Support for newer Versions

[raumkauz]

Hello, I wanted to ask, if you plan on porting this for Godot 4.3.X?
In your description you say, this is only Godot 4.1.X. I think there's a compability break between those two versions(?)

Would be nice, I think serial communication is super important and I don't understand why it's not in Godot Core yet.

[NangiDev]

Hello @raumkauz!
Thanks for reaching out!

I don't see a reason why it shouldn't work for newer versions actually 🤔 but it's not tested.
Have you tried it out?

It would definitely be interesting to support newer versions

[raumkauz]

I somehow assumed it wouldn't work because I interpreted "4.1+" that way. That's why I asked before trying to figure out how to build it.
You see, I'm only familiar with drag-and-drop add-ons, and GD-Extensions are something I've only read about. In addition, I find the documentation for them a bit challenging, as it's not very user-friendly for people without a background in computer science or software development. Because of that, I didn't fully understand the readme of your project either 😓

Do you happen to know of a good tutorial or beginner's guide on how to install a GD extension?

[NangiDev]

I understand. It makes sense. I haven't tried it on anything later than 4.1.x so I can't be sure.
I think it will work though.

Sorry I don't have any resources for that.
Why you'll need to build it yourself is to get these files
Windows: libserialport.dll
Linux: libserialport.so

These are then placed inside the drag-and-drop add-on so that it can be referenced.

Are you on Windows or Linux?
I might have some time today to test out if it works on newer Godot versions.

Ideally I would like a more beginner friendly way.

Maybe if you look into this part of the documentation you could get through the build steps yourself
https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/tutorials/scripting/gdextension/index.html

[raumkauz]

I'm on Windows 10. Thanks for explaining the context with the dll.

If you say it should work, I'll try to figure it out. I might be able to argue a friend of mine into helping me :)
I've also read the compatability break was with 4.0. A 4.1 gd extension should be compatible with godot 4.3 according to the documentation.

In case I get it to work, I'll try to document the process for others who struggle with those kind of things (and probably my future self who forgot everything again).
Thank you for your time answering to my questions and for maintaining this cool project.

[NangiDev]

No problem :)

Try with your friend!
I tried it out now and I sort of forgot how it works so will try again tomorrow to see if I can remember how it works.

I think it will work though. You just have to make sure the godot-cpp version matches your Godot version and that you put the files in the correct directory.

[NangiDev]

Hi @raumkauz!
Sorry for not getting back to you. How is it going, did you get it to work?

[raumkauz]

Hi @NangiDev
Thanks for asking and also sorry for being quiet, I made progress but some other unrelated pesky stuff got in the way for a few weeks until now.

It currently works on one machine, thanks to the help of a friend. But only on my Windows 10 Desktop. The hard thing was to realize, that I had to open a file with the installed visual studio version to upgrade it for compability. On my Laptop (also Windows 10), it doesn't work and the project sometimes crashes without error when I run it. After I switched from the debug dll to the normal, it at least recognized it as a plugin and loaded the working custom nodes in Godot (Somehow the debug version dll is in the folder by default, you might want to change that in the future (?) )

I just got back into investigation. Today I'll build Godot on the laptop with the hope of getting some debug infos when running it through visual studio.

If I get results, I will inform you.

[raumkauz]

with visual studio installed it works with crashing every 10 to 30 seconds