Cloning a Prefab that points to self

[vigrid]

I have created a script which instantiates one of game objects from an array when it starts. It turns out the GameObject that is put into the array is a self-reference, even if it’s configured using Inspector on the Prefab from the Project tree.

At runtime this results in cloning the GameObject from the Hierarchy, instead of the GameObject from the Project.

Here’s a script that illustrates the problem (just create an empty GameObject and add this script to it, turn it to a prefab, and configure the prefab so that Branches array contains the prefab you have just created).

using System.Linq;
using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections;
  
public class CloneRelated : MonoBehaviour
{
  public GameObject[] Related;
  
  private static int counter;
  
  void Start()
  {
    if (counter++ < 2)
    {
      Debug.Log("Starting: " + name);
      if (Related.Any(branch => branch.name.Contains("(Clone)")))
      {
        Debug.LogError("Error");
      }
      else
      {
        GameObject.Instantiate(Related[Random.Range(0, Related.Length)]);
      }
    }
  }
}

Is there a way to tell Unity that I don’t want a self-reference but a reference to the Prefab in the Project? Or is there an alternative approach I could try, if I don’t want to keep cloning the cloned object, but always the original?

[jogo13]

Unity does not have access to the project folder during runtime, only gameobjects/prefabs in the scene hierarchy. (This is because when a game is exported/built only the files actually used in scenes are exported, not everything within a project folder.)

Because of this, the only thing i know to do is to keep one of everthing in the scene you wish to make clones from. I usually prefix it’s name with “source_.”

If you have unity pro you could possibly use asset bundles to load prefabs only when needed, but it it’s needed everytime a game runs i’d just keep it within the hierarchy. (A single prefab containing all needed ‘clone sources’ maybe?)

Edit: creating a public variable and assigning the prefab manually will work, see answer below V

[Paulo-Henrique025]

Create a public variable in the script and them assign it manually in the inspector with the prefab, this way I think every clone will still have the hard connection to the prefab.

The ‘rough’ way is geting a pointer to the prefab via script using Resources.Load