Value Spring

A very simple addon for Godot 4 that allows the user to animate whatever values they want from code, based on this video by t3ssel8r.

It adds the following objects:

• ValueSpring
  • A type of Resource that can be used from any node to animate arbitrary values.
• SpringFollower3D and SpringFollower2D
  • A node that uses two ValueSprings to follow another node in 3D or 2D space. These cover the most basic usage of the ValueSpring, as well as serving as an example of how to use them in code.

The plugin also includes a simple visualization of the spring behavior when viewing any ValueSpring resource.

The springs can be used with most Variant types that support basic math symbols, namely these:

• float
• Vector2
• Vector3
• Vector4
• Quaternion
• Color

Additionally, the following integer-based types will technically work, but due to their whole number nature the result will probably not be very good.

• int
• Vector2i
• Vector3i
• Vector4i

The Color type will be animated in OKHSL space.

Usage

Once installed into your addons folder, you can add a new resource as an exported variable to your node scripts, and edit the settings of it from the inspector:

@export var spring: ValueSpring

Since the spring can support many types of Variants, make sure you call the spring_reset() method early in your node's lifetime to set the starting value.

For example, if you are making a node that follows another node, you might set the starting value to that node's global position:

func _ready() -> void:
  var start_value = global_position
  spring.reset_spring(start_value)

You should then keep calling the update function of the spring to animate it, and retrieve the updated value:

func _process(delta: float) -> void:
  global_position = update(delta, target_pos)

One SpringValue should generally be used to animate one thing. If you want to animate more than one value, use two separate SpringValues.

Please also check out the example scene to see the spring in action!