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Question by kasplask · Apr 23, 2013 at 09:34 AM · gameobjectsaveserialization

Serialize a GameObject, including components

I am building a level editor for my game.

This means that I have to be able to:

  1. serialize a GameObject, all of its children and all of their components to an XML file

  2. load them back into the core game

I have read thread after thread about serialization, but I can't seem to find the right one. It's always about just saving the game. Is there a good way to completely serialize a GameObject and all of it children, top to bottom?

If you want to know why I am doing this, it's because I want my game to eventually become a moddable community project, and I don't want to require every contributor to have a Unity license. Furthermore, it facilitates the whole project structure if I can use files that are external from the core build. I generally find the package approach extremely limiting. And last, but not least, I want to enable contributors to make game content in Linux, which the Unity Editor currently does not :)

Any help on this is highly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

EDIT: I have been reading about ISerializationSurrogate, is it possible that this might be my salvation?

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avatar image kasplask · Apr 23, 2013 at 09:52 AM 0
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I was looking at that, but it looked to me as if it was only designed around saving games. Could you give a quick example of how to serialize a gameobject and all of its children with your API? C#, UnityScript, Boo, whichever you prefer.

avatar image whydoidoit · Apr 23, 2013 at 10:13 AM 0
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There are examples of it in the download.

Here's the docs: http://whydoidoit.com/documentation/html/class_level_serializer.html

Looks for SaveObjectTreeToXXXX (Server/File etc).

avatar image whydoidoit · Apr 23, 2013 at 10:15 AM 0
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But basically you can do:

   //Save it
   byte[] data = anyGameObject.SaveObjectTree();

   //Load it back
   data.LoadObjectTree();

Note that you need a SaveGameManager component in the scene and references to other game objects will not necessarily be able to be recreated if they are outside the tree and not marked with a Unity Serializer save game script.

avatar image whydoidoit · Apr 23, 2013 at 10:19 AM 0
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ISerializationSurrogate won't help you - serializing Unity objects is much more complicated due to the interactions required with the system.

avatar image kasplask · Apr 23, 2013 at 10:54 AM 0
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That makes me very happy. Thank you so much for making this, it's goddamn genius!

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Answer by kasplask · Apr 25, 2013 at 07:18 AM

I was very inspired by the Unity Serializer by whydoidoit, but I actually ended up writing my own serializer based on the JSONObject class. The Unity Serializer is very good for serializing everything, but if you are just moving around some prefabs, I'd recommend rolling your own.

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avatar image whydoidoit · Apr 25, 2013 at 08:00 AM 0
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Good stuff :)

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Answer by Voxel-Busters · Aug 08, 2015 at 03:04 AM

You can directly serialize GameObject using our plugin Runtime Serialization for Unity. Its not just another serialization plugin which works only on custom c# objects. But what makes it special is its capablity to serialize Unity Objects like GameObject, MonoBehaviours, Textures, Prefabs etc. As a matter of fact, you can even use it for Scene Serialization. For more info about supported list, please check this link.

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avatar image SandmanZA · Mar 25, 2017 at 09:56 PM 0
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.ly link on the Runtime Serialization for Unity. Not cool.

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Answer by whydoidoit · Apr 23, 2013 at 09:35 AM

You can use Unity Serializer to do that. It supports individual objects and whole games - but it only support compressed binary and JSON formats.

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avatar image Psyco92 · Aug 27, 2014 at 02:27 PM 0
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I was being a banana and didnt rtfm properly... I had for gotten to LevelSerializer.AddPrefabPath() when using my resources... Brilliant package !!! thank you

avatar image sami1592 · Aug 03, 2015 at 03:12 AM 0
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as far as i know the unity serializer does not work in windows phone, any idea about that?

avatar image huulong · Nov 07, 2016 at 09:55 PM 0
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Continuation of Unity Serializer on https://gitgud.io/TheSniperFan/unityserializer-ng, although discontinued too. Support up to Unity 5.4.

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Answer by MidnightStudiosInc · Jul 01, 2015 at 03:05 PM

GameObject Serializer Pro can serialize entire GameObjects, their children, and their components.

Currently the supported types list supports only some of the most common types like meshes, transforms, etc, but I can add more types as there is demand for them.

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