We Keep Coding

Why am I able to use variables inside a null reference?

I'm not really sure how to describe it exactly so let me show you what is going on.
I have a PlayerControls script which looks like this (note: I stripped everything except for the necessities).
namespace Player.Controls {
internal class PlayerControls: MonoBehaviour {
public bool IsClimbing { get; private set; } = false;
public bool IsGrounded { get; private set; } = false;
}
}
These variables are set in this class depending if the player is climbing/touching the ground. This script resides on the "Player" GameObject in the scene.
I have another script called PlayerControllerwhich looks like this
using Player.Controls;
public class PlayerController: Singleton<PlayerController> {
internal PlayerStats stats = new PlayerStats();
//PlayerStats nested class (see below)
}
The Singleton class only checks if the generic type is null, if it is, it will use FindObjectOfType to get an instance. This script also resides on the "Player" GameObject.
Inside the PlayerController class, I have a nested class called PlayerStats. It looks like this
internal class PlayerStats : PlayerControls {
public new bool IsClimbing { get { return base.IsClimbing; } }
public new bool IsGrounded { get { return base.IsGrounded; } }
}
Notice this nested class in inheriting from PlayerControls.
The idea is that the PlayerControls class in inaccessible to all other classes except for PlayerController, and any information I want to obtain regarding the player can be obtained by getting the player's instance (via the singleton) and accessing the PlayerStats variable.
For example, assuming the variable inside Singleton which holds the instance is called Instance, one could do PlayerController.Instance.stats.IsClimbing; Everything works as expected, except for one thing.
In the Awake method of the PlayerController class, I do this
private void Awake() {
Debug.LogFormat("In PlayerController Awake(). Is PlayerController.stats null? {0}",
(stats.Equals(null) ? "Yes" : "No"));
Debug.LogFormat("IsClimbing : {0}", stats.IsClimbing);
}
In the output window, it prints
In PlayerController Awake(). Is PlayerController.stats null? Yes
IsClimbing : False
If I also put the same IsClimbing debug in the Update() method, the value is correct for when I start climbing.
So, finally, my question, how can I access the variables of the PlayerStats class with the stats variable if stats is null? I thought it may have been somehow calling straight to the PlayerControls properties, so I changed their names, removed the new inside of PlayerStats and even put a debug statement inside one of the properties inside PlayerStats, and it definitely gets called. For example,public bool IsClimbing { get { Debug.Log("Called IsClimbing inside PlayerStats."); return base.Climbing; } }
If it is getting called and working properly, how can it be null? I asked my professor and he doesn't seem to know why either. What is really going on here?
Edit:
As requested, the Singleton class:
public abstract class Singleton<T>: MonoBehaviour where T : MonoBehaviour {
private static T instance;
public static T Instance {
get {
if(instance == null) {
instance = FindObjectOfType<T>();
}
return instance;
}
}
}
Here is an image of the console output.

Digging around on the Unity forums it appears that the Equals method has been overridden (on Object which MonoBehaviour eventually derives from) which is why comparing a MonoBehaviour to null is not giving you what you might expect. The answer I link to suggests code like this is more appropriate:
stats == null || stats.Equals(null)

Check the previous loaded scene

I'm making a game in Unity3D with C# for mobile devices and can't figure out how to check which scene was loaded before the current scene. I need to check this to change the spawn point from the player gameobject. First I added a simple script to my buttons (loadnextscene and loadprevscene)
public class SwitchScene : MonoBehaviour {
public int sceneNumber;
public void LoadScene(int sceneNumber) {
Application.LoadLevel(sceneNumber);
}
}
A second scripts handles the touch input from the user and changes the movement of the player object.
So, for example: If the player clicks on the "load previous scene" button in the second Level to switch to the first level again, I want to set the spawn point of the player object on the right half on the screen and not on the left side like when the game was started the first time.
I tried it with Singleton and PlayerPrefs, but it did not work out.

You need to save the scene number to some variable before LoadScene, then check it after the scene loaded.
The only problem is that this variable will be destroyed after the new scene is loaded. So, to prevent it, you can use DontDestroyOnLoad. Here is what you do:
First, create a new empty game object, and attach the following script to it:
using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections;
public class Indestructable : MonoBehaviour {
public static Indestructable instance = null;
// For sake of example, assume -1 indicates first scene
public int prevScene = -1;
void Awake() {
// If we don't have an instance set - set it now
if(!instance )
instance = this;
// Otherwise, its a double, we dont need it - destroy
else {
Destroy(this.gameObject) ;
return;
}
DontDestroyOnLoad(this.gameObject) ;
}
}
And now, before you load, save the scene number in the Indestructable object:
public class SwitchScene : MonoBehaviour {
public int sceneNumber;
public void LoadScene(int sceneNumber) {
Indestructable.instance.prevScene = Application.loadedLevel;
Application.LoadLevel(sceneNumber);
}
}
And last, in your scene Start() check Indestructable.instance.prevScene and do your magic accordingly.
More info here:
http://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/Object.DontDestroyOnLoad.html
*I did not compile the code, so there may be some errors, but this is the general idea.

Why did the PlayerPrefs approach did not work?
I think its the easiest way to solve your problem.
public class FirstLevel : MonoBehaviour {
public void Start() {
PlayerPrefs.SetString("SceneNumber", SceneManager.GetActiveScene().name);
}
}
And then in the second scene simply read the saved PlayerPrefs
public class SecondLevel : MonoBehaviour {
string PrevScene;
public void Start() {
PrevScene = PlayerPrefs.GetString("SceneNumber");
// if there will be a third scene, etc.
PlayerPrefs.SetString("SceneNumber", SceneManager.GetActiveScene().name);
}
public void GoToPrevScene() {
SceneManager.LoadScene(PrevScene);
}
}

You can solve this problem with a single static member variable in the SwitchScene class. No need for the singleton pattern or DontDestroyOnLoad.
public class SwitchScene : MonoBehaviour
{
public int sceneNumber;
private static int previousScene;
private int oldPreviousScene;
void Start()
{
oldPreviousScene = previousScene;
previousScene = sceneNumber;
}
public void HandleLoadPrevButtonClick()
{
SceneManager.LoadScene(oldPreviousScene);
}
}

How to access enums and variables from another C# script Unity3d

In Unity, I have
public enum inven {Food,Scissors,Nothing};
public inven held;
How can I access the enum and, more importantly, the information contained in the held variable, from another script.
I tried the Singleton Method:
public class Singleton : MonoBehaviour {
public static Singleton access;
public enum inven {Nothing, Scissors, Food};
public inven held;
void Awake () {
access = (access==null) ? this : access;
}
}
to make global variables, accessed by
Singleton.inven.food //or
Singleton.access.held //respectively
However, that returned "Null reference exception: Object reference not set to an instance of an object."
I also tried using this:
public class Accessor : MonoBehaviour {
void Start() {
GameObject HeldItem = GameObject.Find("Story"); //where story is the Gameobject containing the script of the enum and variable
TextController textcontroller = Story.GetComponent<Textcontroller>(); //Where TextController is the sript containing the enum and variable
}
}
accessed by TextController.held etc, returned that it needed an object reference. What is the proper way of doing this?

Here's how I do my singletons. In my case, it's called SharedData.
using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections;
public class Booter : MonoBehaviour
{
void Start ()
{
Application.targetFrameRate = 30;
GameObject obj = GameObject.Find("Globals");
if(obj == null)
{
obj = new GameObject("Globals");
GameObject.DontDestroyOnLoad(obj);
SharedData sharedData = obj.AddComponent<SharedData>();
sharedData.Initialize();
}
}
}
This script is attached to an object in the first scene that loads, and it is set in the script execution order to go first. It creates a GameObject to attach the SharedData component to, then tells the engine not to delete that GameObject when new levels are loaded.
Then to access it, I do this:
public class Interface : MonoBehaviour
{
private SharedData m_sharedData;
public void Initialize()
{
GameObject globalObj = GameObject.Find("Globals");
m_sharedData = globalObj.GetComponent<SharedData>();
m_sharedData.LoadData(); // This is where I use something on the singleton.
}
}

Get Component to the Script vs Instance of the Script itself

In order to get variable(s), function(s) in another class, I have known 2 ways of doing this. First, is to use Get Component to the Script that we want to get the variable(s), function(s) into. Second, is to use Instance of the Script itself.
So I have made the following code:
First case: Get Component to the Script itself
public class Manager : MonoBehaviour
{
private AnotherManager _anotherManager;
private void Awake()
{
_anotherManager = GameObject.Find("Managers").GetComponent<AnotherManager>();
}
private void Start()
{
_anotherManager.myIntVariable = 10;
_anotherManager.MyFunction();
}
}
public class AnotherManager : MonoBehaviour
{
public int myIntVariable;
public void MyFunction()
{
}
}
Second case: Use Instance of the Script itself
public class Manager : MonoBehaviour
{
private void Start()
{
AnotherManager.instance.myIntVariable = 10;
AnotherManager.instance.MyFunction();
}
}
public class AnotherManager : MonoBehaviour
{
public static AnotherManager instance;
public int myIntVariable;
private void Awake()
{
instance = this;
}
public void MyFunction()
{
}
}
My question is: Is there any difference between those cases? In terms of good practice of coding for programmer or performance or it is just a matter of programmer's perspective or whatever else?
Thanks

The second example is the what is known as the Singleton Pattern and should be used very sparingly.
I try to never use the first approach either where you find the gameobject and hope it exists.
You can expose a field for the Unity Inspector so that you can wire it up the same as you can expose any other variable
public AnotherManager AnotherManager;
Alternatively, if you hate using public all over the place like that, like me, you can also indicate to Unity that you wish to expose this variable in the inspector with the SerializeField attribute
[SerializeField]
private AnotherManager anotherManager;
With both of these methods, you can then drag an an object that has the AnotherManager component attached into the field in the inspector.
If instantiated objects need access to this, you will need to wire it up when it is instantiated.
If you need help attaching it in unity I can attach some screenshots.

Unity singleton manager classes

In Unity, whats a good way to create a singleton game manager that can be accessed everywhere as a global class with static variables that will spit the same constant values to every class that pulls those values? And what would be the way to implement it in Unity? Do I have to attach it to a GameObject? Can it just be there in a folder without being in the scene visually?

Like always: it depends. I use singletons of both kinds, components attached to GameObject and standalone classes not derived from MonoBehaviour. IMO the overall question is how are instances bound to the lifcycle of scenes, game objects, ... And not to forget sometimes it is more convenient to have a component especially referencing other MonoBehaviour objects is easier and safer.
There are classes that just need to provide some values like for example a config class that needs to load settings from persistence layer when called. I design theese classes as simple singletons.
On the other hand some objects need to know when a scene is started i.e. Start is called or have to perform actions in Update or other methods. Then I implement them as component and attach them to a game object that survives loading new scenes.
I designed component based singletons (type 2) with two parts: a persistent GameObject called Main, which holds all components and a flat singleton (type 1) called MainComponentManager for managing it. Some demo code:
public class MainComponentManger {
private static MainComponentManger instance;
public static void CreateInstance () {
if (instance == null) {
instance = new MainComponentManger ();
GameObject go = GameObject.Find ("Main");
if (go == null) {
go = new GameObject ("Main");
instance.main = go;
// important: make game object persistent:
Object.DontDestroyOnLoad (go);
}
// trigger instantiation of other singletons
Component c = MenuManager.SharedInstance;
// ...
}
}
GameObject main;
public static MainComponentManger SharedInstance {
get {
if (instance == null) {
CreateInstance ();
}
return instance;
}
}
public static T AddMainComponent <T> () where T : UnityEngine.Component {
T t = SharedInstance.main.GetComponent<T> ();
if (t != null) {
return t;
}
return SharedInstance.main.AddComponent <T> ();
}
Now other singletons that want to register as Main component just look like:
public class AudioManager : MonoBehaviour {
private static AudioManager instance = null;
public static AudioManager SharedInstance {
get {
if (instance == null) {
instance = MainComponentManger.AddMainComponent<AudioManager> ();
}
return instance;
}
}

If this class is just for accessing global variables then you don't really need a singleton pattern for this, or use a GameObject.
Simply create a class with public static members.
public class Globals
{
public static int mStatic1 = 0;
public static float mStatic2 = 0.0f;
// ....etc
}
The other solutions are fine but overkill if all you need is global access to variables.

Engineers who are new to Unity often don't notice that
you can't have a "singleton" in an ECS system.
It is meaningless.
All you have in Unity is GameObjects, at, XYZ positions. They can have components attached.
It would be like trying to have "a singleton" or "inheritance" in .... Photoshop or Microsoft Word.
Photoshop file - pixels at XY positions
Text editor file - letters at X positions
Unity file - GameObjects at XYZ positions
It is "just that simple".
So, in a game you will have "general" behaviors where there is only "one" of the thing. (So obviously there is only "one sound effects engine" , "one screen", "one scoring system" and so on.) A normal programmer would think of those as "singletons", but Unity just has nothing to do with singletons and no connection to singletons.
So if you have "a tank" or "a tree" of course it's normal you may have dozens of those things. But "the sound effects engine" or "the networking system" are "general, only-one-of-them" systems.
Hence, trivially, in Unity "the sound effects engine" or "the networking system" very simply sits on a game object, and, you (obviously) just have the one of them.
Those "general, only-one-of-them" items just sit on the preload scene.
You absolutely have to have a preload scene anyway, in every Unity project.
(Simple how-to: https://stackoverflow.com/a/35891919/294884 )
In the future Unity will include a "built-in preload scene" - when that day comes this will finally never be discussed again!
(Note - some of the languages you use to compile Components for Unity of course have OO concepts; but Unity itself has no connection to OO at all. Unity is like photoshop. You have "game objects" each at a certain 3D position.)
(Note - in the early days of Unity you'd see attempts at making code, say c#, which creates a game object on the fly, attempts to keep the game object unique, and "attaches itself" to the game object as a component. Apart from being completely bizarre/pointless, just FWIW it's theoretically not possible to ensure uniqueness (actually not even within a single frame). Again, it's moot because in Unity general behaviors just go on the preload scene.)

I wrote a singleton class that makes easy to create singleton objects. Its is a MonoBehaviour script, so you can use the Coroutines. Its based on this Unity Wiki article, and I will add option to create it from Prefab later.
So you don't need to write the Singleton codes. Just download this Singleton.cs Base Class, add it to your project, and create your singleton extending it:
public class MySingleton : Singleton<MySingleton> {
protected MySingleton () {} // Protect the constructor!
public string globalVar;
void Awake () {
Debug.Log("Awoke Singleton Instance: " + gameObject.GetInstanceID());
}
}
Now your MySingleton class is a singleton, and you can call it by Instance:
MySingleton.Instance.globalVar = "A";
Debug.Log ("globalVar: " + MySingleton.Instance.globalVar);
Here is a complete tutorial: http://www.bivis.com.br/2016/05/04/unity-reusable-singleton-tutorial/

This is the setup I have created.
First create this script:
MonoBehaviourUtility.cs
using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.IO;
static public class MonoBehaviourUtility
{
static public T GetManager<T>( ref T manager ) where T : MonoBehaviour
{
if (manager == null)
{
manager = (T)GameObject.FindObjectOfType( typeof( T ) );
if (manager == null)
{
GameObject gameObject = new GameObject( typeof( T ).ToString() );
manager = (T)gameObject.AddComponent( typeof( T ) );
}
}
return manager;
}
}
Then in any class you want to be a singleton do this:
public class ExampleManager : MonoBehaviour
{
static public ExampleManager sharedManager
{
get
{
return MonoBehaviourUtility.GetManager<ExampleManager>( ref _sharedManager );
}
}
static private ExampleManager _sharedManager;
}

One way to do it is to make a scene just to initialize your game manager like this:
public class GameManager : MonoBehaviour {
static GameManager instance;
//other codes
void Awake() {
DontDestroyOnLoad(transform.gameObject);
instance = this;
}
//other codes
}
That's it, that's all you need to do. And then immediately after initializing the game manager, load the next scene and never come back to this scene again.
Have a look at this tutorial:
https://youtu.be/64uOVmQ5R1k?list=WL
Edit:
Changed GameManager static instance; to static GameManager instance;

Instead of creating one singleton for each class. I would suggest you to create a generic class for singleton. i use to follow this method which make my life very easy.
For More detail visit here
Or
Create Unity C# class in unity and use following code
/// <summary>
/// Inherit from this base class to create a singleton.
/// e.g. public class MyClassName : Singleton<MyClassName> {}
/// </summary>
public class Singleton<T> : MonoBehaviour where T : MonoBehaviour
{
// Check to see if we're about to be destroyed.
private static bool m_ShuttingDown = false;
private static object m_Lock = new object();
private static T m_Instance;
/// <summary>
/// Access singleton instance through this propriety.
/// </summary>
public static T Instance
{
get
{
if (m_ShuttingDown)
{
Debug.LogWarning("[Singleton] Instance '" + typeof(T) +
"' already destroyed. Returning null.");
return null;
}
lock (m_Lock)
{
if (m_Instance == null)
{
// Search for existing instance.
m_Instance = (T)FindObjectOfType(typeof(T));
// Create new instance if one doesn't already exist.
if (m_Instance == null)
{
// Need to create a new GameObject to attach the singleton to.
var singletonObject = new GameObject();
m_Instance = singletonObject.AddComponent<T>();
singletonObject.name = typeof(T).ToString() + " (Singleton)";
// Make instance persistent.
DontDestroyOnLoad(singletonObject);
}
}
return m_Instance;
}
}
}
private void OnApplicationQuit()
{
m_ShuttingDown = true;
}
private void OnDestroy()
{
m_ShuttingDown = true;
}
}

Here is a simple code taken from Unity Tutorial. for better understanding open the link
using System.Collections.Generic; //Allows us to use Lists.
public class GameManager : MonoBehaviour
{
public static GameManager instance = null; //Static instance of GameManager which allows it to be accessed by any other script.
private BoardManager boardScript; //Store a reference to our BoardManager which will set up the level.
private int level = 3; //Current level number, expressed in game as "Day 1".
//Awake is always called before any Start functions
void Awake()
{
//Check if instance already exists
if (instance == null)
//if not, set instance to this
instance = this;
//If instance already exists and it's not this:
else if (instance != this)
//Then destroy this. This enforces our singleton pattern, meaning there can only ever be one instance of a GameManager.
Destroy(gameObject);
//Sets this to not be destroyed when reloading scene
DontDestroyOnLoad(gameObject);
//Get a component reference to the attached BoardManager script
boardScript = GetComponent<BoardManager>();
//Call the InitGame function to initialize the first level
InitGame();
}
//Initializes the game for each level.
void InitGame()
{
//Call the SetupScene function of the BoardManager script, pass it current level number.
boardScript.SetupScene(level);
}
//Update is called every frame.
void Update()
{
}

using UnityEngine;
public class Singleton<T> : MonoBehaviour where T : Singleton<T>
{
public static T instance { get; private set; }
protected virtual void Awake() {
if (instance == null)
{
instance = (T)this;
DontDestroyOnLoad(gameObject);
OnInit();
}
else if (instance != this)
{
Destroy(gameObject);
}
}
protected virtual void OnInit()
{
}
}
GameManage :
class GameManager : Singleton<GameManager> {
}