How to reference empty gameobject in script? C#

Unity Engine
1

Hello, thanks for all the help so far. People have overall been very nice to assist with the harsh learning curve in Unity :slight_smile:

I have run into a very simple problem i guess, i have been googling a bit but can’t seem to find the answer.

let’s say i reference a prefab I’ve made, don’t know if this is the correct way of describing it. :slight_smile: But, i reference Spell23Prefab by using:

public GameObject Spell23Prefab;

then i save, and drag the prefab into the slot that appears in unity. This is all fine. But if i try doing the same with an empty gameobject, already in the scene, i can’t really drop it in a similar slot. Do i need to use some other wording? public gameobject doesn’t work. So how do i refer to an empty gameobject? Like how do i tell the script which empty gameobject i want it to focus on :slight_smile:

2

Hi,
It should work with the dragging but if not, use:GameObject Spell123Prefab = GameObject.Find(“ name of the object”)

3

If you have an empty GameObject in your scene, you can still drag and drop it into a variable that is public GameObject.
If that doesn’t work, you have a different issue on hand that is preventing it from working.

4

The GameObject you want to reference still needs an identifier, i.e. you need to give it a “name” just like you called the other “Spell23Prefab”.
public GameObject myEmptyGameObject;

5

It is called SpellSpawn in the scene, and i used: “public GameObject SpellSpawn;” in the script. It wouldn’t let me drop it there, from the scenes hierarchy.

6

Yeah thanks, but since i need to reference 81 gameobjects, i guess it would be better to do it in the editor, right? Probably minimal difference when it comes to performance though.

7

Make sure you don’t have any compiler errors.

8

Well, it was because i was trying to reference a gameobject, in the script of a prefab in my assets folder. As soon as i dragged it into the scene, i could do it just fine.

9

Not sure what you actually said, but yes, you can’t add stuff to a prefab from your scene.

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10

Yes exactly that. ty.

11

I was having a similar problem with the editor, and the solution was that the reference to the empty was a prefab, and making the empty into a prefab fixed it.

12

This is a bit advanced, but for 81 objects you wouldn’t hand-make them. You’d have the game create them on start-up, storing the links as it goes. Ex:

public GameObject emptyPF;

GameObject[] Spells;
public int spellCount = 81;

void Start() {
  Spells = new GameObject[81];
  for(int i=0;i<spellCount;i++) {
    Spells[i] = Instantiate(emptyPF);
    Spells[i].name = "spell"+(i+1); // for example
  }

If they were so unique that you must premake them, you could put them inside another empty “spell holder”. Organize them in the order you want. Now spell #n is: spellHolder.getChild(n);.

1 Like