2d-essentials

2D Essentials in Godot 4.3+

All examples target Godot 4.3+ with no deprecated APIs. GDScript is shown first, then C#.

Related skills: player-controller for CharacterBody2D movement patterns, animation-system for AnimatedSprite2D and sprite animation, physics-system for collision shapes and raycasting, camera-system for Camera2D follow and shake, shader-basics for 2D shaders and post-processing, godot-optimization for rendering and draw call tuning.

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1. Canvas Layers and Draw Order

Draw Order Rules

Within a single canvas layer, nodes draw in scene tree order — nodes listed lower in the Scene panel draw on top. Use z_index to override without rearranging the tree.

# Draw this node above siblings (default z_index is 0)
z_index = 10

# Make z_index relative to parent (default: false = global)
z_as_relative = true

CanvasLayer

CanvasLayer creates a separate rendering layer with its own transform, independent of the camera. Higher layer values draw on top.

Layer	Typical Use
-1	Parallax backgrounds
0	Default game layer (all Node2D without CanvasLayer)
1	HUD / UI overlay
2	Pause menu, screen transitions

# Scene tree example
Main
├── ParallaxBackground (CanvasLayer, layer = -1)
│   └── Parallax2D
├── World (Node2D — default layer 0)
│   ├── TileMapLayer
│   └── Player
└── HUD (CanvasLayer, layer = 1)
    └── Control

Note: CanvasLayers are NOT required to control draw order. For objects within the same game world, use z_index or scene tree ordering. CanvasLayers are for elements that should be independent of the camera (HUD, parallax, transitions).

Canvas Transform

Camera2D works by modifying the viewport's canvas_transform. For manual control:

# Scroll the canvas directly (equivalent to camera movement)
get_viewport().canvas_transform = Transform2D(0, Vector2(-200, 0))

Coordinate Conversion