Generic Host

MyGame.2dog is a generic .NET console application that fits literally in the palm of your hand - just 20 lines of code in Program.cs - very easy to extend.

It starts the engine, runs your main scene in a typical Godot game window, and pumps frames until Godot asks to quit. It acts practically the same as directly running your game with Godot.

dotnet run --project "MyGame.2dog"

You can edit the generic host or change it into a different type of application with your IDE as needed. You can even add multiple hosts with the 2dog dotnet tool by running it multiple times.

Trail Marker

2dog provides some specialized hosts for your convenience, just check out the sibling docs in this category. Contributions are also welcome!

Program

This is the most basic entry point. Engine.ResolveProjectDir() reads the host's <GodotProjectDir> metadata, so no path is hard-coded. That's useful when you need to point this host at different projects, or move your project to a different directory.

using Godot;
using Engine = twodog.Engine;

internal static class Program
{
    [STAThread]
    private static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        using var engine = new Engine("MyGame", Engine.ResolveProjectDir(), args);
        using var godot = engine.Start();

        if (engine.Tree.CurrentScene is { } scene)
            GD.Print($"2dog is running '{scene.Name}'!");

        while (!godot.Iteration())
        {
            // Your per-frame logic here.
        }
    }
}

Start() runs run/main_scene, and args reach Godot unchanged. The using declarations dispose the instance and engine in the required order.

Prefer a callback? engine.Run(perFrame) iterates until quit and calls your delegate once per frame.

On Windows, [STAThread] matches godot.exe and keeps OLE drag and drop, IME, and native dialogs working. The modern Top-level statements cannot mark their generated entry point; they are suitable only for hosts that will always be headless, or you must manually instantiate the engine on a thread in a Single-Thraded Apartment (STA).

Project Details

The shared project file is documented in Hosts. The generated desktop host adds:

Setting	Purpose
ApplicationManifest	Enables Windows comctl32 v6 and long paths; ignored elsewhere
TwoDogVariant	Selects the release, debug, or editor native engine
TwoDogRemoveDuplicateGodotAnalyzers	Prevents the host and game project from loading the same analyzers twice

Configuration	Variant	Native	Use
Debug	debug	template_debug	Development and engine checks
Release	release	template_release	Optimized shipping build
Editor	editor	editor	[Tool] scripts and editor types

See Choosing a Variant for details. Setting GodotProjectDir also enables automatic resource import.

Headless Runs

Use ordinary Godot arguments after --:

dotnet run --project MyGame.2dog -- --headless --quit-after 300

For a permanently headless host, pass the arguments in code:

using var engine = new Engine(
    "MyGame", Engine.ResolveProjectDir(), "--headless", "--audio-driver", "Dummy");

Publishing

dotnet publish MyGame.2dog -c Release

The output includes the selected native engine, GodotSharp assemblies, and your game assembly. RID-specific and RID-less publishes are supported, meaning you can "cross-compile". See also: .NET RID Catalog.

A normal host supports one active engine at a time. Calling .Dispose() on the Engine object allows a sequential restart; see Single Godot Instance.