Windows

Purpose

platform/windows/ is the Windows platform layer. It supplies an OS_Windows subclass, a Win32 DisplayServer, joypad input via XInput / DirectInput, audio via WASAPI / XAudio2, exports to .exe (with PCK bundling), code signing, and the GDK / console-friendly bits where applicable.

Layout

platform/windows/
├── godot_windows.cpp / godot_windows_console.cpp   WinMain + console entry
├── os_windows.{cpp,h}                              OS_Windows subclass
├── display_server_windows.{cpp,h}                  Win32 + DwmApi window + input
├── joypad_windows.{cpp,h}                          XInput + DirectInput gamepads
├── crash_handler_windows.{cpp,h}                   MiniDumpWriteDump + StackWalk64
├── windows_terminal_logger.{cpp,h}                 Colored terminal logging via the modern Windows Console
├── tts_windows.{cpp,h}                             ISpeechSynthesizer / SAPI TTS bindings
├── gl_manager_windows_native.{cpp,h}, gl_manager_windows_angle.{cpp,h}   WGL + ANGLE
├── ime/                                             IME composition handling
├── export/                                          Windows exporter (.exe, PCK embed, signing)
├── godot_res.rc, godot.natvis                      Windows resource file + Visual Studio debug visualizer
└── detect.py

Display server

DisplayServerWindows uses the standard Win32 message pump (WM_*). It handles:

• Multiple windows via CreateWindowEx per Window node.
• HiDPI awareness with per-monitor v2 scaling.
• IME via ImmGetContext / ImmSetCompositionWindow.
• Drag-and-drop via IDropTarget.
• File dialogs via the modern IFileDialog.
• Tablet input via WM_POINTER on Windows 8+.
• Status indicators (system tray) via Shell_NotifyIcon.
• Window flags: borderless, transparent, on-top, taskbar visibility.

Rendering driver hookup

• Vulkan uses VK_KHR_win32_surface. The driver lives in drivers/vulkan/.
• Direct3D 12 is the recommended modern path; the driver lives in drivers/d3d12/ and creates an IDXGISwapChain3 against the HWND.
• OpenGL ES 3 (compatibility renderer) — uses ANGLE (Microsoft's WebGL→D3D translator) by default for stability, with a native WGL fallback. gl_manager_windows_angle.cpp and gl_manager_windows_native.cpp cover both.

The choice is driven by --rendering-driver and the project setting rendering/renderer/rendering_method.

OS_Windows specifics

• Filesystem paths are \ separated; the OS::get_user_data_dir() resolves to %APPDATA%\Godot\ (or %APPDATA%\<project>\ when running an exported game).
• Process spawning via CreateProcess; environment via GetEnvironmentStrings.
• Console output works whether or not the process attached a console — GODOT_WINDOWS_TERMINAL_LOGGER plus the modern WriteConsole path enables ANSI colors on Windows Terminal.
• High-resolution timing via QueryPerformanceCounter.
• Crash handler installs a top-level exception filter that writes a minidump and prints a symbolicated stack trace.

Joypad

joypad_windows.cpp supports both XInput (Xbox controllers) and DirectInput (everything else). XInput 1.4 is preferred when available; DirectInput is the fallback for older controllers, and SDL game controller mappings are applied via gamecontrollerdb.txt.

Audio

• WASAPI (drivers/wasapi/) — default; supports shared and exclusive modes.
• XAudio2 (drivers/xaudio2/) — fallback / GDK; better suited to consoles and certain UWP-shaped builds.
• WinMIDI (drivers/winmidi/) — MIDI input via midiInOpen.

Code signing + export

export/export_plugin.cpp:

• Embeds the project's icon into the exported .exe via the resource section.
• Embeds the PCK either inline (appended to the binary) or as a sibling .pck file.
• Runs signtool.exe for Authenticode signing if a certificate / timestamping URL is provided.
• Optional rcedit-based metadata patching (file description, copyright).

The console launcher (godot_windows_console.exe) is shipped alongside the GUI binary so users can toggle between hidden and visible console output without rebuilding.

Key abstractions

Abstraction	File	Role
OS_Windows	platform/windows/os_windows.cpp	OS subclass
DisplayServerWindows	platform/windows/display_server_windows.cpp	Win32 backend
JoypadWindows	platform/windows/joypad_windows.cpp	XInput + DirectInput
CrashHandlerWindows	platform/windows/crash_handler_windows.cpp	Minidumps
WindowsTerminalLogger	platform/windows/windows_terminal_logger.cpp	Colored terminal logging
EditorExportPlatformWindows	platform/windows/export/export_plugin.cpp	Windows exporter

Entry points for modification

• IME / input edge cases → display_server_windows.cpp and ime/.
• Export flow tweaks → export/export_plugin.cpp.
• New GPU API or context type → add a manager next to gl_manager_windows_*.cpp and wire up in display_server_windows.cpp::_create_rendering_device.