How to reference a function from a Component that is, itself, a variable

Unity Engine
1

I have a gameObject in my scene, “CharacterA.”

CharacterA has a special only-for-him script: ReactionsForCharacterA. It has a function: Panic()

Every Character has a unique-to-them script, but all of those scripts have a Panic() function.

What I want to do is to be able to reference the Panic() function from any other script.
But I have no idea how to tell Unity which script I want, via reference (not name).

I couldn’t find anyone else ever trying to do anything this silly, so Google was no help.

I tried this, but Unity won’t let it compile (no surprise):

using UnityEngine;

public class RandomOrdinaryScript: MonoBehaviour
{
    //This variable is where the UniqueToA, UniqueToBe, &c scripts would go.
    public Component UniqueToCharacterScript;

public void CallTheirPanic()
{
    //I know what I want to ask Unity to do, but no idea how to ask it.
    GetComponent<UniqueToCharacterScript>().Panic();
}
}

I tried several variants of that line.
I tried prefixing it with gameObject..
I tried turning things into strings
I tried shuffling and removing (sorts) .o.f. things.
None of them worked.

But then I thought, “This may not be possible. Let me see if anyone knows in the forums,” since a few hours of internet searches proved fruitless.

Does anyone know? Can this even be done?

2

What I suggest is you look at setting up an interface. Then, you can grab that interface and call panic on it instead of whatever script is on that character.

3

Either use the same base class for the unique character classes and have them all derive from that or implement an interface.

1 Like
4

Quick example, excuse any typos or other weirdness. You’ll also need to create the Interface itself (in this case ISpeak) but there are a ton of examples on that, so I’ll leave that to you.

public class Dog: MonoBehaviour, ISpeak
{
   public void Speak()
{
}
}

public class Cat: MonoBehaviour, ISpeak
{
   public void Speak()
{
}
}

public class AnotherScript: MonoBehaviour
{
   public void TargetSpeak(GameObject target)
{
    target.GetComponent<ISpeak>().Speak();
}
}
1 Like
5

Oh gosh I had no idea this was a “thing.”

Thank you!

I swear, a single tutorial that just had a screenshot of a “Hello World” script with lines pointing at the different parts and saying “You know what else could go here?” would solve, I think, half of all nooby forum posts like mine…