, by default the active Camera3D. (Unity: AudioListener.)

UI

Control — the base UI node.

Container (HBox, VBox, Grid, Margin, Center, Aspect) — auto-layout.

Theme — a resource with styles for the entire UI.

StyleBox (Flat, Texture, Line, Empty) — background/border.

CanvasLayer — a layer above / below the scene.

SubViewport — rendering to a texture (for UI in the 3D world). (Unity: World Space Canvas.)

Resources

Resource — the base class of data assets. (Unity: ScriptableObject and others.)

Custom Resource — a user-defined data-only object (class_name X extends Resource).

.tres — the text resource format.

.res — the binary format.

preload — static loading at script parse time.

load — synchronous loading at runtime.

ResourceLoader.load_threaded_request — asynchronous loading. (Unity: Addressables.)

PCK — a packed asset archive. (Unity: AssetBundle / Asset Pack.)

uid:// — the UID schema for identifying resources independently of the path. Introduced in Godot 4.0, extended in 4.4 (support for scripts and shader resources). The file path can change, the UID stays. Used in .tscn/.tres for stable references.

Navigation

NavigationServer3D — the low-level server.

NavigationRegion3D — a node with a baked NavigationMesh. (Unity: NavMeshSurface.)

NavigationAgent3D — an agent helper for movement. (Unity: NavMeshAgent.)

NavigationLink3D — a manual link between regions. (Unity: NavMesh Off-Mesh Link.)

NavigationObstacle3D — a dynamic obstacle. (Unity: NavMeshObstacle.)

Particles

GPUParticles3D — on the GPU, millions of particles. (Unity: VFX Graph.)

CPUParticles3D — on the CPU, a fallback. (Unity: built-in Particle System.)

ParticleProcessMaterial — a resource with particle behavior.

GPUParticlesCollision*3D — separate colliders for GPU particles.

Multiplayer

MultiplayerAPI — the high level. The multiplayer getter on any node.

ENetMultiplayerPeer — a UDP transport.

WebSocketMultiplayerPeer — for the web.

MultiplayerSpawner — automatic spawn replication.

MultiplayerSynchronizer — declarative synchronization of properties. (Unity: NetworkVariable, NetworkTransform.)

Multiplayer Authority — the peer ID of the node’s owner. (Unity: NetworkObject Owner.)

Build

Export Preset — a configuration for a single platform.

Export Template — an engine binary without the editor.

GDExtension — a native plugin (C++ via godot-cpp or Rust via gdext). (Unity: native plugin.)

user:// — the sandbox folder for saves and user settings.