godot-docs/getting_started/workflow/export/exporting_projects.rst

.. _doc_exporting_projects:

Exporting projects
==================

.. highlight:: none

Why export?
-----------

Originally, Godot did not have any means to export projects. The
developers would compile the proper binaries and build the packages for
each platform manually.

When more developers (and even non-programmers) started using it, and
when our company started taking more projects at the same time, it
became evident that this was a bottleneck.

On PC
~~~~~

Distributing a game project on PC with Godot is rather easy. Drop
the Godot binary in the same directory as the ``project.godot`` file,
then compress the project directory and you are done.

It sounds simple, but there are probably a few reasons why the developer
may not want to do this. The first one is that it may not be desirable
to distribute loads of files. Some developers may not like curious users
peeking at how the game was made, others may find it inelegant, and so on.
Another reason is that the developer might prefer a specially-compiled
binary, which is smaller in size, more optimized and does not include
tools like the editor and debugger.

Finally, Godot has a simple but efficient system for
:ref:`creating DLCs as extra package files <doc_exporting_pcks>`.

.. warning::

    Godot does not support loading PCK files larger than 2 GB yet. If your
    exported project data is larger than 2 GB, you will need to split it into
    several PCK files by :ref:`exporting additional PCKs <doc_exporting_pcks>`
    and loading them at run-time.

On mobile
~~~~~~~~~

The same scenario on mobile platforms is a little worse.
To distribute a project on those devices, a binary for each of
those platforms is built, then added to a native project together
with the game data.

This can be troublesome because it means that the developer must be
familiarized with the SDK of each platform before even being able to
export. While learning each SDK is always encouraged, it can be
frustrating to be forced to do it at an undesired time.

There is also another problem with this approach: different devices
prefer some data in different formats to run. The main example of this
is texture compression. All PC hardware uses S3TC (BC) compression and
that has been standardized for more than a decade, but mobile devices
use different formats for texture compression, such as PVRTC (iOS) or
ETC (Android).

Export menu
-----------

After many attempts at different export workflows, the current one has
proven to work the best. At the time of this writing, not all platforms are
supported yet, but the supported platforms continue to grow.

To open the export menu, click the **Export** button:

.. image:: img/export.png

The export menu will open. However, it will be completely empty.
This is because we need to add an export preset.

.. image:: img/export_dialog.png

To create an export preset, click the **Add…** button at the top
of the export menu. This will open a drop-down list of platforms
to choose from for an export preset.

.. image:: img/export_preset.png

The default options are often enough to export, so tweaking them is
usually not necessary. However, many platforms require additional
tools (SDKs) to be installed to be able to export. Additionally, Godot
needs export templates installed to create packages. The export menu
will complain when something is missing and will not allow the user to
export for that platform until they resolve it:

.. image:: img/export_error.png

At that time, the user is expected to come back to the documentation and follow
instructions on how to properly set up that platform.

Export templates
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Apart from setting up the platform, the export templates must be
installed to be able to export projects. They can be obtained as a
TPZ file (which is a renamed ZIP archive) from the
`download page of the website <https://www.godotengine.org/download>`_.

Once downloaded, they can be installed using the **Install Export Templates**
option in the editor:

.. image:: img/exptemp.png

.. _doc_exporting_projects_export_mode:

Export mode
~~~~~~~~~~~

When exporting, Godot makes a list of all the files to export and then
creates the package. There are 3 different modes for exporting:

-  Export all resources in the project
-  Export selected scenes (and dependencies)
-  Export selected resources (and dependencies)

.. image:: img/expres.png

**Export all resources in the project** will export every resource in the
project. **Export selected scenes** and **Export selected resources** gives
you a list of the scenes or resources in the project, and you have to
select every scene or resource you want to export.

.. image:: img/expselected.png

Exporting from the command line
-------------------------------

In production, it is useful to automate builds, and Godot supports this
with the ``--export`` and ``--export-debug`` command line parameters.
Exporting from the command line still requires an export preset to define
the export parameters. A basic invocation of the command would be:

.. code-block:: shell

    godot --export "Windows Desktop" some_name

This will export to ``some_name.exe``, assuming there is a preset
called "Windows Desktop" and the template can be found.
The output path is relative to the project path or absolute;
it does not respect the directory the command was invoked from.

You can also configure it to export only the PCK or ZIP file, allowing
a single export to be used with multiple Godot executables.
This takes place if the target name ends with ``.pck`` or ``.zip``.

It is often useful to combine the ``--export`` flag with the ``--path``
flag, and to create a dedicated export preset for automated export:

.. code-block:: shell

    godot --path path/to/project --export "pck" game_name.pck

PCK versus ZIP pack file formats
--------------------------------

Each format has its upsides and downsides. PCK is the default and recommended
format for most use cases, but you may want to use a ZIP archive instead
depending on your needs.

**PCK format:**

- Uncompressed format. Larger file size, but faster to read/write.
- Not readable and writable using tools normally present on the user's
  operating system, even though there are
  `third-party tools <https://github.com/hhyyrylainen/GodotPckTool>`__
  to extract and create PCK files.

**ZIP format:**

- Compressed format. Smaller file size, but slower to read/write.
- Readable and writable using tools normally present on the user's operating system.
  This can be useful to make modding easier (see also :ref:`doc_exporting_pcks`).

.. warning::

    Due to a `known bug <https://github.com/godotengine/godot/pull/42123>`__,
    when using a ZIP file as a pack file, the exported binary will not try to use
    it automatically. Therefore, you have to create a *launcher script* that
    the player can double-click or run from a terminal to launch the project::

        :: launch.bat (Windows)
        @echo off
        my_project.exe --main-pack my_project.zip

        # launch.sh (Linux)
        ./my_project.x86_64 --main-pack my_project.zip

    Save the launcher script and place it in the same folder as the exported binary.
    On Linux, make sure to give executable permissions to the launcher script using
    the command ``chmod +x launch.sh``.