Getting around deferred Awake call from SetActive

Questions & Answers
1

Here’s a common pattern I use. Instead of using a prefab to instantiate which can be a problem I store a inactive GameObject in the scene and instantiate it and set it active.

Like this:

var elem = Instantiate(prefab);
elem.gameObject.SetActive(true);
elem.Setup(info);

The problem is that when you change something to SetActive it doesn’t call Awake right away. So in the above case Setup is called before Awake is called on elem. If I used a prefab to Instantiate then Awake is called before Setup. I’m curious why it’s this way if Awake is to be used like a constructors then Awake should be called immediately. The solution here is to move initialization code into the Setup function, or delay a Setup call until Awake is called, both not ideal.

3

Here is why: Game MUST have a deterministic execution order. If Awake is called at the same time during execution, predictably, it is the right architecture. The patter you want is:

    elem = Instantiate(prefab).GetComponent();
    elem.Configure(info)
    ...
    class Elem:
    void Configure(ElemConfig elemConfig)
    {
        this.elemConfig = elemConfig;
    }
    void Awake()
    {
    // consume the configuration here, when you awaken.
    }
2

Make sure all the parent gameobjects of this gameobject are active, or setting it to Active won’t actually make it active in the scene.

4

Unity should add native method that is called right after instantiate no matter active state of GameObject or Component… This creates terrible pattern all over the game since it whole depends on active state of mine objects.