Extruding a mesh along a 3d path/spline at runtime?

Question

I want to use 3d splines to create a Trackmania-style racetracks, however I don't know how to even begin that. Both spline editing and extrusion must be working at runtime as I want it to make an in-game editor. Do you have any tips on how to do that and what addons/engine tools would be helpful in achieving this?

Answer 1

This talk on the matter help me before when dealing with procedurally generated meshes and splines - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9RK6O2kOKo&t=2s. It's for Unity but the ideas are general.

Also, take a look at Godot's helper classes for generating meshes, like MeshDataTool and SurfaceTool as well as how to make your own meshes with ArrayMesh (this tutorial from the docs is good - https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/tutorials/content/procedural_geometry/arraymesh.html)

It's not trivial to build your own mesh geometry, but far from impossible :) and fun and useful once you understand it.