What Alternatives are there for GameObject.Find()

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Hi all

I have just jumped back into using Unity after several months away. I'm looking for ways to store a reference to the UI panels I have made.

So far, i remember two ways, but I would like to know of other ways to store the reference so that I can use it in whichever class I feel like.

Option 1: GameObject.FindObjectWithTag("xyzScreen") - this of course can be used and I can create a local variable to hold the object that is returned. This works fine as long as it has a unique tag (I remmeber running into problems using this once I started making multiplayer games in past.)

Option 2: Drag n drop (inside Unity Inspector) a reference to each object into Public variable fields I made in the classes I want to use the screens with. nb. I hate doing this, I'd rather work 99.99999% in code if at all possible. And not to mention quite often the Inspector fields just become empty again and I have to drag references again. This to me feels like a workaround for not knowing the correct way to do this.

Option 3 (I know I said 2!) : Create the screens completely in code, and therefore instantiate and make active/inactive using variables I made whilst creating them.

So for my project today, which has led me to ask this question is: I have a game with 4 possible 'areas' (all that means is the main viewport has 4 panels, Gym, Office, Home, Fightnight). I have a GameController.cs class which will be responsible for opening and closing each panel upon Button presses.

so my GameController.cs needs references to each of the UI panel objects.

I hope that makes sense and somebody can tell me the correct way for storing such references

THANKS

Answer 1

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Answer by RadonRaph · May 02, 2018 at 02:44 PM

You can use simply GameObject.Find("ObjectName"); if all of your 4 panel have differents name this will work. Also if you script is in parent gameobject of your panels you can use Transform.Find("ObjectName").gameobject.

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tormentoarmagedoom · May 02, 2018 at 03:05 PM 2

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Good day WhiteCry & megabrobro.

Just as a tip, GameObject.Find, what does i go through ALL GameObjects in the scene, all of them from the bigest aprent to the smallest child, to check if the name is equal to the one given by you. As you can imagine, this is serveral times more work for the cpu, than all others options. So, i strongly recommend to not use GameObject.Find in your scripts, (maybe you have no ther option), but as a good practice, is better to create a tag and look it by the tab, or assign it in the inspector.

Bye! :D

BastianUrbach tormentoarmagedoom · May 02, 2018 at 08:36 PM 0

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Agreed, GameObject.Find is not a good option for something that happens every frame. What would usually work fine however is using it just once in Start and then keeping the result in some variable for the rest of the game.

TreyH · May 02, 2018 at 08:42 PM 0

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I don't see how the solution to a question asking for alternatives to GameObject.Find is a recommendation to use GameObject.Find...

Answer 2

Answer by megabrobro · May 02, 2018 at 02:55 PM

ok thanks mate. I was kinda aware of those, but for some unexplainable reason I thought that this was sort of the wrong way to do it. Glad to know that its probably just me being silly. I can of course easily name or tag each screen with a unique string.

I will do that for now, and in future when I doing multiplayer again I can use a different technique for 'tagging' other game objects. (I remember I used the Find("") methods etc and once I networked my game the screens would popup on everybodies screen because it was just finding all of them. The same was said for animations and other objects (my memories a bit hazey to say the least :P)

Thanks for your help though I think I can get on with it for now :D

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RadonRaph · May 02, 2018 at 03:01 PM 0

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Ive never done multiplayer, but i think i will put a function in every player that rename the player "Player + unique id" and then hook with the rest(gamecontroller etc). and so in my gameController there will be Players[Player351, Player425 etc]. That only my thought x) But i'm like you i use 99% code, so i use GameObject.Find().

What Alternatives are there for GameObject.Find()

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