Hide *.import files in the system file manager on Windows

[VitaZheltyakov]

Describe the project you are working on:
MMORPG

Describe the problem or limitation you are having in your project:
My project has a lot of assets. As a result, the project has a lot of files .import. I use the Windows operating system, so I see these files. It is sometimes very difficult to find the right asset for editing.

Describe the feature / enhancement and how it helps to overcome the problem or limitation:
Simply create files .import hidden in the Windows system.

Is there a reason why this should be core and not an add-on in the asset library?:
Because it is logical. On a Linux system, these files are invisible. They must be invisible in the Windows system.

[KoBeWi]

Related to godotengine/godot#28826 and godotengine/godot#24177
(I'd actually prefer the latter)

btw, these files aren't hidden on Linux either.

[dalexeev]

It’s quite simple to make a plugin that will automatically hide *.import files when creating a resource.

[rakkarage]

btw, these files aren't hidden on Linux either.

Could you elaborate please? I was under the impression that files and folders that begin with period are hidden by default on Linux and OSX? Seems inconsistent that they are 'shown' to windows users and 'hidden' for everyone else?

[Calinou]

Could you elaborate please? I was under the impression that files and folders that begin with period are hidden by default on Linux and OSX? Seems inconsistent that they are 'shown' to windows users and 'hidden' for everyone else?

This proposal refers to *.import files such as icon.png.import, not the .import folder (which was renamed to .godot in 4.0).

[jordanlis]

I'm totally in favor of this and I would like to add the following comment :

• Can't we stop creating this import files ? I mean, I recall that someone told me that it's not possible, but I don't think it's the behavior of the majority of softwares to copy a file with parameters --> It duplicates all files from what I understand so we have the copied file and the original file. In the end, doesn't it multiply the size of the project by 2 (disk space) ?
• Deleting a file doesn't appear to delete the *.import file --> It means that on my folder, it appears to have a lot of very old files in my project that are *.import but I don't see them in the folder but they seems to be here (godot folder ?)

Maybe I'm blending subjects and I should research a bit more on the behavior of the software with this import files, but some things seems weirds and not very optimal about the management of these *.import files.

So in the end, the solution should not just to hide them, since it's not resolving fully the issue

[Calinou]

Can't we stop creating this import files ? I mean, I recall that someone told me that it's not possible, but I don't think it's the behavior of the majority of softwares to copy a file with parameters --> It duplicates all files from what I understand so we have the copied file and the original file. In the end, doesn't it multiply the size of the project by 2 (disk space) ?

*.import files exist because the source files cannot store all the metadata that Godot wants. Even if this was possible, it's not always desired to be forced to modify the source files (maybe because you're modifying them externally already, and Windows file locking limitations would be problematic).

Deleting a file doesn't appear to delete the *.import file --> It means that on my folder, it appears to have a lot of very old files in my project that are *.import but I don't see them in the folder but they seems to be here (godot folder ?)

Import metadata can be important, and you don't want to lose it whenever you remove the source file. You may want to use a different source file with the same name eventually, and you generally expect to keep the previous import metadata.

For this reason alone, I wouldn't hide *.import files in the OS file manager.

[jordanlis]

Can't we stop creating this import files ? I mean, I recall that someone told me that it's not possible, but I don't think it's the behavior of the majority of softwares to copy a file with parameters --> It duplicates all files from what I understand so we have the copied file and the original file. In the end, doesn't it multiply the size of the project by 2 (disk space) ?

*.import files exist because the source files cannot store all the metadata that Godot wants. Even if this was possible, it's not always desired to be forced to modify the source files (maybe because you're modifying them externally already, and Windows file locking limitations would be problematic).

Still, how are the other softwares handling this kind of situation? I'm not debating about if they are usefull or not, but only on why choose to do that this way rather than another way. But I don't have real knowledge on the subject sadly. It just appears to be very annoying to have them mixed in the same folder than the source file.

Deleting a file doesn't appear to delete the *.import file --> It means that on my folder, it appears to have a lot of very old files in my project that are *.import but I don't see them in the folder but they seems to be here (godot folder ?)

Import metadata can be important, and you don't want to lose it whenever you remove the source file. You may want to use a different source file with the same name eventually, and you generally expect to keep the previous import metadata.

For this reason alone, I wouldn't hide *.import files in the OS file manager.

I must say that I disagree on that. If you delete your files, you want them to be deleted. Sorry but there's no reason that I you remove a file from Godot, you want to keep a duplicate elsewhere that will raise the size of your project without knowing it.

There's really something here that should be handled, we can't have project growing in size ad no possibility to know that Godot stores a duplicate elsewhere.

[Calinou]

I must say that I disagree on that. If you delete your files, you want them to be deleted. Sorry but there's no reason that I you remove a file from Godot, you want to keep a duplicate elsewhere that will raise the size of your project without knowing it.

That's an entirely different thing: godotengine/godot#17733

My above comment was referring to the *.import file, not the file within the .godot/ folder (.import/ in 3.x).