Best practice for writing Unity framework that will be used by GameDevelopers? (e.g. shall I use GameObject.Find?)

Questions & Answers
1

Hi, Im writing a framework in Unity3D C#, consisting mostly of hardware input, that will be used by other game developers.

I wonder if there is any best practice. For instance I am currently using public GameObjects on a main-script so that the GameDeveloper can drag GameObjects on these public variables if he wants them to be controlled by the hardware.

Example:

public GameObject GOCube1 = null;
public GameObject GOCube2 = null;
void Update() {
    GOCube1.Transform.position = HardwareInput.Cube1Position();
    GOCube2.Transform.position = HardwareInput.Cube2Position();
}

I found, that if the first public GameObject e.g. GOCube1 is not assigned, because the develop forgets to drag the object into the scrip , Unity won’t execute the code that comes afterwards, eg. the transform of OGCube2. However the project still executes. I find this very confusing for the game developer, because now some objects react to the hardware inout (Cube1) but some don’t (Cube2).

Hence, I am thinking about using the Find function instead.

public GameObject GOCube1 = null;
public GameObject GOCube2 = null;
void Start(){
    GOCube1 = GameObject.Find ("Cube1");
    GOCube1 = GameObject.Find ("Cube2");
}
void Update() {
    GOCube1.Transform.position = HardwareInput.Cube1Position();
    GOCube2.Transform.position = HardwareInput.Cube2Position();
}

So if the game developer forgets to create an object Cube1, the project will simply not execute. This should make debugging a bit more straightforward.

What do you think?

PS: Should I rather use Public Transform instead of Public GameObject if I only manipulate positions?

2

Either way (whether you use Find or not) you’re gonna want to do a null-check. Like,

if (GOCube1) GOCube1.Transform.position = HardwareInput.Cube1Position();

That way, if something isn’t defined, the instruction won’t even execute–and therefore won’t crash. As for your P.S.: yes, if only for the fact that it makes it simpler for you (the programmer) to know that you only have to deal with a transform and not an whole GameObject.

3

Thank you Mike, this is a much nicer solution!