We Keep Coding

How can I destroy an object after X seconds? [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
destroy a specific gameobject after an amount of time in unity
(3 answers)
Closed 2 years ago.
The problem is in that way it will create more and more objects if automatic or if using the mouse.
using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using UnityEngine;
public class ScifiEffects : MonoBehaviour
{
public GameObject spawnEffect;
public bool automaticFire = false;
// Start is called before the first frame update
void Start()
{
}
// Update is called once per frame
void Update()
{
if (automaticFire == false)
{
if (Input.GetMouseButtonDown(0))
{
GameObject effect = Instantiate(spawnEffect, transform.position, Quaternion.FromToRotation(Vector3.up, spawnEffect.transform.forward)) as GameObject;
}
}
else
{
GameObject effect = Instantiate(spawnEffect, transform.position, Quaternion.FromToRotation(Vector3.up, spawnEffect.transform.forward)) as GameObject;
}
}
}
If I add :
Destroy(effect);
Either in the mouse or if automatic the gameobject will be destroy at once and the effect will not happen. I could use a coroutine but then I will have to call the StartCoroutine inside the Update either if automatic or not and it will start many coroutines.

Destroy takes an optional second parameter
t The optional amount of time to delay before destroying the object.
So you can e.g. simply do
if (Input.GetMouseButtonDown(0))
{
GameObject effect = Instantiate(spawnEffect, transform.position, Quaternion.FromToRotation(Vector3.up, spawnEffect.transform.forward)) as GameObject;
Destroy(effect, 3.5f);
}
To destroy the effect object after 3.5 seconds
Note however that you probably should not Instantiate an object every frame in your else case. Rather you could define a certain interval like e.g.
// adjust in the Inspector
public float maxSpawnPerSecond = 2f;
...
private float timer;
void Update()
{
if (!automaticFire)
{
if (Input.GetMouseButtonDown(0))
{
Spawn();
}
}
else
{
if(maxSpawnPerSecond > 0)
{
timer -= Time.deltaTime;
if(timer <= 0)
{
Spawn();
timer = 1 / maxSpawnPerSecond;
}
}
}
}
private void Spawn()
{
GameObject effect = Instantiate(spawnEffect, transform.position, Quaternion.FromToRotation(Vector3.up, spawnEffect.transform.forward)) as GameObject;
Destroy(effect, 3.5f);
}

There are no downsides to starting a bunch of coroutines other than regular coding issues like infinite loops.
Also coroutines has exactly what you need with a method called WaitForSeconds() that only works in coroutines. As far as I know
void Update()
{
if(true) // Change if statement so you don't create an infinite loop and crash your program
{
StartCoroutine("SpecialEffects");
}
}
IEnumerator SpecialEffects()
{
// Special Effects
yield return new WaitForSeconds(seconds);
// Code that destroys something
}

You can add Thread.Sleep(miliseconds); to wait before it happens. You could also make a Task which sleeps for a while and then does the delete, make sure to await it.

Text is supposed to be displayed when childCount equals 0, but it doesn't

this should be a very simple answer. I'm following a Unity with C# tutorial for making a simple Space Invaders game, and at one point it is shown that when our enemyHolder object has no child objects left (when all enemies are destroyed) the attached text under the winText function should be displayed.
So we have
if (enemyHolder.childCount == 0)
{
winText.enabled = true;
}
When I run the code the text isn't displayed after the enemies are destroyed and no child object is left. It's like the code stops getting read at that point, although the character is still movable and you can generate new shots.
If I create two "Enemy" child objects and tell it to display the winText rather when the childCount reaches 1, it does work.
So why is it not working when the function calls for == 0?
EDIT: Complete class code:
using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using UnityEngine;
using UnityEngine.UI;
public class EnemyController : MonoBehaviour
{
private Transform enemyHolder;
public float speed;
public GameObject shot;
public Text winText;
public float fireRate = 0.997f;
// Start is called before the first frame update
void Start()
{
winText.enabled = false;
InvokeRepeating("MoveEnemy", 0.1f, 0.3f);
enemyHolder = GetComponent<Transform>();
}
void MoveEnemy()
{
enemyHolder.position += Vector3.right * speed;
foreach (Transform enemy in enemyHolder)
{
if (enemy.position.x < -10.5 || enemy.position.x > 10.5)
{
speed = -speed;
enemyHolder.position += Vector3.down * 0.5f;
return;
}
if (enemy.position.y <= -4)
{
GameOver.isPlayerDead = true;
Time.timeScale = 0;
}
if (enemyHolder.childCount == 1)
{
CancelInvoke();
InvokeRepeating("MoveEnemy", 0.1f, 0.25f);
}
if (enemyHolder.childCount == 0)
{
winText.enabled = true;
}
}
}
}

Your code is inside the void MoveEnemy() function.
I'm assuming your script is attached to in-game enemies. Your code doesn't run because the MoveEnemy function no longer runs if there are no enemies.
So, you need to handle enemy movement and scene handling in different scripts.
The code that checks the enemy holder's number of children should be placed inside a void Update() function. This Update() function should be placed on an object that never gets deleted. Its advantage is that it runs every frame.
As a convention, devs generally use separate empty objects or even the camera to attach scripts which contain Update functions that handle the scene. Good luck!
Read more on Update

Can only spawn one object at once in unity

In my game I have a game object called ExclamationMark which I want to spawn above enemies heads when the player gets into range and they become "Alerted".
I've made this simple script to do that, but for some reason it will only work on one game object.
My enemy script:
void CheckForPlayer()
{
// Define player and get position
var player = GameObject.FindWithTag("Player");
var playerPos = (int)player.transform.position.x;
if (transform.Find("Graphics"))
{
// Define gameobject position
var enemyPos = transform.Find("Graphics").gameObject.transform.position.x;
// Define range to spawn tiles in
var range = 5;
var rangeInfront = enemyPos + range;
var rangeBehind = enemyPos - range;
if (playerPos >= rangeBehind && playerPos <= rangeInfront)
{
enemyIsActive = true;
if (transform.Find("ExclamationMark"))
{
var exMark = transform.Find("ExclamationMark").gameObject.GetComponent<ExclamationMarkSpawn>();
exMark.SpawnExclamationMark();
}
}
else
{
enemyIsActive = false;
}
}
}
My ! script:
using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using UnityEngine;
public class ExclamationMarkSpawn : MonoBehaviour {
public GameObject spawnPos;
public GameObject exclamationMark;
public GameObject exclamationMarkAudio;
public void SpawnExclamationMark()
{
StartCoroutine(GameObject.FindGameObjectWithTag("MainCamera").GetComponent<CameraShake>().Shake(0.2f, 0.2f, 0.2f));
Instantiate(exclamationMark, spawnPos.transform.position, Quaternion.identity);
if (exclamationMarkAudio)
Instantiate(exclamationMarkAudio, spawnPos.transform.position, Quaternion.identity);
StartCoroutine(DestroyExclamationMark());
}
IEnumerator DestroyExclamationMark()
{
yield return new WaitForSeconds(1);
var children = new List<GameObject>();
foreach (Transform child in transform) children.Add(child.gameObject);
children.ForEach(child => Destroy(child));
}
}

Just to be sure: I assume every player has its own instance of both of your scripts attached (some maybe nested further in their own hierarchy).
I assume that since you are using transform.Find which looks for the object by name within it's own children.
In general using Find and GetComponent over and over again is very inefficient! You should in both classes rather store them to fields and re-use them. Best would be if you can actually already reference them via the Inspector and not use Find and GetComponent at all.
In general finding something by name is always error prone. Are you sure they are all called correctly? Or are others maybe further nested?
Note: Find does not perform a recursive descend down a Transform hierarchy.
I would prefer to go by the attached components. You say it has e.g. a RigidBody. If this is the only Rigidbody component in the hierarchy below your objects (usually this should be the case) then you could instead rather simply use
// pass in true to also get disabled or inactive children
Rigidbody graphics = GetComponentInChildren<Rigidbody>(true);
the same for the ExclamationMarkSpawn
// Would be even beter if you already reference these in the Inspector
[SerializeField] private Rigidbody graphics;
[SerializeField] private ExclamationMarkSpawn exclamationMark;
[SerializeField] private Transform player;
private void Awake()
{
if(!player) player = GameObject.FindWithTag("Player");
if(!graphics) graphics = GetComponentInChildren<Rigidbody>(true);
if(!exclamationMark) exclamationMark = GetComponentInChildren<ExclamationMarkSpawn>(true);
}
private void CheckForPlayer()
{
// If really needed you can also after Awake still use a lazy initialization
// this adds a few later maybe unnecessary if checks but is still
// cheaper then using Find over and over again
if(!player) player = FindWithTag("Player");
if(!graphics) graphics = GetComponentInChildren<Rigidbody>(true);
if(!exclamationMark) exclamationMark = GetComponentInChildren<ExclamationMarkSpawn>(true);
var playerPos = (int)player.position.x;
// always if making such a check also give a hint that something might be missing
if (!graphics)
{
// by adding "this" you can now simply click on the message
// in the console and it highlights the object where this is happening in the hierarchy
Debug.LogWarning("graphics is missing here :'( ", this);
return;
}
// Define gameobject position
var enemyPos = graphics.transform.position.x;
// Define range to spawn tiles in
// this entire block can be shrinked down to
if (Mathf.Abs(playerPos - enemyPos) <= 5)
{
enemyIsActive = true;
if (exclamationMark) exclamationMark.SpawnExclamationMark();
}
else
{
enemyIsActive = false;
}
}
The same also in ExclamationMarkSpawn.cs.
I would additionally only allow 1 exclamation mark being visible at the same time. For example when a player jitters in the distance especially assuming both, the player and the enemy, I would move the entire instantiation to the routine and use a flag. Especially since this is called every frame in Update while the player stays in the range!
Also re-check and make sure your enemies are not maybe referencing the same spawnPos and thus all instantiating their exclamation marks on top of each other.
public class ExclamationMarkSpawn : MonoBehaviour
{
public Transform spawnPos;
public GameObject exclamationMark;
public GameObject exclamationMarkAudio;
[SerializeField] private CameraShake cameraShake;
// only serialized for debug
[SerializeField] private bool isShowingExclamation;
private void Awake()
{
if(!cameraShake) cameraShake = Camera.main.GetComponent<CameraShake>();
// or assuming this component exists only once in the entire scene anyway
if(!cameraShake) cameraShake = FindObjectOfType<CameraShake>();
}
public void SpawnExclamationMark()
{
StartCoroutine(ShowExclamationMark());
}
private IEnumerator ShowExclamationMark()
{
// block concurrent routine call
if(isShowingExclamation) yield brake;
// set flag blocking concurrent routines
isShowingExclamation = true;
// NOTE: Also for this one you might want to rather have a flag
// multiple enemy instances might call this so you get concurrent coroutines also here
StartCoroutine(cameraShake.Shake(0.2f, 0.2f, 0.2f));
Instantiate(exclamationMark, spawnPos.position, Quaternion.identity);
if (exclamationMarkAudio) Instantiate(exclamationMarkAudio, spawnPos.position, Quaternion.identity);
yield return new WaitForSeconds(1);
var children = new List<GameObject>();
foreach (var child in transform.ToList()) children.Add(child.gameObject);
children.ForEach(child => Destroy(child));
// give the flag free
isShowingExclamation = false;
}
}

Try this;
if (transform.Find("ExclamationMark"))
{
var exMark = transform.Find("ExclamationMark").gameObject.GetComponent<ExclamationMarkSpawn>();
exMark.SpawnExclamationMark(transform.position); //Add transform.position here
}
public void SpawnExclamationMark(Vector3 EnemyPos)
{
StartCoroutine(GameObject.FindGameObjectWithTag("MainCamera").GetComponent<CameraShake>().Shake(0.2f, 0.2f, 0.2f));
Instantiate(exclamationMark, EnemyPos, Quaternion.identity);
if (exclamationMarkAudio)
Instantiate(exclamationMarkAudio, EnemyPos, Quaternion.identity);
StartCoroutine(DestroyExclamationMark());
}

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.

interconnecting scripts in unity3D using the preprocessor [duplicate]

I've searched around and I just can't get this to work. I think I just don't know the proper syntax, or just doesn't quite grasp the context.
I have a BombDrop script that holds a public int. I got this to work with public static, but Someone said that that is a really bad programming habit and that I should learn encapsulation. Here is what I wrote:
BombDrop script:
<!-- language: c# -->
public class BombDrop : MonoBehaviour {
public GameObject BombPrefab;
//Bombs that the player can drop
public int maxBombs = 1;
// Update is called once per frame
void Update () {
if (Input.GetKeyDown(KeyCode.Space)){
if(maxBombs > 0){
DropBomb();
//telling in console current bombs
Debug.Log("maxBombs = " + maxBombs);
}
}
}
void DropBomb(){
// remove one bomb from the current maxBombs
maxBombs -= 1;
// spawn bomb prefab
Vector2 pos = transform.position;
pos.x = Mathf.Round(pos.x);
pos.y = Mathf.Round(pos.y);
Instantiate(BombPrefab, pos, Quaternion.identity);
}
}
So I want the Bomb script that's attached to the prefabgameobject Bombprefab to access the maxBombs integer in BombDrop, so that when the bomb is destroyed it adds + one to maxBombs in BombDrop.
And this is the Bomb script that needs the reference.
public class Bomb : MonoBehaviour {
// Time after which the bomb explodes
float time = 3.0f;
// Explosion Prefab
public GameObject explosion;
BoxCollider2D collider;
private BombDrop BombDropScript;
void Awake (){
BombDropScript = GetComponent<BombDrop> ();
}
void Start () {
collider = gameObject.GetComponent<BoxCollider2D> ();
// Call the Explode function after a few seconds
Invoke("Explode", time);
}
void OnTriggerExit2D(Collider2D other){
collider.isTrigger = false;
}
void Explode() {
// Remove Bomb from game
Destroy(gameObject);
// When bomb is destroyed add 1 to the max
// number of bombs you can drop simultaneously .
BombDropScript.maxBombs += 1;
// Spawn Explosion
Instantiate(explosion,
transform.position,
Quaternion.identity);
In the documentation it says that it should be something like
BombDropScript = otherGameObject.GetComponent<BombDrop>();
But that doesn't work. Maybe I just don't understand the syntax here. Is it suppose to say otherGameObject? Cause that doesn't do anything. I still get the error : "Object reference not set do an instance of an object" on my BombDropScript.maxBombs down in the explode()

You need to find the GameObject that contains the script Component that you plan to get a reference to. Make sure the GameObject is already in the scene, or Find will return null.
GameObject g = GameObject.Find("GameObject Name");
Then you can grab the script:
BombDrop bScript = g.GetComponent<BombDrop>();
Then you can access the variables and functions of the Script.
bScript.foo();
I just realized that I answered a very similar question the other day, check here:
Don't know how to get enemy's health
I'll expand a bit on your question since I already answered it.
What your code is doing is saying "Look within my GameObject for a BombDropScript, most of the time the script won't be attached to the same GameObject.
Also use a setter and getter for maxBombs.
public class BombDrop : MonoBehaviour
{
public void setMaxBombs(int amount)
{
maxBombs += amount;
}
public int getMaxBombs()
{
return maxBombs;
}
}

use it in start instead of awake and dont use Destroy(gameObject); you are destroying your game Object then you want something from it
void Start () {
BombDropScript =gameObject.GetComponent<BombDrop> ();
collider = gameObject.GetComponent<BoxCollider2D> ();
// Call the Explode function after a few seconds
Invoke("Explode", time);
}
void Explode() {
//..
//..
//at last
Destroy(gameObject);
}
if you want to access a script in another gameObject you should assign the game object via inspector and access it like that
public gameObject another;
void Start () {
BombDropScript =another.GetComponent<BombDrop> ();
}

Can Use this :
entBombDropScript.maxBombs += 1;
Before :
Destroy(gameObject);
I just want to say that you can increase the maxBombs value before Destroying the game object. it is necessary because, if you destroy game object first and then increases the value so at that time the reference of your script BombDropScript will be gone and you can not modify the value's in it.