Generic use of Components through typeof(Component) | Convert from Unity's generic Component into a desired one

Questions & Answers
1

Hey all, I’m having an issue figuring out how to convert a generic Component into my desired component class.

Essentially I’ve created a pooling system that takes in a Type and a Component. I’ll add the relevant code below.

The issue I’m having is accessing the component once I’ve pulled it out of the pool.

private Dictionary<Type, List<Component>> _pooledObjects = new Dictionary<Type, List<Component>>();
     public void PoolObject(Type componentType,Component component, bool add = true)
            {
                if (add)
                {
                    if (_pooledObjects.ContainsKey(componentType))
                    {
                        _pooledObjects[componentType].Add(component);
                        return;
                    }
                    _pooledObjects.Add(componentType,new List<Component>{component});
                    return;
                }
                _pooledObjects[componentType].Remove(component);
            }

Requesting from the Pool

      public Component RequestComponentFromPool(Type componentType)
        {
            if (_pooledObjects[componentType][0] != null)
            {
                return _pooledObjects[componentType][0];
            }
            return null; // TODO 
        }

In this case, I’m wanting to reuse TextPopup’s from the pool and adjust the text accordingly. I guess my question is how do I convert from Unity’s generic Component into the desired one. While I could just access the GameObject from the returned component and use GetComponent I’m just sure there must be a way to access it without.

    public class Utility : MonoBehaviour
    {
        public static void GenerateWorldText(string text,GameObject obj, float speed,float duration)
        {
            var textobj = Managers.PoolManager.
                PoolManager.Instance.RequestComponentFromPool(typeof(TextPopup));

        }
    }
2

private Dictionary<Type, List> _pooledObjects = new Dictionary<Type, List>();
public void PoolObject(T component, bool add = true)
where T : Component
{
Type componentType = typeof(T);

	if (!_pooledObjects.ContainsKey(componentType))
	{
		_pooledObjects.Add(componentType, new List<Component>());
	}

	if(add)
	{
		_pooledObjects[componentType].Add(component);
	}
	else
	{
		_pooledObjects[componentType].Remove(component);
	}
}

public T RequestComponentFromPool<T>()
	where T : Component
{
	Type componentType = typeof(T);
	if (_pooledObjects.ContainsKey(componentType) && _pooledObjects[componentType].Count > 0)
	{
		return _pooledObjects[componentType][0] as T;
	}
	return null;
}

PoolObject(GetComponent<Collider>());
Collider collider = RequestComponentFromPool<Collider>();
Debug.Log(collider);