3D Essentials in Godot 4.3+

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

Related skills: rendering-pipeline for renderer choice, lighting strategy, AA and resolution scaling, player-controller for CharacterBody3D movement, physics-system for 3D collision shapes and raycasting, camera-system for Camera3D follow and transitions, shader-basics for spatial shaders and post-processing, godot-optimization for 3D performance tuning, animation-system for AnimationTree and 3D animation blending.

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1. 3D Coordinate System & Core Nodes

Coordinate System

Godot uses a right-handed coordinate system with metric units (1 unit = 1 meter):

Axis	Direction	Color
X	Right	Red
Y	Up	Green
Z	Out of screen (+Z toward viewer)	Blue

Cameras and lights point along -Z by default. When a character "faces forward," they look along -Z.

Essential 3D Nodes

Node	Purpose
Node3D	Base transform node, position, rotation, scale
MeshInstance3D	Displays a mesh with a material
Camera3D	Required to render 3D, perspective or orthogonal
DirectionalLight3D	Sun/moon, parallel rays, cheapest light
OmniLight3D	Point light, emits in all directions
SpotLight3D	Cone light, flashlights, spotlights
WorldEnvironment	Sky, fog, tonemap, post-processing
Decal	Projected texture onto surfaces
GPUParticles3D	GPU-driven particle effects
CSGBox3D etc.	Constructive Solid Geometry, prototyping
GridMap	3D tile-based level building