null reference exception in level manager script - c#

So I'm basically brand new to unity and C# and have been following along with tutorials online (N3K 2D Platformer, YouTube), I'm trying to create a basic UI to display score etc and I seem to have come across a null pointer exception which I can't seem to figure out as I have referenced the two objects that are causing this error, namely my scoreText object and my hitPointText object.
As I've said I did reference those very objects by dragging them from my hierarchy and into the fields I had created in my level manager script in the inspector and further to that I am simply following along with a tutorial and have done exactly as the video has instructed, but yet on the video it seems to work fine.
The offending lines of code are:
scoreText.text = score.ToString();
hitPointText.text = hitPoints.ToString();
This tutorial is now over 1 year old, is it possible that a unity update has changed that way things NEED to be referenced?
I'll post my level manager code below in the hopes that someone may be able to point out the error that I seem to be missing.
using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using UnityEngine;
using UnityEngine.UI;
public class LevelManager : MonoBehaviour
{
public static LevelManager Instance { set; get; }
public Transform spawnPosition;
public Transform playerTransform;
private int hitPoints = 3;
private int score = 0;
public Text scoreText;
public Text hitPointText;
private void Awake()
{
Instance = this;
scoreText.text = score.ToString();
hitPointText.text = hitPoints.ToString();
}
// Use this for initialization
void Start ()
{
}
// Update is called once per frame
private void Update ()
{
if(playerTransform.position.y < (-10))
{
playerTransform.position = spawnPosition.position;
hitPoints--;
if(hitPoints <= 0)
{
Debug.Log("Your Dead!");
}
}
}
public void Win()
{
Debug.Log("Victory");
}
}
Snippets of screens below:
Scene view of unity engine
Game view of unity engine, with game running
So here is a snippet of code from my player class which uses Instance on the LevelManager script in order that it can have access to the win() method as can be seen in the last case of the switch "WinPost", not sure if that is what you are referring to when your mentioning singleton, other than that never is the term singleton used in any of the scripts I have.
switch (hit.gameObject.tag)
{
case "Coin":
Destroy(hit.gameObject);
break;
case "JumpPad":
verticalVelocity = jumpForce * 2;
break;
case "Teleporter_1":
controller.enabled = false;
transform.position = hit.transform.GetChild(0).position;
controller.enabled = true;
Debug.Log("This works!");
break;
case "Teleporter_2":
controller.enabled = false;
transform.position = hit.transform.GetChild(0).position;
controller.enabled = true;
Debug.Log("This works!");
break;
case "WinPost":
LevelManager.Instance.Win();
break;
default:
break;
}

My guess would be that the components aren't initialized when you call Awake. Awake gets called as a constructor-kind-of method as soon as the object is created. When it is called, you can't be sure if the other components got initialized already.
I would suggest you copy the assignments you make in Awake into Start and come back to see if it works. Start gets called after the GameObjects have their components initialized.
private void Awake()
{
Instance = this;
}
// Use this for initialization
void Start ()
{
scoreText.text = score.ToString();
hitPointText.text = hitPoints.ToString();
}

Thanks to everyone for trying to help and all the great suggestions.
Ultimately I ended up breaking my game in the process of trying to recreate the same UI in a new blank scene, I did manage to recreate the same error before breaking my game which at the time then left me none the wiser. However due to the fact I broke my game I had to step back at least two tutorials and recreate the level manager object and the empty child spawnPosition object, (the level manager script was ok, it was just the level manager object and its child that I broke), anyway in having to recreate both of those objects again everything now seems to work as intended and so this leads me to the conclusion that the problem was not the code but the objects themselves???
Thanks again to everyone that tried to help, another day another learning experience.
D.

Related

How to create a winning condition when a certain number of game objects have spawned

I am trying to get my 3-D Tic-Tac-Toe game project to work, I have game objects which are named cells that are instantitated I press OnMouseDown() click it makes a cell object spawn in its grid space. I don't want to use UI with the basic prefabs I created. Is there a way to get my game objects instantiated and once it reaches a certain number as a winning condition? I have considered using pathfinding but I am not certain if that would be the correct approach. I have looked every where to find a solution that is unique to my problem but could not find a solution. Perhaps, I am asking the wrong questions but I am desperate so that is why I came her to see if I could get input on how to approach this issue.
using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using UnityEngine;
using TMPro;
using UnityEngine.SceneManagement;
public class Cell : MonoBehaviour
{
public GameObject cell;
public GameObject negCell;
public GameObject alter;
public Transform transPos;
[SerializeField]
private bool isTapped = false;
private int counted;
public int gameObjectCount;
void Start()
{
gameObjectCount = GameObject.FindGameObjectsWithTag("Cell1").Length;
}
void Update()
{
}
public void OnMouseDown(int counted) //click and point to create and deestroy objects
{
counted = gameObjectCount;
isTapped = true;
transPos = alter.transform;
Instantiate(cell, transform.position, Quaternion.identity);
StartCoroutine(WaitForObject());
Debug.Log("Alter Destroyed!");
gameObjectCount++;
DestroyGameObject();
return;
}
IEnumerator WaitForObject()
{
if (isTapped == true)
{
Instantiate(negCell, -transform.position, Quaternion.identity);
isTapped = false;
}
yield return new WaitForSeconds(3f);
DestroyGameObject();
}
void DestroyGameObject()
{
if(gameObject == alter)
{
DestroyImmediate(alter, true);
}
else
{
DestroyImmediate(cell, true);
}
}
}
There are two easy ways to achieve this.
The first one would be to add a static member in your class, let's say :
private static int _instanceCounter = 0;
This will act as a class instances counter.
All you have to do is to increment this variable every time you instantiate a new game object.
Finally, base your win condition on the number of instances of the class you want.
You can also decrement this variable if for some reason at a moment you call the Destroy method on a specific game object.
The other way would be to use the FindObjectsOfType method from Unity which returns an array of all instances in your current scene.
By accessing the length of this array, you'll have the number of instances.
However, this only count for the current number of instances when this method is called. Note that you can also include the inactive game objects from the scene (those which are in grey within your hierarchy panel).
You now have two ways to do it, depending on how you want to achieve your win condition, i.e. the total of game objects instantiated OR a specific number of game objects at a given time.

'Component.GetComponent<T>()' is a method, which is not valid in the given context [Assembly-CSharp]csharp(CS0119)

When I try to get a variable from another script I get the error 'Component.GetComponent<T>()' is a method, which is not valid in the given context [Assembly-CSharp]csharp(CS0119)
The code that's throwing the error is here
GetComponent<EnemyAI>.Attack();
Any help or suggestions is greatly appreciated,
In fact, you can't get the component class just by writing the type in any code, and to do this you need to have an instance of the enemyAI gameObject as a reference. In this solution The easiest way to do this is to use GameObject.FindObjectOfType<>() like the code below:
public EnemyAI enemyAI; // define a variable for enemyAI
public void Start()
{
enemyAI = FindObjectOfType<EnemyAI>(); // it will find your enemyAI script gameObject
}
Once the game is begining, EnemyAI is stored in that variable, and you have access to the class properties. And you can easily run the methods.
private void OnNearEnemy()
{
enemyAI.Attack(); // call attack function
enemyAI.power += 10f; // add some power for example...
}
Now if you have another component like Rigidbody or Animator in EnemyAI, you can easily call and access it with GetComponent<>().
public void ForceEnemyToEscape()
{
var enemyAgent = enemyAI.GetComponent<NavMeshAgent>(); // get nav mesh
enemyAgent.destination = transform.position + transform.forward * 10f;
}
However, I suggest you learn object-oriented programming topics well. Because many calls can be made inside the enemy class. I hope it helped.

Why does my high score change no matter what? [closed]

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Im using unity to create a game. When the player dies the game over scene is loaded. No matter what happens, the high score is always set to the score value. Why?
using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using UnityEngine;
using UnityEngine.UI;
public class HighScoreText : MonoBehaviour
{
int score;
int highScore;
Text text;
// Start is called before the first frame update
void Start()
{
text = GetComponent<Text>();
}
// Update is called once per frame
void Update()
{
score = Score.score;
if(score > highScore)
{
highScore = score;
}
text.text = highScore.ToString();
}
}
It is very important to understand what happens when you load a scene or even reload a scene.
It is also very important to understand that start IS not a constructor. It is called the first frame a script is enabled before any update methods are called you can read more about that here: https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/MonoBehaviour.Start.html
So let's analyze your problem, you load the gameOverScene, which starts by creating all your gameObjects and initializing your scripts. This includes your highScoreText object(The gameObject with this script attached). Now we have a thing called Scope. It is possible to have 2 separate highScoreObjects, each of them would have their own values for highscore, since each value in your script is not global or static values that get shared. Also an important thing to note, since this value is not static and is a member to that individual object, when the scene gets unloaded, all the objects in the scene get destroyed. Which means the value you stored for highscore will get deleted.
So scene gets created, your objects get created with their default values if they arent static. Scene gets destroyed all your objects get destroyed and so does all the values you stored on them. So the solution would be to find a way to keep that value persistent through scenes... Seems like we have a few options from this per the comments above, and from what I have said about static values...
1 option is to make highscore static, now the value will not get destroyed when the scene changes... but it is shared across all highscore options...
another option is to make a singleton, and the pattern in unity for a singleton is to typically have a gameobject marked with (DontDestroyOnLoad) then in the start method detecting if this singleton existed if it does and it isnt me, destroy myself. if it doesn't make it me.
Personally, since I dont know the full scope of your project, I would just store it in the class you have already made called 'Score' make it static, make an accessor for it, and a method to check if current score is greater then highscore then return for example:
class Score {
public static int score;
private static int highScore;
public static void CheckForNewHighScore() {
if(score > highScore)
{
highScore = score;
}
}
public static int getHighScore()
{
return highScore;
}
}
This will take care of the problem you have with losing information when reloading the scene, and keep the highscore...
With this you can also change your highScoreText class to something like this
public class HighScoreText : MonoBehaviour
{
Text text;
// Start is called before the first frame update
void Start()
{
Score.CheckForNewHighScore();
int currentHighScore = Score.getHighScore();
text = GetComponent<Text>();
if(text != null) {
text.text = currentHighScore .ToString();
}
}
// Update is called once per frame
void Update()
{
// Removed everything from here because... well if they are
// on the gameover screen their score shouldn't increase
// So no reason to keep reseting the value.
}
}

Score Count not working on a prefab

This is semi complicated of a question but I'll do my best to explain it:
I am making this mobile game in which you have to shoot four cubes. I'm trying to make it so when the cubes are shot by a bullet, they're destroyed and a UI text says 1/4, to 4/4 whenever a cube is shot. But it's being really weird and only counts to 1/4 even when all four cubes are shot and destroyed. I put these two scripts on the bullets (I made two separate scripts to see if that would do anything, it didn't)
And to give a better idea of what I'm talking about, here's a screenshot of the game itself.
I've been using Unity for about 6 days, so I apologize for anything I say that's noob-ish.
EDIT
So I combined the two scripts onto an empty gameobject and here's the new script:
using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections;
using UnityEngine.UI;
public class GameManagerScript : MonoBehaviour {
public GameObject cubes;
public Text countText;
public int cubeCount;
public Transform target;
// Use this for initialization
void Start () {
}
void OnTriggerEnter(Collider other)
{
cubes = other.gameObject;
}
// Update is called once per frame
void Update () {
cubes.transform.position = Vector3.MoveTowards(transform.position, target.position, 1f * Time.deltaTime);
if (cubes.gameObject.tag == "BULLET")
{
cubeCount = cubeCount + 1;
countText.text = cubeCount + "/4";
cubes.SetActive(false);
}
}
}
ANOTHER EDIT
I tried everything, so is there a way to detect when all the children in a parent on the Hierarchy are destroyed? Instead of counting up? This can give a better idea:
So I want to be able to detect when Cube, Cube1, Cube2, and Cube3 have all been destroyed.
The answer is pretty simple: Since every individual bullet has that script, each bullet has its own score.
For something like a score you want a single spot to store it, e.g. a script on an empty gameobject that serves as game controller. Just access that in the collision and increase the score (maybe have a look on singletons here).
You can combine those two scripts and actually it might be better to not have this on the bullet, but on the target because there are probably less of them which will save you some performance. (And it does more sense from a logical point of view.)
Edit:
I assume you create the bullets using Instantiate with a prefab. A prefab (= blueprint) is not actually in the game (only objects that are in the scene/hierarchy are in the game). Every use of Instantiate will create a new instance of that prefab with it's own version of components. A singleton is a thing that can only exist once, but also and that is why I mention it here, you can access it without something like Find. It is some sort of static. And an empty gameobject is just an object without visuals. You can easily create one in unity (rightclick > create empty). They are typically used as container and scriptholders.
Edit:
What you want is:
An empty gameobject with a script which holds the score.
A script that detects the collision using OnTriggerEnter and this script will either be on the bullets or on the targets.
Now, this is just a very quick example and can be optimized, but I hope this will give you an idea.
The script for the score, to be placed on an empty gameobject:
public class ScoreManager : MonoBehaviour
{
public Text scoreText; // the text object that displays the score, populate e.g. via inspector
private int score;
public void IncrementScore()
{
score++;
scoreText.text = score.ToString();
}
}
The collision script as bullet version:
public class Bullet : MonoBehaviour
{
private ScoreManager scoreManager;
private void Start()
{
scoreManager = GameObject.FindWithTag("GameManager").GetComponent<ScoreManager>(); // give the score manager empty gameobject that tag
}
private void OnTriggerEnter(Collider other)
{
if(other.CompareTag("Target") == true)
{
// update score
scoreManager.IncrementScore();
// handle target, in this example it's just destroyed
Destroy(other.gameObject);
}
}
}

How do I access an updated variable between two scripts in Unity with C#?

Hopefully this isn't too much detail, I'm not used to asking programming questions.
I'm attempting to do the 3D Video Game Development with Unity 3D course that's on Udemy, though using C# instead of Javascript. I just finished up the tutorial that involves creating a space shooter game.
In it, a shield is created by the user when pressing a button. The shield has a "number of uses" variable that does not actually get used by the time the tutorial has finished. I'm trying to add it in, and have successfully managed to implement it so that with each use, we decrease the number of uses remaining, and no longer are able to instantiate the shield once that number is <=0.
This variable is stored on the player, and if I print it from the player, it returns the value I would expect.
However, I'm using a separate SceneManager.cs (this is where the tutorial placed the lives, and score, and timer variables ) where I print numbers into the GUI. My problem is that I cannot get my number of uses variable to stay current when I try to print it from the scene manager... it registers the initial value, but doesn't update after that.
Here is the Player Script
using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections;
public class player_script : MonoBehaviour {
// Inspector Variables
public int numberOfShields = 2; // The number of times the user can create a shield
public Transform shieldMesh; // path to the shield
public KeyCode shieldKeyInput; // the key to activate the shield
public static bool shieldOff = true; // initialize the shield to an "off" state
public int NumberOfShields
{
get{return numberOfShields;}
set{numberOfShields = value;}
}
// Update is called once per frame
void Update()
{
// create a shield when shieldKey has been pressed by player
if (Input.GetKeyDown (shieldKeyInput)) {
if(shieldOff && numberOfShields>0)
{
// creates an instance of the shield
Transform clone;
clone = Instantiate (shieldMesh, transform.position, transform.rotation) as Transform;
// transforms the instance of the shield
clone.transform.parent = gameObject.transform;
// set the shield to an on position
shieldOff = false;
// reduce the numberOfShields left
numberOfShields -=1;
}
}
print ("NumberOfShields = " + NumberOfShields);
}
public void turnShieldOff()
{
shieldOff = true;
}
}
when I run "print ("NumberOfShields = " + NumberOfShields);" I get the value I expect. (astroids trigger the turnShieldOff() when they collide with a shield.
Over in my Scene Manager however... this is the code I'm running:
using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections;
public class SceneManager_script : MonoBehaviour {
// Inspector Variables
public GameObject playerCharacter;
private player_script player_Script;
private int shields = 0;
// Use this for initialization
void Start ()
{
player_Script = playerCharacter.GetComponent<player_script>();
}
// Update is called once per frame
void Update ()
{
shields = player_Script.NumberOfShields;
print(shields);
}
// GUI
void OnGUI()
{
GUI.Label (new Rect (10, 40, 100, 20), "Shields: " + shields);
}
}
Any idea what I'm doing wrong that prevents shields in my SceneManager script from updating when NumberOfShields in my player_script updates?
I think you might have assigned a prefab into playerCharacter GameObject variable instead of an actual in game unit. In this case it will always print the default shield value of prefab. Instead of assigning that variable via inspector try to find player GameObject in Start function. You can for example give your player object a tag and then:
void Start() {
playerCharacter = GameObject.FindGameObjectWithTag("Player");
}

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