How do I import images from a different folder in pygame?

Question

So i've started making a game in Pygame and am trying to import an png of a rock into my game. When I try to to run the game to make sure there are no issues before I blit it onto the screen, it says,

FileNotFoundError: No file '../graphics/test/rock.png' found in working directory

My file setup is, Game > Code > Main.py.

I have tried these:

self.image = pygame.image.load('../graphics/test/rock.png').convert_alpha()

and

self.image = pygame.image.load('/Users/(My name...)/Documents/PythonProjects/Games/Game/graphics/test/rock.png')

the second one worked but it's too long to continously type out. Thanks in advance...

you can always assign long path to variable and later use this variable. OR you can create function which will get filename and it will return full path. — furas, Aug 16 '22 at 02:24

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 15 '22 at 23:56

You could use the built-in pathlib, set a graphics directory and then join for each image load.

import pathlib
graphics_dir = pathlib.Path("/Users/(My name...)/Documents/PythonProjects/Games/Game/graphics/test/")
image = pygame.image.load(graphics_dir.joinpath("rock.png").convert_alpha()

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 16 '22 at 02:32

You can always assign long path to variable and later use this variable.

import os

BASE = '/Users/(My name...)/Documents/PythonProjects/Games/Game'

self.image = pygame.image.load( os.path.join(BASE, 'graphics/test/rock.png') ).convert_alpha()

Or you can create function which will get relative path and it will return full path

BASE = '/Users/(My name...)/Documents/PythonProjects/Games/Game'

def get_image(path)
    return pygame.image.load( os.path.join(BASE, path) ).convert_alpha()

self.image = get_image('graphics/test/rock.png')

Second version can also keep information in some global dictionary and check if you already loaded image.

BASE = '/Users/(My name...)/Documents/PythonProjects/Games/Game'

resources = {}

def get_image(path)
    if path not in resources:
        resources[path] = pygame.image.load( os.path.join(BASE, path) ).convert_alpha()
    return resources[path]

self.image = get_image('graphics/test/rock.png')

To make it even more useful you can generate BASE using __file__ and it should work even if you move all to different folder

BASE = os.path.dirname( os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)) )

Because you keep main.py in subfolder so it may need double dirname to move parent folder (../)

BASE = os.path.dirname( os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)) )

How do I import images from a different folder in pygame?

2 Answers2