Code freezing up unity editor.

Unity Engine
1

Hi,
So I wrote a crude script for an object to find all the objects in the game that are tagged with certain tags, there are 5 tags in an array it uses. I don’t like it because it is 2 for loops that run every second per soldier unit in play which could end up being quite a few. However when I run it from within the unity editor the whole thing freezes and I have to terminate the instance of unity and start it again to get anything done. Without this segment of code it works fine.

GameObject[] FindAllBaddies()
	{
		List<GameObject> objects = new List<GameObject>();
		for (int i = 0; i < tags.Length; i++)
		{
			GameObject[] tmpArray = new GameObject[]{};
			tmpArray = GameObject.FindGameObjectsWithTag(tags[i]);
			for (i = 0; i < tmpArray.Length; i++)
			{
				objects.Add(tmpArray[i]);
			}
		}
		return objects.ToArray();
	}

Firstly can someone tell me why it is failing so I don’t do it again, secondly is there a better way to write it? Incase it helps after this step there is a piece of code that puts it through a switch statement to get the tag so it can get the owner variable from its script (each object type has a script that both holds it’s operating variables and dictates it’s behavior).

Kind regards,
Scobbo

2

Couldn’t you just do this?

    GameObject[] FindAllBaddies()
        {
            List<GameObject> objects = new List<GameObject>();
            for (int i = 0; i < tags.Length; i++)
            {     
                objects.Add(GameObject.FindGameObjectsWithTag(tags[i]));               
            }
            return objects.ToArray();
        }
3

I didn’t think list.Add could take whole arrays. I’ll give that a go. Thanks!

4

Both of these errors refer to the list.Add command. I don’t think Add likes arrays

5

My bad, I saw that as FindGameObject not FindGameObjects, so I interpreted it as FindWithTag(). Your second loop makes complete sense now.

Even still you could probably replace FindGameObjects() with FindWithTag(), makes it a bit simpler.

        GameObject[] FindAllBaddies()
            {
                List<GameObject> objects = new List<GameObject>();
                for (int i = 0; i < tags.Length; i++)
                {    
                    objects.Add(GameObject.FindWithTag(tags[i]));              
                }
                return objects.ToArray();
            }
6

Ah I did not know about that function. It is throwing some null reference exceptions but I think that is my array. It isn’t freezing anymore so problem solved. Thanks heaps mate!

7

Any time.

8

A bit late to the game and stating the fact that I’ve not put much thought to this… but…

Off the top of my head, why not add the objects to a list when they are instantiated, and then use that list of objects to logically sort or test or use?

If you:

GameObject taggedObject = Instantiate(myObject, spawnPosition, spawnRotation) as GameObject;

then you could:

taggedObjectList.Add(taggedObject);

… and this doesn’t have to be a gameObject, it could be a customClass with your tagged object’s data…

You would always have your list of taggedObjects. Your soldiers only need a reference to the list, which could easily be done. You could then process this list as you needed.

You would only need a way to “unregister” any taggedObject if it was destroyed or no longer needed, but you could do that with a .Remove(taggedObject) when needed.