Gathering .import Files

Anytime you add a multimedia resource to your mod, like audio or textures, Godot creates a .import file next to it. This .import file contains a path to a cached indexed version of the resource ending in .stex.

When the game loads your mod, it loads much faster if these indexed versions are available in the zip.

If you provide a path to a directory in gather in bustle.json, Bustle will copy the .stex files named by the .import files of multimedia resources in your mod to that directory.

The gather directory

The gather directory is relative to the buildDir in bustle.json.

For example, if your bustle.json has:

{
    "buildDir": "build",
    "gather": ".import"
}

And your mod has a character.png file, Bustle will copy the .stex file named by the .import file of character.png to build/.import/character.png.stex.

Your resulting zip file structure will look like this:

MyMod.zip
├── MyMod
│   ├── _metadata
│   ├── ModMain.gd
│   ├── character.png
│   └── character.png.import
└── .import
    └── character.png.stex

Using the path .import is the safest option, as this is the same path that Godot uses.

Custom Gather Directory

You can provide a custom gather directory in bustle.json:

{
    "buildDir": "build",
    "gather": "MyMod/.import"
}

And your resulting zip file structure will look like this:

MyMod.zip
├── MyMod
    ├── _metadata
    ├── ModMain.gd
    ├── character.png
    ├── character.png.import
    └── .import
        └── character.png.stex

THIS WILL UPDATE EACH .import FILE TO POINT TO THE NEW LOCATION OF THE .stex FILE

Optimized Builds

If you enable optimized in bustle.json, Bustle will not include original resource media files in the zip file.

For example, if your bustle.json has:

{
    "buildDir": "build",
    "gather": ".import",
    "optimized": true
}

Then your resulting zip file structure will look like this:

MyMod.zip
├── MyMod
│   ├── _metadata
│   ├── ModMain.gd
│   └── character.png.import
└── .import
    └── character.png.stex

Notice how the character.png file is missing? This will make the zip file smaller and faster to load.

Include Resources

If you're using optimized and you want to include certain resources in the zip file, you can use the include option in bustle.json.

For example, if your bustle.json has:

{
    "buildDir": "build",
    "gather": ".import",
    "optimized": true,
    "include": ["character.png"]
}

Then your resulting zip file structure will look like this:

MyMod.zip
├── MyMod
│   ├── _metadata
│   ├── ModMain.gd
│   ├── character.png
│   └── character.png.import
└── .import
    └── character.png.stex

The character.png file is included in the zip file despite optimized being enabled.