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Unity - Cant access reference to another script

I am trying to learn how does Unity work and I now struggle with problem that I cannot access script from another script. I was searching on Interner for couple hours, I have tried many options but nothing helped.
I have 2 scripts.
CoinSpawn.cs - attached to Player (I would change it to other object but I dont know yet to which one, because its something that runs in background so it really dont need to be on player)
CollectingCoin.cs - attached to Coin (Coin is object, that its not on game scene on the start, it spawns randomly)
CoinSpawn is script that randomly spawn Instantiate of object Coin. I want to change value of CoinSpawn.currentCoinOnScreen from CollectingCoin. I ve tried
CoinSpawn test = GameObject.Find("CoinSpawn").GetComponent<CoinSpawn>();
and it doesnt work. I also have my both scripts in the same asset folder. What am I doing wrong? Thank you
CoinSpawn.cs
public class CoinSpawn : MonoBehaviour
{
public GameObject coin;
public int maximumCoinPerScreen = 10;
public int currentCoinOnScreen = 0;
private int randomNumber;
private Vector2 spawnPosition;
private void Update()
{
randomNumber = Random.Range(1, 1000);
if(randomNumber >= 0 && randomNumber <= 1 && currentCoinOnScreen != maximumCoinPerScreen)
{
currentCoinOnScreen++;
float spawnY = Random.Range
(Camera.main.ScreenToWorldPoint(new Vector2(0, 0)).y, Camera.main.ScreenToWorldPoint(new Vector2(0, Screen.height)).y);
float spawnX = Random.Range
(Camera.main.ScreenToWorldPoint(new Vector2(0, 0)).x, Camera.main.ScreenToWorldPoint(new Vector2(Screen.width, 0)).x);
spawnPosition = new Vector2(spawnX, spawnY);
GameObject coinObject = Instantiate(coin, spawnPosition, Quaternion.identity);
}
}
}
CollectingCoin.cs
public class CollectingCoin : MonoBehaviour
{
UnityEngine.UI.Text Coins;
public static int totalCoins = 0;
private void Start()
{
Coins = GameObject.Find("Score").GetComponent<UnityEngine.UI.Text>();
}
void OnTriggerEnter2D(Collider2D c2d)
{
if (c2d.CompareTag("Player"))
{
totalCoins++;
Destroy(gameObject);
Coins.text = "COINS: " + totalCoins.ToString();
// TESTING
CoinSpawn test = GameObject.Find("CoinSpawn").GetComponent<CoinSpawn>();
CoinSpawn test2 = GetComponent<CoinSpawn>();
}
}
}

GameObject.Find("CoinSpawn").GetComponent<CoinSpawn>();
Searches for a GameObject with the name CoinSpawn. Since you told us this component is rather attached to the player object it makes sense that it isn't found.
GetComponent<CoinSpawn>();
searches for a CoinSpawn component on the very same object your CollectingCoin is attached to. From your description this clearly also isn't the case.
Since you say the CoinSpawn is attached to the player then you probably rather want to get the component from
void OnTriggerEnter2D(Collider2D c2d)
{
if (c2d.CompareTag("Player"))
{
...
// rather get the component on the player object you collided with
CoinSpawn test = c2d.GetComponent<CoinSpawn>();
}
}
Alternatively assuming there is only one single instance of CoinSpawn in your scene anyway and not necessarily on your player you could use FindObjectOfType
CoinSpawn test = FindObjectOfType<CoinSpawn>();

First of all, Do not ever use GameObject.Find(), its very expensive as it will go through all game objects in your scene to find the object. and this not a performance wise.
There are many ways to do so.
Easyest one:
Add both script to same gameobject as component.
Make a global variable CoinSpawn inside CollectingCoin script and then use [serializedFiled] tag on top of it, by this way, you can drag and drop the reference in the editor before you start play. and you can access it the way you want.
2nd way:
Is same as first one, but instead of serializedFiled, just cache it at the beginning by using GetComponent.
Just make sure you have both scripts attached to the same gameobject.
public class CollectingCoin : MonoBehaviour
{
UnityEngine.UI.Text Coins;
public static int totalCoins = 0;
CoinSpawn coinSpawn;
private void Start()
{
coinSpawn = GetComponent<CoinSpawn>();
Coins = GameObject.Find("Score").GetComponent<UnityEngine.UI.Text>();
}
void OnTriggerEnter2D(Collider2D c2d)
{
if (c2d.CompareTag("Player"))
{
totalCoins++;
Destroy(gameObject);
Coins.text = "COINS: " + totalCoins.ToString();
// DO Whaterver you want with coinSpawn here
}
}
}

How to preserve the full state of objects between scenes?

When loading a new Scene I run into the trouble of having my mouse drag not carry over to the next scene and having to re-click when the new scene is loaded.
I would like the mouse click to carry over seamlessly to the next scene without the player noticing and more generally I would like to know how best to preserve certain game objects and make them carry over to the next scene.
In essence, what I'm trying to do is have the entire game act like one big scene that the player can play trough but still be broken down into smaller scenes that could be accessed or transformed into levels at a later stage.
Thanks in advance.
This is the code I'm currently using
using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections;
using UnityEngine.Profiling;
public class MoveBall : MonoBehaviour
{
public static Vector2 mousePos = new Vector2();
private void OnMouseDrag()
{
mousePos = Camera.main.ScreenToWorldPoint(Input.mousePosition);
transform.position = mousePos;
DontDestroyOnLoad(this.gameObject);
}
}
Bellow is the script that is responsible for the loading of the scene:
public class StarCollision : MonoBehaviour
{
private bool alreadyScored = false;
private void OnEnable()
{
alreadyScored = false;
}
private void OnTriggerEnter2D(Collider2D other)
{
if (other.gameObject.CompareTag("White Ball"))
{
if (!alreadyScored)
{
ScoreScript.scoreValue += 1;
StartCoroutine(ChangeColor());
alreadyScored = true;
}
}
if (ScoreScript.scoreValue > 4)
{
SceneManager.LoadScene(1);
}
}
private IEnumerator ChangeColor()
{
ScoreScript.score.color = Color.yellow;
yield return new WaitForSeconds(0.1f);
ScoreScript.score.color = Color.white;
gameObject.SetActive(false);
}
}

I think the main reason why it doesn't work is that you probably also have another Camera in the new Scene.
The OnMouseDrag rely on the Physics system internally using the objects Collider and raycasts from the Camera. Now if you switch Scene I'ld guess the one Camera gets disabled so your drag gets interrupted.
Also using LoadScene instead of LoadSceneAsync causes a visible lag and might also be related to the issue.
I have a maybe a bit more complex solution but that is what I usually do:
1. Have one Global Scene "MainScene"
This Scene contains stuff like e.g. the MainCamera, global ligthning, global manager components that should never be destroyed anyway.
2. Use additive async Scene loading
You said you do not want your user to not note when the scene switches so I would recommend using SceneManager.LoadSceneAsync anyway.
Then in order to not unload the before mentioned MainScene you pass the optional parameter LoadSceneMode.Additive. This makes the new Scene be loaded additional to the already present one. Then later you only have to exchange those by unloading the previously additive loaded scene.
I created a very simple static manager for this:
public static class MySceneManager
{
// store build index of last loaded scene
// in order to unload it later
private static int lastLoadedScene = -1;
public static void LoadScene(int index, MonoBehaviour caller)
{
caller.StartCoroutine(loadNextScene(index));
}
// we need this to be a Coroutine (see link below)
// in order to correctly set the SceneManager.SetActiveScene(newScene);
// after the scene has finished loading. So the Coroutine is required
// in order to wait with it until the reight moment
private static IEnumerator loadNextScene(int index)
{
// start loading the new scene async and additive
var _async = SceneManager.LoadSceneAsync(index, LoadSceneMode.Additive);
// optionally prevent the scene from being loaded instantly but e.g.
// display a loading progress
// (in your case not but for general purpose I added it)
_async.allowSceneActivation = false;
while (_async.progress < 0.9f)
{
// e.g. show progress of loading
// yield in a Coroutine means
// "pause" the execution here, render this frame
// and continue from here in the next frame
yield return null;
}
_async.allowSceneActivation = true;
// loads the remaining 10%
// (meaning it runs all the Awake and OnEnable etc methods)
while (!_async.isDone)
{
yield return null;
}
// at this moment the new Scene is supposed to be fully loaded
// Get the new scene
var newScene = SceneManager.GetSceneByBuildIndex(index);
// would return false if something went wrong during loading the scene
if (!newScene.IsValid()) yield break;
// Set the new scene active
// we need this later in order to place objects back into the correct scene
// if we do not want them to be DontDestroyOnLoad anymore
// (see explanation in SetDontDestroyOnLoad)
SceneManager.SetActiveScene(newScene);
// Unload the last loaded scene
if (lastLoadedScene >= 0) SceneManager.UnloadSceneAsync(lastLoadedScene);
// update the stored index
lastLoadedScene = index;
}
}
This MySceneManager is a static class so it is not attached to any GameObject or Scene but simply "lives" in the Assets. You can now call it from anywhere using
MySceneManager.LoadScene(someIndex, theMonoBehaviourCallingIt);
The second parameter of type MonoBehaviour (so basically your scripts) is required because someone has to be responsible for running the IEnumerator Coroutine which can't be done by the static class itself.
3. DontDestroyOnLoad
Currently you are adding any GameObject you dragged at any time to DontDestroyOnLoad. But you never undo this so anything you touched meanwhile will be carried on from that moment ... forever.
I would rather use e.g. something like
public static class GameObjectExtensions
{
public static void SetDontDestroyOnLoad(this GameObject gameObject, bool value)
{
if (value)
{
// Note in general if DontDestroyOnLoad is called on a child object
// the call basically bubbles up until the root object in the Scene
// and makes this entire root tree DontDestroyOnLoad
// so you might consider if you call this on a child object to first do
//gameObject.transform.SetParent(null);
UnityEngine.Object.DontDestroyOnLoad(gameObject);
}
else
{
// add a new temporal GameObject to the active scene
// therefore we needed to make sure before to set the
// SceneManager.activeScene correctly
var newGO = new GameObject();
// This moves the gameObject out of the DontdestroyOnLoad Scene
// back into the currently active scene
gameObject.transform.SetParent(newGO.transform, true);
// remove its parent and set it back to the root in the
// scene hierachy
gameObject.transform.SetParent(null, true);
// remove the temporal newGO GameObject
UnityEngine.Object.Destroy(newGO);
}
}
}
This is an Extension Method which allows you to simply call
someGameObject.SetDontDestroyOnLoad(boolvalue);
on any GameObject reference.
Then I changed your script to
public class MoveBall : MonoBehaviour
{
public static Vector2 mousePos = new Vector2();
// On mouse down enable DontDestroyOnLoad
private void OnMouseDown()
{
gameObject.SetDontDestroyOnLoad(true);
}
// Do your dragging part here
private void OnMouseDrag()
{
// NOTE: Your script didn't work for me
// in ScreenToWorldPoint you have to pass in a Vector3
// where the Z value equals the distance to the
// camera/display plane
mousePos = Camera.main.ScreenToWorldPoint(new Vector3(
Input.mousePosition.x,
Input.mousePosition.y,
transform.position.z)));
transform.position = mousePos;
}
// On mouse up disable DontDestroyOnLoad
private void OnMouseUp()
{
gameObject.SetDontDestroyOnLoad(false);
}
}
And in your StarCollision script you only have to exchange
SceneManager.LoadScene(1);
with
MySceneManager.LoadScene(2, this);
Demo
For a little demonstration I "faked" it using two simple scripts
This one in the Main scene
public class LoadFirstscene : MonoBehaviour
{
// Start is called before the first frame update
private void Start()
{
MySceneManager.LoadScene(1, this);
}
}
And this one in the other scenes
public class LoadNextScene : MonoBehaviour
{
[SerializeField] private int nexSceneIndex;
private void Update()
{
if (!Input.GetKeyDown(KeyCode.Space)) return;
MySceneManager.LoadScene(nexSceneIndex, this);
}
}
And have 3 Scenes:
Main: As mentioned contains
the MainCamera
a DirectionalLight
the LoadFirstScene
test: contains
a MoveBall "Sphere"
the LoadNextScene
test2: contains
a MoveBall "Cube"
the LoadNextScene
With the indexes matching the build settings (make sure Main is always at 0 ;) )
I can now switch between test and test2 using the Space key.
If I drag one of the objects meanwhile I can carry it on into the next scene (but only 1 at a time). I can even take it on again back to the first scene in order to have e.g. two sphere objects I can play with ;)

Understanding Unity's GameObject.Find(), GetComponent() and objects recycling

New to unity.
So I created a simple a simple muzzle flash particle animation that is supposed to be displayed on enemies gun when the player gets close to him, simulating a shot without the actual bullet. However I get a null reference exception in this part muzzleFlash.Play(); I believe it's because I am not actually getting the muzzle flash component in the start function with the code I have, actually I know that is it after going to in to debug mode I found out. I am having a really hard time figuring out how to access that component. Below is my code and I'm also posting a picture of my hierarchy. Thanks in advance.
using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using UnityEngine;
public class StaticShootingEnemy : MonoBehaviour
{
[SerializeField] private float _range = 12f;
private Transform _player;
private bool _alive;
private float _distance;
private ParticleSystem muzzleFlash;
// Use this for initialization
void Start()
{
_player = GameObject.Find("Player").transform;
_alive = true;
muzzleFlash = (ParticleSystem)this.gameObject.GetComponent("muzzleFLash");
}
// Update is called once per frame
void Update()
{
_distance = Vector3.Distance(this.transform.position, _player.transform.position);
if (_alive && _distance < _range)
AttackPlayer();
}
private void AttackPlayer()
{
//Turning enemy to look at player
transform.LookAt(_player);
Ray ray = new Ray(transform.position, transform.forward);
RaycastHit hit;
if (Physics.SphereCast(ray, 0.75f, out hit))
{
//TODO: Fix enemy shooting fast when gettting close to him.
GameObject hitObject = hit.transform.gameObject;
if (hitObject.GetComponent<PlayerController>())
{
muzzleFlash.Play();
Debug.Log("Player Hit!");
}
else
muzzleFlash.Stop();
}
}
public void SetAlive(bool alive)
{
_alive = alive;
}
}

You probably have an object "muzzleFlash" as child to object your script attached to. So, in this case you'd better have a reference to your ParticleSystem object that is called muzzleFlash.
[SerializeField] private ParticleSystem muzzleFlash; // drag and drop your ParticleSystem muzzleFlash in inspector
or at least you could find that muzzleFlash like this
GameObject muzzleFlashObj = GameObject.Find("muzzleFlash");
ParticleSystem muzzleFlash = muzzleFlashObj.GetComponent<ParticleSystem>();
In your case it's null because there is probably no component that is called MuzzleFlash on that object. The component you want to get is ParticleSystem.

What component is the staticshootingenemy script on? if it is not on the same component as the particle system then its not finding it because this.gameObject.GetComponent("muzzleFLash") does not exist on that component. You can use GameObject.Find("muzzleFLash") to search for the particle system.

So back to your comment, you could implement something like a pool for your muzzle flashes.
public class MuzzleFlashEffect : MonoBehaviour
{
[SerializeField] private ParticleSystem particleEffect;
private Queue<MuzzleFlashEffect> poolQueue;
public void SetPoolQueue(Queue<MuzzleFlashEffect> queue)
{
poolQueue = queue;
}
public void Play()
{
StartCoroutine(Playing());
}
private IEnumerator Playing()
{
particleEffect.Play();
while (particleEffect.isPlaying)
{
yield return null; // wait until particle animation is done, then recycle effect
}
particleEffect.Stop();
poolQueue.Enqueue(this); // recycle this effect
}
// you can do the same thing for Animation as well, or even write some abstract PoolableVFX class that would be usefull for Animation , ParticleSystems etc..
}
//assume you have some game controller that manage what is going on in the scene
public class GameController : MonoBehaviour
{
[SerializeField] private MuzzleFlashEffect muzzleFlashPrefab;
private Queue<MuzzleFlashEffect> poolQueue = new Queue<MuzzleFlashEffect>(10); // 10 is enough i guess and it's good to set it at instantiation to avoid memory fragmentation
private MuzzleFlashEffect GetMuzzleFlash(Vector3 pos, Quaternion rot)
{
MuzzleFlashEffect muzzleFlash;
// if we already have some effects, then play them, otherwise make a new one and recycle it then
if (poolQueue.Count > 0)
{
muzzleFlash = poolQueue.Dequeue();
}
else
{
muzzleFlash = Instantiate(muzzleFlashPrefab);
muzzleFlash.SetPoolQueue(poolQueue);
}
muzzleFlash.transform.position = pos;
muzzleFlash.transform.rotation = rot;
return muzzleFlash;
}
void Update()
{
// your fancy logic ...
GameObject mutantGunEnd = new GameObject("mutant");
//assume that here you want your muzzle flash effect, so you do:
var muzzleFlash = GetMuzzleFlash(mutantGunEnd.transform.position, mutantGunEnd.transform.rotation); // or you might want to pass mutantGunEnd.transform.forward instead, it depends...
muzzleFlash.Play();
// your fancy logic ...
}
}
So, in this case you have only as many instance of ParticleEffect as you need and saving some resources. You could also create a universal generic pool for any type of object you want to recycle. (you want to recycle instead of instantiation, cuz Instantiation is cpu expensive).
M.b this is a bit overkill here, but i just wanted to share how would i think about this here

Move spawn object to random position

I have a spawner object. Every time a gameobject is spawned, I want that object to move randomly (wandering). The problem in my script is that the gameobject movement is very random (jittery). How can I solve this?
void Start ()
{
InvokeRepeating("SpawnNPC", Spawntime, Spawntime);
}
// Update is called once per frame
void Update () {
population = GameObject.FindGameObjectsWithTag("NPCobject");
for (int i = 0; i < population.Length; i++)
{
getNewPosition();
if (population[i].transform.position != pos)
{
population[i].transform.position = Vector3.MoveTowards(population[i].transform.position, pos, .1f);
}
}
}
void getNewPosition()
{
float x = Random.Range(-22, 22);
float z= Random.Range(-22, 22);
pos = new Vector3(x, 0, z);
}
I made the New randomize vector in different method, because I plan to change it with pathfinder function and make it in different thread/task.

You are choosing a new direction every single frame. That will always be very jittery. You wan't to only change direction after, at least, a small interval. Here is a link to one way to do that from Unity's website. https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/MonoBehaviour.InvokeRepeating.html

What about using Navigation? As you said wandering, I thought it would give you a nice result and also make your code simple.
The following screenshot is a sample with Navigation. The moving game objects are also changing their direction nicely, although it cannot be seen in the sample because the game object is capsule...
Ground game object in the sample program has NavMesh. See here to build NavMesh.
Agent game object has NavMeshAgent Component. See here to set it up.
Th Behaviour class below is for Agent game object.
using UnityEngine;
using UnityEngine.AI;
public class NavAgentBehaviour : MonoBehaviour {
public Transform[] Destinations { get; set; }
// Use this for initialization
void Start ()
{
InvokeRepeating("changeDestination", 0f, 3f);
}
void changeDestination()
{
var agent = GetComponent<NavMeshAgent>();
agent.destination = Destinations[Random.Range(0, Destinations.Length)].position;
}
}
The next Behaviour class is just for spawning the Agent and setting up the destinations. On Unity, set it to whatever game object in the scene, and allocate game objects to the fields.
using UnityEngine;
public class GameBehaviour : MonoBehaviour {
public GameObject Agent;
public Transform SpawnPoint;
public Transform Destination1;
public Transform Destination2;
public Transform Destination3;
// Use this for initialization
void Start()
{
Agent.SetActive(false);
InvokeRepeating("Spawn", 0f, 2f);
}
void Spawn() {
var newAgent = Instantiate(Agent);
newAgent.GetComponent<NavAgentBehaviour>().Destinations = new[] { Destination1, Destination2, Destination3 };
newAgent.transform.position = SpawnPoint.position;
newAgent.SetActive(true);
}
}
Increase the number of destination, to make the moves look more random. By the way, the destinations do not need to be specified by game objects, which is only for making it easy to see the sample program's behaviour.

The source of the jitteriness comes from the fact that you are updating the position to move every frame so your objects never have a consistent location to move to. I would instead suggest attaching a new script to each of your objects that individually handles their movement. In that script you could do something like the following, which has a delay to keep the target position for more than 1 frame.
float delaytimer;
Vector3 pos;
void Start () {
getNewPosition(); // get initial targetpos
}
void Update () {
delaytimer += Time.deltaTime;
if (delaytimer > 1) // time to wait
{
getNewPosition(); //get new position every 1 second
delaytimer = 0f; // reset timer
}
transform.position = Vector3.MoveTowards(transform.position, pos, .1f);
}
void getNewPosition()
{
float x = Random.Range(-22, 22);
float z= Random.Range(-22, 22);
pos = new Vector3(x, 0, z);
}

You are changing the direction they are moving in every frame, thats what is causing the jitter.
You could wait a few moments before you change the direction, perhaps something like this.
// Outside update
float betweenChanges = 2;
float lastChange = 0;
// Inside update
if(Time.realtimeSinceStartup > lastChange)
{
// Change directions
// ...
lastChange = Time.realTimeSinceStart + betweenChanges;
}
You could also solve this by using InvokeRepeating or a Coroutine.
If you dont want all the NPC's to change direction at the same time and still plan on controlling every NPC from the same class like in your example, you should perhaps add a timer for each NPC instance instead and use that to decide when to change its direction.
A better idea would be to let each NPC have its own Movement-script.

instantiate game object with children

I have a GameObject(EnemyProducer) that instantiate another GameObject(EnemyFormation) which has several children (actual enemies).
However, when i instantiate EnemyFormation Gameobject it does not have any children!
EnemyFormation is a prefab with all the required children.
This is how it looks like:
Here is the EnemyProducer code that Instantiates EnemyFormation:
public class EnemyProducer : MonoBehaviour {
EnemyFormation enemyGroup;
Transform enemyFormationTransform;
public float speed;
float boundary, currentY;
bool goingDown = true;
public GameObject enemyFormation;
// Use this for initialization
void Start () {
// Create enemyformation
enemyFormation = Instantiate (enemyFormation);
enemyFormation.transform.parent = transform;
enemyGroup = enemyFormation.GetComponent<EnemyFormation>();
boundary = Camera.main.orthographicSize;
enemyFormationTransform = enemyFormation.transform;
}
void Update () {
// if all enemies are killed, create a new one
if (!enemyGroup.hasEnemy ()) {
enemyFormation = Instantiate (enemyFormation);
enemyFormation.transform.parent = transform;
enemyGroup = enemyFormation.GetComponent<EnemyFormation>();
enemyFormationTransform = enemyGroup.gameObject.transform;
}
}
}

The first instantiation may be successful because it cloned the prefab from the Editor but then you reassigned the newly cloned prefab to the enemyFormation. When all enemies (children) were destroyed (assume that you were using Destroy()) then enemyFormation would contain no child. Next time you Instantiate(enemyFormation) you were expected to get a gameObject without children because it were not the prefab from the Editor anymore (it was reassigned by you).
Sorry I have to delete the previous answer. It is wrong anyway.