Getting component within IEnumerator coroutine

Unity Engine
,
1

Hey question, I’m trying to get a check for if the AI sees the player within SawSomething()

My friend who’s teaching me C# is busy atm, can someone explain this to me?

        public bool PlayerControl;
        public bool SomethingImportant(Collider other)
        {

            EnemyControl Enemy = other.GetComponentInParent<EnemyControl>();
            bool Enemydown = false;
            if (other.GetComponentInParent<PlayerController>())
            {
                PlayerControl = true;
            }
            if (Enemy != null)
                Enemydown = Enemy.IsEnemyDown();

            return Enemydown ||
                other.GetComponentInParent<PlayerController>() ||
                other.GetComponentInParent<Item>();
        }


        public IEnumerator SawSomething()
        {
            Debug.Log("SawSomethingCoroutine Running");
            if (PlayerControl == true)
            {
                StartCoroutine(PlayerIdentification());
                agent.speed = MovementSpeed = 1;
                Debug.Log("Saw Something!");
                yield return new WaitForEndOfFrame();
            }
        }

This was my attempt but my friend said “No, you need to store the component you’re getting inside the function and then check ff the component is null”

I didn’t really get what he meant, can someone help?

2

Errors are just errors regardless of what your friend says.

How to fix a NullReferenceException error

https://forum.unity.com/threads/how-to-fix-a-nullreferenceexception-error.1230297/

Three steps to success:

  • Identify what is null ← any other action taken before this step is WASTED TIME
  • Identify why it is null
  • Fix that

You may wish to return to the tutorial(s) you are working from because you missed some steps, specifically Step #2 below:

Tutorials and example code are great, but keep this in mind to maximize your success and minimize your frustration:

How to do tutorials properly, two (2) simple steps to success:

Step 1. Follow the tutorial and do every single step of the tutorial 100% precisely the way it is shown. Even the slightest deviation (even a single character!) generally ends in disaster. That’s how software engineering works. Every step must be taken, every single letter must be spelled, capitalized, punctuated and spaced (or not spaced) properly, literally NOTHING can be omitted or skipped.
Fortunately this is the easiest part to get right: Be a robot. Don’t make any mistakes.
BE PERFECT IN EVERYTHING YOU DO HERE!!

If you get any errors, learn how to read the error code and fix your error. Google is your friend here. Do NOT continue until you fix your error. Your error will probably be somewhere near the parenthesis numbers (line and character position) in the file. It is almost CERTAINLY your typo causing the error, so look again and fix it.

Step 2. Go back and work through every part of the tutorial again, and this time explain it to your doggie. See how I am doing that in my avatar picture? If you have no dog, explain it to your house plant. If you are unable to explain any part of it, STOP. DO NOT PROCEED. Now go learn how that part works. Read the documentation on the functions involved. Go back to the tutorial and try to figure out WHY they did that. This is the part that takes a LOT of time when you are new. It might take days or weeks to work through a single 5-minute tutorial. Stick with it. You will learn.
Step 2 is the part everybody seems to miss. Without Step 2 you are simply a code-typing monkey and outside of the specific tutorial you did, you will be completely lost. If you want to learn, you MUST do Step 2.

Of course, all this presupposes no errors in the tutorial. For certain tutorial makers (like Unity, Brackeys, Imphenzia, Sebastian Lague) this is usually the case. For some other less-well-known content creators, this is less true. Read the comments on the video: did anyone have issues like you did? If there’s an error, you will NEVER be the first guy to find it.

Beyond that, Step 3, 4, 5 and 6 become easy because you already understand!

Finally, when you have errors, don’t post here… just go fix your errors! Here’s how:

Remember: NOBODY here memorizes error codes. That’s not a thing. The error code is absolutely the least useful part of the error. It serves no purpose at all. Forget the error code. Put it out of your mind.

The complete error message contains everything you need to know to fix the error yourself.

The important parts of the error message are:

  • the description of the error itself (google this; you are NEVER the first one!)
  • the file it occurred in (critical!)
  • the line number and character position (the two numbers in parentheses)
  • also possibly useful is the stack trace (all the lines of text in the lower console window)

Always start with the FIRST error in the console window, as sometimes that error causes or compounds some or all of the subsequent errors. Often the error will be immediately prior to the indicated line, so make sure to check there as well.

Look in the documentation. Every API you attempt to use is probably documented somewhere. Are you using it correctly? Are you spelling it correctly?

All of that information is in the actual error message and you must pay attention to it. Learn how to identify it instantly so you don’t have to stop your progress and fiddle around with the forum.

3

I’m not getting a NullReferenceException error but thanks bud

I’m asking how to get a component within a coroutine

4

GetComponent() works everywhere in scripting land.

Edit: and obviously all “flavors” of GetComponent: singular, plural, parent, child, etc. See docs for subtle details of each.

5

I can’t do it without SomethingImportant before GetComponentInParent because then it will see if the enemy has a playercontroller

Edit: yes it’s missing a parentheses in that pic, I know, I added one but it still didn’t work.

6

Your SomethingImportant method takes a Collider, but you’re trying to pass it a mismatching type.

7

8631426--1160352--upload_2022-12-2_22-39-58.png

Like I thought this didn’t work either

The idea is that SomethingImportant() activates that it sees either a downed enemy, item or the player, SawSomething() to check which of the three was seen and push each to their respective behaviour tree branch

8

Don’t post pictures of code. Post code in code tags please.

I don’t think you really digested what I said as well.

In any case what Kurt says is still true. GetComponent ‘works’ anywhere when working with components or game objects. Works in that it’s valid to call it, but you need to make sure you’re getting the right component from the right object, otherwise the behaviour won’t be as expected.

That’s not really the issue here however.

If your SomethingImportant expects a collider, then you need to get a reference to a valid collider to pass through. How? Depends on the context, but usually with the OnCollisionEnter unity message, or through raycasting.

Make sense?

9

Ayye I’ll keep it to code sorry

Yeah the enemy has a colider as it’s viewcone, it works as it is so that shouldn’t be a problem right? Just did a sanity check and yes SomethingImportant detects items too