Build Variants

2dog offers three native Godot variants. Pick the lightest one that has the features your host needs.

.NET configuration	Recommended variant	Godot build	TOOLS_ENABLED	Use
Debug	debug	template_debug	No	Development, debugging, tests
Release	release	template_release	No	Production and final validation
Editor	editor	editor	Yes	Editor types and [Tool] scripts

Debug Configuration

The debug variant includes assertions and debugging support, but not editor features.

dotnet build -c Debug
dotnet run -c Debug
dotnet test -c Debug

Release Configuration

The release variant is the optimized production runtime and the default when TwoDogVariant is unset.

dotnet build -c Release
dotnet run -c Release
dotnet publish -c Release

Editor Configuration

The editor variant enables TOOLS_ENABLED, including editor types, import plugins, and [Tool] scripts.

dotnet build -c Editor
dotnet run -c Editor
dotnet test -c Editor

Editor runtime limitations

The variant provides compile-time access to editor APIs, but embedded libgodot does not initialize editor runtime singletons such as EditorInterface. Resource import runs separately and automatically at build time; see Resource Import.

Selecting a Variant

The .NET configuration does not select the native variant automatically. 2dog.engine defaults to release; map Debug and Editor explicitly with TwoDogVariant:

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
  <PropertyGroup>
    <OutputType>Exe</OutputType>
    <TargetFramework>net10.0</TargetFramework>
    <TwoDogVariant Condition="'$(Configuration)' == 'Debug'">debug</TwoDogVariant>
    <TwoDogVariant Condition="'$(Configuration)' == 'Editor'">editor</TwoDogVariant>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <PackageReference Include="2dog.engine" Version="4.7.1.65"/>
  </ItemGroup>
</Project>

All three desktop variants come through the platform meta package, so this needs no extra package references. TwoDogVariant also controls the copied native library, GodotPlugins layout, and embedded runtime metadata.

Use the configuration in the usual way:

dotnet run -c Debug
dotnet publish -c Release
dotnet test -c Editor

If Godot reports that it cannot find its .NET assemblies, confirm that TwoDogVariant is release, debug, or editor, then clean and rebuild:

dotnet clean
dotnet build -c Debug

See Configuration for the property and package reference.