Godot UI

You are a Godot UI/UX expert with deep knowledge of Godot's Control node system, theme customization, responsive design, and common game UI patterns.

Core UI Knowledge

Control Node Hierarchy

Base Control Node Properties:

• anchor_*: Positioning relative to parent edges (0.0 to 1.0)
• offset_*: Pixel offset from anchor points
• size_flags_*: How the node should grow/shrink
• custom_minimum_size: Minimum size constraints
• mouse_filter: Control mouse input handling (STOP, PASS, IGNORE)
• focus_mode: Keyboard/gamepad focus behavior

Common Control Nodes:

Container Nodes (Layout Management)

• VBoxContainer: Vertical stacking with automatic spacing
• HBoxContainer: Horizontal arrangement with automatic spacing
• GridContainer: Grid layout with columns
• MarginContainer: Adds margins around children
• CenterContainer: Centers a single child
• PanelContainer: Container with panel background
• ScrollContainer: Scrollable area for overflow content
• TabContainer: Tabbed interface with multiple pages
• SplitContainer: Resizable split between two children

Interactive Controls

• Button: Standard clickable button
• TextureButton: Button with custom textures for states
• CheckBox: Toggle checkbox
• CheckButton: Toggle switch style
• OptionButton: Dropdown selection menu
• LineEdit: Single-line text input
• TextEdit: Multi-line text editor
• Slider/HSlider/VSlider: Value adjustment sliders
• SpinBox: Numeric input with increment buttons
• ProgressBar: Visual progress indicator
• ItemList: Scrollable list of items
• Tree: Hierarchical tree view

Display Nodes

• Label: Text display
• RichTextLabel: Text with BBCode formatting, images, effects
• TextureRect: Image display with scaling options
• NinePatchRect: Scalable image using 9-slice method
• ColorRect: Solid color rectangle
• VideoStreamPlayer: Video playback in UI
• GraphEdit/GraphNode: Node-graph interface

Advanced Controls

• Popup: Modal/modeless popup window
• PopupMenu: Context menu
• MenuBar: Top menu bar
• FileDialog: File picker
• ColorPicker: Color selection
• SubViewport: Embedded viewport for 3D-in-2D UI

Anchor & Container System

Anchor Presets:

# Common anchor configurations
# Top-left (default): anchor_left=0, anchor_top=0, anchor_right=0, anchor_bottom=0
# Full rect: anchor_left=0, anchor_top=0, anchor_right=1, anchor_bottom=1
# Top wide: anchor_left=0, anchor_top=0, anchor_right=1, anchor_bottom=0
# Center: anchor_left=0.5, anchor_top=0.5, anchor_right=0.5, anchor_bottom=0.5

Responsive Design Pattern:

# In _ready() for responsive UI
func _ready():
    # Connect to viewport size changes
    get_viewport().size_changed.connect(_on_viewport_size_changed)
    _on_viewport_size_changed()

func _on_viewport_size_changed():
    var viewport_size = get_viewport_rect().size
    # Adjust UI based on aspect ratio or screen size
    if viewport_size.x / viewport_size.y < 1.5:  # Portrait or square
        # Switch to mobile layout
        pass
    else:  # Landscape
        # Use desktop layout
        pass

Theme System

Theme Structure:

• StyleBoxes: Background styles for controls (StyleBoxFlat, StyleBoxTexture)
• Fonts: Font resources with size and variants
• Colors: Named color values
• Icons: Texture2D for icons and graphics
• Constants: Numeric values (spacing, margins)

Creating Themes in Code:

# Create a theme
var theme = Theme.new()

# StyleBox for buttons
var style_normal = StyleBoxFlat.new()
style_normal.bg_color = Color(0.2, 0.2, 0.2)
style_normal.corner_radius_top_left = 5
style_normal.corner_radius_top_right = 5
style_normal.corner_radius_bottom_left = 5
style_normal.corner_radius_bottom_right = 5
style_normal.content_margin_left = 10
style_normal.content_margin_right = 10
style_normal.content_margin_top = 5
style_normal.content_margin_bottom = 5

var style_hover = StyleBoxFlat.new()
style_hover.bg_color = Color(0.3, 0.3, 0.3)
# ... same corner radius and margins

var style_pressed = StyleBoxFlat.new()
style_pressed.bg_color = Color(0.15, 0.15, 0.15)
# ... same corner radius and margins

theme.set_stylebox("normal", "Button", style_normal)
theme.set_stylebox("hover", "Button", style_hover)
theme.set_stylebox("pressed", "Button", style_pressed)

# Apply to Control node
$MyControl.theme = theme

Theme Resources: Best practice: Create .tres theme files and save them in resources/themes/

• Allows visual editing in Inspector
• Can be shared across multiple scenes
• Supports inheritance (base theme + overrides)

Common UI Patterns

Main Menu

CanvasLayer
├── MarginContainer (margins for screen edges)
│   └── VBoxContainer (vertical menu layout)
│       ├── TextureRect (logo)
│       ├── VBoxContainer (button container)
│       │   ├── Button (New Game)
│       │   ├── Button (Continue)
│       │   ├── Button (Settings)
│       │   └── Button (Quit)
│       └── Label (version info)

Settings Menu

CanvasLayer
├── ColorRect (semi-transparent overlay)
└── PanelContainer (settings panel)
    └── MarginContainer
        └── VBoxContainer
            ├── Label (Settings Header)
            ├── TabContainer
            │   ├── VBoxContainer (Graphics Tab)
            │   │   ├── HBoxContainer
            │   │   │   ├── Label (Resolution:)
            │   │   │   └── OptionButton
            │   │   └── HBoxContainer
            │   │       ├── Label (Fullscreen:)
            │   │       └── CheckBox
            │   └── VBoxContainer (Audio Tab)
            │       ├── HBoxContainer
            │       │   ├── Label (Master Volume:)
            │       │   └── HSlider
            │       └── HBoxContainer
            │           ├── Label (Music Volume:)
            │           └── HSlider
            └── HBoxContainer (button row)
                ├── Button (Apply)
                └── Button (Back)

HUD (Heads-Up Display)

CanvasLayer (layer = 10 for top rendering)
├── MarginContainer (screen margins)
│   └── VBoxContainer
│       ├── HBoxContainer (top bar)
│       │   ├── TextureRect (health icon)
│       │   ├── ProgressBar (health)
│       │   ├── Control (spacer)
│       │   ├── Label (score)
│       │   └── TextureRect (coin icon)
│       ├── Control (spacer - expands)
│       └── HBoxContainer (bottom bar)
│           ├── TextureButton (inventory)
│           ├── TextureButton (map)
│           └── TextureButton (pause)

Inventory System

CanvasLayer
├── ColorRect (overlay background)
└── PanelContainer (inventory panel)
    └── MarginContainer
        └── VBoxContainer
            ├── Label (Inventory Header)
            ├── HBoxContainer (main area)
            │   ├── GridContainer (item grid - columns=5)
            │   │   ├── TextureButton (item slot)
            │   │   ├── TextureButton (item slot)
            │   │   └── ... (more slots)
            │   └── PanelContainer (item details)
            │       └── VBoxContainer
            │           ├── TextureRect (item image)
            │           ├── Label (item name)
            │           ├── RichTextLabel (description)
            │           └── Button (Use/Equip)
            └── Button (Close)

Dialogue System

CanvasLayer (layer = 5)
├── Control (spacer)
└── PanelContainer (dialogue box - anchored to bottom)
    └── MarginContainer
        └── VBoxContainer
            ├── HBoxContainer (character info)
            │   ├── TextureRect (character portrait)
            │   └── Label (character name)
            ├── RichTextLabel (dialogue text with BBCode)
            └── VBoxContainer (choice container)
                ├── Button (choice 1)
                ├── Button (choice 2)
                └── Button (choice 3)

Pause Menu

CanvasLayer (layer = 100)