Fill a List with custom class objects

Unity Engine
1

Hello!
I have two classes: GameEvent is a container for text-based game events. GameEventManager is for event generation and handling. I’m trying to fill a List with 10 randomly generated events. But “creating a MonoBehaviour using the ‘new’ keyword is not allowed”. I googled this problem, but still don’t understand how should I do it correctly. As a result, I want to see 10 runtime-generated events in the inspector in editor :slight_smile:
Can someone point me in the right direction? Thanks!

using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections;

public class gameEvent : MonoBehaviour {

    public string description;
    public int id;
    public string image;
    public string callToAction1;
    public string callToAction2;
    public int nextEventID;

    public gameEvent(int newId, string newImage, string newDescription)
    {
        id = newId;
        image = newImage;
        description = newDescription;
        outputEventInfo();
    }

    public void outputEventInfo()
    {
        Debug.Log("Event " + id + ": " + description + " Actions: " + callToAction1 + ", " + callToAction2 + " (Image: " + image);
    }
}

using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;

public class GameEventManager : MonoBehaviour {

    public List<gameEvent> events = new List<gameEvent>();
    public int eventCounter = 0;

    // Use this for initialization
    void Start () {
        for (eventCounter = 0; eventCounter < 5; eventCounter++) {
            GenerateEvent();
        }
    }

    public void GenerateEvent()
    {

        events.Add(new gameEvent(eventCounter, "image_" + eventCounter, "Some test event is happening"));
    }
}
2

A MonoBehaviour is the type of script you attach to a GameObject in Unity. You can’t instantiate these on their own, only attach them to an existing GameObject. Are you sure you want them to inherit from MonoBehaviour?

3

I want to see them in the inspector. I tried just plain class, but I couldn’t see it for some reason…

4

If you want to see them in the inspector, you have to create new GameObjects and attach the scripts to those.

1 Like
5

Thank you! Finally I’ve got a working piece of code. As I found out later, you can’t use class constructors while instantiating MonoBehaviour object. But you can use a separate function for initialization (or make static method for custom class which will return new gameObject with attached script and some initialization data).

If someone will stuck with this like I did:

using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections;

public class gameEvent : MonoBehaviour{

    public string description;
    public int id;
    public string image;

    public void generateEvent(int newId, string newImage, string newDescription)
    {
        id = newId;
        image = newImage;
        description = newDescription;
    }
}

using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;

public class GameEventManager : MonoBehaviour {

    public List<GameObject> events = new List<GameObject>();
    public int eventCounter = 0;

    // Use this for initialization
    void Start () {
        for (eventCounter = 0; eventCounter < 5; eventCounter++) {
            GenerateEvent();
        }
    }

    public void GenerateEvent()
    {
        var e = new GameObject();
        e.AddComponent<gameEvent>().generateEvent(eventCounter, "image_" + eventCounter, "Some test event is happening");
        events.Add(e);
    }
}
6

On second thought, this is still not what I want. Now I’ve got some junk objects in my scene.
I have another script, which behaves just perfect and all extra objects can be seen in Inspector:

I tried to replicate this class with my new event system - made serializable simpe class… and suddenly it’s working just fine. Wow. I have no idea why this solution didn’t worked for me yesterday.

using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections;

[System.Serializable]
public class gameEvent{

    public string eventName;
    public string description;
    public int id;
    public string image;

    public void generateEvent(int newId, string newImage, string newDescription)
    {
        eventName = "Event " + newId;
        id = newId;
        image = newImage;
        description = newDescription;
    }
}

using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;

public class GameEventManager : MonoBehaviour {

    public List<gameEvent> events = new List<gameEvent>();
    public int eventCounter = 0;

    void Start () {
        for (eventCounter = 0; eventCounter < 5; eventCounter++) {
            GenerateEvent();
        }
    }

    public void GenerateEvent()
    {
        gameEvent e = new gameEvent();
        e.generateEvent(eventCounter, "image_" + eventCounter, "Some test event is happening");
        events.Add(e);
    }
}

And the result in the editor:

Amazing :slight_smile:

1 Like