Need to make a reference in a prefab to itself not to the created instance

Question

Hello,

Let's say that we have a prefab X and it has a script that has a reference called "prefab" to the prefab X, in other words it points to itself. I created the GameObject, attached my script on it, created a prefab, dragged the GameObject to it then selected the prefab and then dragged it to the reference "prefab" in the script.

My problem is when I drag the prefab into the scene the reference "prefab" refers to the created instance not the prefab X itself.

I understand that by doing the steps I did Unity thought that I want a reference in a GameObject referring to itself not to the actual prefab.

I tried the following to prevent instances of the prefab to set the value of "prefab" but it didn't work:

 GameObject prefab;
     public GameObject Prefab
     {
         set
         {
             PrefabType objectType = PrefabUtility.GetPrefabType(gameObject);
             if (objectType == PrefabType.Prefab)
                 prefab= value;
         }
         get
         {
             return prefab;
         }
     }

When I did that "prefab" became null, I thought that it will keep its value when it was still a prefab but apparently when an instance is created from prefab it's a new created GameObject with the same components then its values are copied from the prefab.

Any solution for that doesn't use Resources.Load()?

Answer 1

Best Answer

Answer by Loius · Nov 07, 2013 at 08:59 PM

You have to have a manager (which could be an instantiator or a human or maybe a custom editor) assign the prefab reference. An object can't know what prefab it came from without help.

 Thing thing = (Thing)Instantiate(prefab);
 thing.prefabSource = prefab;

You might be able to [ExecuteInEditMode] something on Start that searches the project for a prefab that looks close enough to "this" and then assign that as the prefab.

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Jix · Nov 07, 2013 at 09:11 PM 0

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this [ExecuteInEdit$$anonymous$$ode] is new to me, I'm gonna try something and if works I'll let you know.

Jix · Nov 07, 2013 at 11:27 PM 0

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Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. problem solved

Answer 2

Answer by alexisrabadan · Oct 14, 2015 at 11:22 AM

An alternate method to having a manager script is to have a scriptable object make the connection like so:

 public class PrefabConnection : ScriptableObject {
             
             #region PUBLIC_VARIABLES
     
             [SerializeField] private GameObject prefab;
     
             #endregion // PUBLIC_VARIABLES
             
             #region PUBLIC_METHODS
     
             public GameObject GetPrefab() {
                 return prefab;
             }
             
             #endregion // PUBLIC_METHODS
         }

Then the object can use this scriptable object as the reference to its own prefab, the downside is that you have to have a scriptable object per prefab, but in my case no object will reference the newly created one so this works great. You could also create a single scriptable object that references all prefabs to make less data files in the project.

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Jix · Oct 14, 2015 at 12:54 PM 1

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This question is 2 years old actually and what I did back then is to create a master prefab that points to all the prefabs.

But your answer is brilliant! It will come in handy when I face a similar problem in the future

alexisrabadan Jix · Oct 14, 2015 at 08:24 PM 2

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Cheers, the reason I posted though is because there is no other solutions that I could easily find

Need to make a reference in a prefab to itself not to the created instance

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