Easy way to tell a particle emitter to auto-destruct?

Unity Engine
,
1

I have it where I create a particle emitter wherever the player touches the screen. The problem is that when I use Destroy with a timer the particle emitter jolts out of view. When I set it to One Shot, it repeats itself if anything gets out of sync and looks very bad.

What I would like to do is set the autodestruct parameter of the particle emitter but everything I try tells me it’s not a member (of the script, the object, unity, etc.)

I am creationg the object by doing:

// I have a particle Emitter set out of view called Poof.  Here I find it.
var poofer = GameObject.Find("Poof");

// I create a copy of the Poof particle system and place it at the position of the object the player touches.
var newpoof = Instantiate(poofer, myObjectHit.transform.position, Quanterion.Identity);

// Here I try to tell it to auto-destruct when it's done emitting.  Obviously I'm doing something wrong here.
newpoof.autodestruct = 1;

I looked at the match code but it is using Destroy on a timer and not auto-destruct. Figuring this out would also help me to figure out how to access member variables of game types.

Any help on what I’m guessing is a simple operation would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

2

Well, I figured it out. In case anyone else is wondering apparently the Instantiate() function returns a GameObject that you cannot access.

I first had to create a “var tempObject : GameObject” and then assign it via “tempObject = poofer;”. After I did that I was able to call GetComponent() and everything else I’ve come to expect with game objects.

I guess there’s a non-accessible game object type?

3

There’s no such thing. Instantiate returns an Object, which has no autodestruct property, so you need to typecast properly.

–Eric

4

Why did I have to create another game object, make the two equal, and then use the new one? What should I have done?

BTW, I realize GameObject doesn’t have an autodestruct property. That’s not what I was trying to do. The object returned from Instantiate() wouldnt even let me do a GetComponent() call on it. That’s the problem I am having.

For example, this does not work:

var poofer = GameObject.Find("Poof"); 

var newpoof = Instantiate(poofer, myObjectHit.transform.position, Quanterion.Identity); 

newpoof.GetComponent(ParticleEmitter);

Why not?

It does work when I do the following:

var poofer = GameObject.Find("Poof"); 

var newpoof = Instantiate(poofer, myObjectHit.transform.position, Quanterion.Identity); 

var tempObject : GameObject;

tempObject = poofer;

tempObject.GetComponent(ParticleEmitter);
5

Object has no GetComponent function; only a GameObject does that. newpoof needs to be typed as a GameObject.

–Eric

6

Ok, I see. The problem is I’m a C/C++/C# guy and some of the syntax in the java code is getting me.

Once I did the following it worked without having to create the extra reference, thanks!

var poofer = GameObject.Find("Poof"); 

var newpoof : GameObject;

newpoof = Instantiate(poofer, myObjectHit.transform.position, Quanterion.Identity); 

newpoof.GetComponent(ParticleEmitter);
7

You should most definitely use C# then. It gives you way more control and you know exactly what is going on without as much hidden magic stuff.

8

You don’t have to use the “hidden magic” stuff, you know. Just don’t use it, or put “#pragma strict” in your scripts so you’re forced not to. But it’s nice to have the option.

Instead of

var newpoof : GameObject; 

newpoof = Instantiate(poofer, myObjectHit.transform.position, Quanterion.Identity);

it would be more concise to do

var newpoof : GameObject = Instantiate(poofer, myObjectHit.transform.position, Quanterion.Identity);

–Eric

9

or even

var foo = (Instantiate(…) as GameObject);

or

var foo = (GameObject) Instantiate(…);