TauPlot

A charting and data visualization addon for Godot 4.5+. Bar charts, scatter plots, multi-series graphs, real-time dashboards, and multi-pane (subplot) layouts. Pure GDScript, no external dependencies, interactive, performant, fully themeable.

TauPlot is built for in-game analytics, telemetry overlays, scientific plots, sensor readouts, debug HUDs, financial views, and any tool that needs interactive charts inside a Godot project.

TauPlot is under active development. The current release ships with bar and scatter overlays. Line, area, pie, and radar plots are on the roadmap.

Gallery

Features

• Bar and scatter overlays can be combined freely in one chart. Bars support grouped, stacked (with optional normalization), and independent layout modes.
• Godot theme integration with a three-layer cascade (built-in defaults, Godot theme, code overrides). Every visual property participates in this cascade, so charts match the rest of your UI without per property work.
• Categorical and continuous axes with linear or logarithmic scales, axis inversion, and custom tick label formatting.
• Automatic tick and tick label generation with overlap prevention, so axes stay readable at any plot size without manual tuning.
• Real-time streaming with ring-buffer datasets. The chart redraws incrementally as samples arrive and the oldest points are dropped when the buffer is full.
• Multi-pane layouts (also known as subplots) for stacked graphs that share an X axis but use different Y scales.
• Hover inspection with configurable tooltip, crosshair, and highlight. Four signals (sample_hovered, sample_hover_exited, sample_clicked, sample_click_dismissed) let you react to user interaction.
• Per-sample styling through attribute buffers or callbacks. Control color, alpha, marker shape, marker size, outline, and more on a per-sample basis.
• GPU-accelerated scatter rendering built on Godot's MultiMesh, with seven built-in marker shapes (circle, square, triangle up/down, diamond, cross, plus) and per-sample shape assignment.
• Legend with configurable placement (inside or outside the plot) and flow direction.

Installation

TauPlot requires Godot 4.5 or later.

From the Godot Asset Library

1. Open the Godot editor and go to the AssetLib tab.
2. Search for TauPlot.
3. Click Download, then Install when prompted.
4. Enable the plugin in Project > Project Settings > Plugins.

Manual

1. Download or clone this repository.
2. Copy the addons/tau-plot/ folder into your project's addons/ directory.
3. Enable the plugin in Project > Project Settings > Plugins.

Quick start

Create a scene with a CenterContainer root node. Add a TauPlot child node named MyPlot and give it a custom_minimum_size of at least 600 x 400. Attach the following script to the root node:

extends CenterContainer

func _ready() -> void:
    var dataset := TauPlot.Dataset.make_shared_x_categorical(
        PackedStringArray(["Revenue", "Costs"]),
        PackedStringArray(["Q1", "Q2", "Q3", "Q4"]),
        [
            PackedFloat64Array([120.0, 135.0, 148.0, 160.0]),
            PackedFloat64Array([90.0, 95.0, 100.0, 108.0]),
        ]
    )

    var x_axis := TauAxisConfig.new()
    x_axis.type = TauAxisConfig.Type.CATEGORICAL

    var y_axis := TauAxisConfig.new()
    y_axis.title = "EUR"

    var bar_overlay_config := TauBarConfig.new()

    var pane := TauPaneConfig.new()
    pane.y_left_axis = y_axis
    pane.overlays = [bar_overlay_config]

    var config := TauXYConfig.new()
    config.x_axis = x_axis
    config.panes = [pane]

    var b0 := TauXYSeriesBinding.new()
    b0.series_id = dataset.get_series_id_by_index(0)
    b0.pane_index = 0
    b0.overlay_type = TauXYSeriesBinding.PaneOverlayType.BAR
    b0.y_axis_id = TauPlot.AxisId.LEFT

    var b1 := TauXYSeriesBinding.new()
    b1.series_id = dataset.get_series_id_by_index(1)
    b1.pane_index = 0
    b1.overlay_type = TauXYSeriesBinding.PaneOverlayType.BAR
    b1.y_axis_id = TauPlot.AxisId.LEFT

    var bindings: Array[TauXYSeriesBinding] = [b0, b1]

    $MyPlot.title = "Quick Start Example"
    $MyPlot.plot_xy(dataset, config, bindings)

This example is available as addons/tau-plot/examples/quick_start.tscn.

Documentation

• Getting Started walks through building your first plot step by step.
• API Reference covers every class, property, enum, and signal.
• The demo is an advanced example with nine plots showcasing theme customization and per-sample styling through attribute buffers and callbacks.
• The tests folder contains self-contained examples of most features.

Stability

The API may change between releases until version 1.0 is reached. Breaking changes will be documented in the changelog. Backward compatibility is taken seriously and disruption will be kept to a minimum, but at this stage correctness and design quality take priority over freezing the API.

Roadmap

Planned for upcoming releases:

• Line and area overlays for XY plots.
• Interactive legend with click-to-toggle series visibility.
• Pie and radar plot types.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines on reporting issues, proposing features, code style, testing, and AI usage policy.

License

TauPlot is released under the BSD 3-Clause License.