Many ways to access other components got me very confused.

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After scouring the Answers section I emerged more confused than enlightened. When do I use what? Am I understanding this correctly?

GameObject.Find - returns a game object, not a component.

transform.Find - returns the transform of a game object that is a child to the one that the script is attached to.

GetComponent - returns a specified component from another object. (From what I understood that's the only way to directly address components other than scripts in other game objects through an outside script.)

static anything - doesn't need to be instanced and can be accessed with the Dot operator.

So lets say I have a Box, a Ball and a Tri each with a script. Box has a public int, Ball has a public static int, Tri has private int and a child object that has a transform.

So my question is, what would I use to access each of these. I really hope someone can clarify this for me.

I have read the documentation and watched the video in the tutorials section, so I know how to use them, I just can't understand when.

P.S: Where does GetType fit here?

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Answer by IvovdMarel · Jun 19, 2014 at 07:57 PM

First of all, never use GameObject.Find/transform.Find, it's slow and there's never a good reason to use it in your game. Besides that, since it's string based, it's not type-safe and especially in bigger projects this might/will lead to errors.

Static variables are not used for single objects such as a Box or Ball, but rather for system scripts such as a ServerManager, UIManager, GlobalVariables etc.

The best way to access these objects to each other, depends on what relation they have to each other. Let's say they're all in a game, perhaps there should be a GameManager that handles the creation (and stores them as variables) and possibly even the interaction.

Take a look at using the Unity Inspector, since this is an easy and typesafe way of referencing objects/scripts.

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IvovdMarel · Jun 19, 2014 at 07:58 PM 0

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GetType does not fit in there. It is used to get a class-type, not a reference to the object

meat5000 ♦ · Jun 20, 2014 at 04:23 PM 1

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If you must use GameObject.Find, try to restrict it to Start() for minimal impact. Also using TAG based Find is a lot quicker.

Many ways to access other components got me very confused.

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