Setting up spine-godot with C#

October 2nd, 2023

This blog post briefly explains the steps to get started using C# with spine-godot and how it differs from using GDScript.

Installation

You can download our pre-built Godot 4.1 editor and export template binaries with C# support from the spine-godot runtime documentation. Follow the documentation there for basic installation instructions.

C# project setup

To use our Godot editor binaries with C# support, you need to take an extra step when setting up a new Godot project:

1. Create a Godot project

First, create a new Godot project using the downloaded Godot editor binary that has C# support.

Failed to load .NET runtime

If the Godot editor fails to load the .NET runtime, the following error message will appear at startup:

As described in the message, please install the .NET SDK 6.0 or later from Microsoft's official download site and restart Godot.

2. Create a godot-nuget folder

Close Godot and open your project folder. In the root directory, create a new folder called godot-nuget.

3. Copy the C# assemblies

Copy the Godot C# assemblies into the godot-nuget folder. If you are using Windows or Linux, you can find the assemblies in the downloaded Godot editor ZIP file:

  • Windows: godot-editor-windows-mono.zip\GodotSharp\Tools\
  • Linux: godot-editor-linux-mono.zip/GodotSharp/Tools/

If you are using macOS:

  • macOS: Navigate to Godot.app/Contents/Resources/GodotSharp/Tools/ by right clicking the Godot.app file in Finder, select Show Package Contents, then navigate to Contents/Resources/GodotSharp/Tools/.

Copy the following files into your godot-nuget folder:

  • GodotSharpEditor.<version>.snupkg
  • Godot.NET.Sdk.<version>.nupkg
  • Godot.SourceGenerators.<version>.nupkg
  • GodotSharp.<version>.nupkg
  • GodotSharp.<version>.snupkg
  • GodotSharpEditor.<version>.nupkg

The <version> depends on which Godot version you downloaded, e.g. 4.1.1.

4. Create a nuget.config file

Finally, create a new file called nuget.config in the root directory of your project with the following content:

<configuration>
<packageSources>
    <!-- package source is additive -->
    <add key="godot-nuget" value="./godot-nuget" />
</packageSources>
</configuration>

This configures the godot-nuget directory to be a package source for NuGet packages. Instead of fetching the official Godot C# assemblies from the NuGet package registry, the assemblies from the godot-nuget directory will be used, which also include the C# bindings for the spine-godot runtime.

You can now open your project in Godot and use the Godot and spine-godot C# APIs instead of GDScript!

Animate a skeleton with C#

Here is simple example code to animate a Spine skeleton with a C# script attached to a SpineSprite node:

C#:

using Godot;
using System;

public partial class SpineSprite : SpineSprite {
   public override void _Ready () {
      GetAnimationState().SetAnimation("run", true, 0);
   }
}

Compared to the same code written in GDScript, there is little difference except that the API uses PascalCase and requires a semicolon at the end according to C# code conventions.

GDScript:

extends SpineSprite

func _ready():
   get_animation_state().set_animation("run", true, 0)

In GDScript, you can get the skeleton outside of a function using the @onready annotation. In C#, you cannot call the API in class definitions so you have to get it inside a function. Here is a comparison of C# and GDScript code to flip the skeleton and queue animations:

C#:

using Godot;
using System;

public partial class SpineSprite : SpineSprite {
   private SpineSkeleton spineSkeleton;
   private SpineAnimationState spineSpriteAnimState;

   public override void _Ready () {
      spineSkeleton = GetSkeleton();
      spineSpriteAnimState = GetAnimationState();
      spineSkeleton.SetScaleX(-1);
      spineSpriteAnimState.SetAnimation("idle", true, 0);
      spineSpriteAnimState.AddAnimation("run", 2, true, 0);
   }
}

GDScript:

extends SpineSprite

@onready var spineSkeleton : SpineSkeleton = get_skeleton()
@onready var spineSpriteAnimState : SpineAnimationState = get_animation_state()

func _ready():
   spineSkeleton.set_scale_x(-1)
   spineSpriteAnimState.set_animation("idle", true, 0)
   spineSpriteAnimState.add_animation("run", 2, true, 0)

For the details of how the APIs are mapped from GDScript to C#, please refer to the Godot C# documentation.

C# examples

To inspect and experiment with the C# examples for spine-godot:

  1. Clone the spine-runtimes Git repository or download the latest version as a ZIP and unzip it.
  2. Open the spine-runtimes/spine-godot/example-v4-csharp/ folder and click the project.godot file to open it.

You can find various example scenes and scripts using C# under the examples folder in the FileSystem dock.

If you are having trouble using spine-godot with C# support, don't hesitate to post your questions on the Spine Forum!

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