Instantiated Player's Child Objects change Position Automatically

Scripting
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1

When the player is instantiated through the following lines of code:

        //Player 1
        if(PlayerPrefs.GetString("P1_State", "Enabled") == "Enabled")
        {
            Player_1 = Instantiate(playerPrefab, Vector3.left * 3f, Quaternion.identity);
            Player_1.name = "P1";
            Player_1.tag = "Team A";
            Renderer P1_ren = Player_1.GetComponent<Renderer>();
            ColorUtility.TryParseHtmlString(PlayerPrefs.GetString("P1_Color", "#FFFFFF"), out Color P1_newColor);
            P1_ren.material.color = P1_newColor;
        }

Everything seems to be working fine except when one of its child game object is activated in runtime it unexpectedly changes its position and appears above where it should be.

Details that might help:

  1. the child object has no script attached.
  2. when the player is instantiated, the child objects position is zero; it changes when it is set to active.
  3. the child objects position does not change when I try to force it to be zero
  4. the child object has a 2d collider, but it is just a trigger. (I thought may be its because both player and the child object have a collider; but they seem to be overlapping when I checked in the inspector)

Required Solution:
I want the child objects position to be the same as I set it in the player’s prefab view (i.e. 0) even after it is set active.

Any help will be appreciated :slight_smile:

2

First, delete ALL that noise above… line 4 is the only relevant line to your problem.

We know that Instantiate() works

Now go find out what you’re doing wrong.

Check for things like animations that can move things in unexpected ways.

Try a blank fresh prefab with ZERO animations on it. We know that will work.

Time to start debugging! Here is how you can begin your exciting new debugging adventures:

You must find a way to get the information you need in order to reason about what the problem is.

Once you understand what the problem is, you may begin to reason about a solution to the problem.

What is often happening in these cases is one of the following:

  • the code you think is executing is not actually executing at all
  • the code is executing far EARLIER or LATER than you think
  • the code is executing far LESS OFTEN than you think
  • the code is executing far MORE OFTEN than you think
  • the code is executing on another GameObject than you think it is
  • you’re getting an error or warning and you haven’t noticed it in the console window

To help gain more insight into your problem, I recommend liberally sprinkling Debug.Log() statements through your code to display information in realtime.

Doing this should help you answer these types of questions:

  • is this code even running? which parts are running? how often does it run? what order does it run in?
  • what are the names of the GameObjects or Components involved?
  • what are the values of the variables involved? Are they initialized? Are the values reasonable?
  • are you meeting ALL the requirements to receive callbacks such as triggers / colliders (review the documentation)

Knowing this information will help you reason about the behavior you are seeing.

You can also supply a second argument to Debug.Log() and when you click the message, it will highlight the object in scene, such as Debug.Log("Problem!",this);

If your problem would benefit from in-scene or in-game visualization, Debug.DrawRay() or Debug.DrawLine() can help you visualize things like rays (used in raycasting) or distances.

You can also call Debug.Break() to pause the Editor when certain interesting pieces of code run, and then study the scene manually, looking for all the parts, where they are, what scripts are on them, etc.

You can also call GameObject.CreatePrimitive() to emplace debug-marker-ish objects in the scene at runtime.

You could also just display various important quantities in UI Text elements to watch them change as you play the game.

Visit Google for how to see console output from builds. If you are running a mobile device you can also view the console output. Google for how on your particular mobile target, such as this answer for iOS: How To - Capturing Device Logs on iOS or this answer for Android: How To - Capturing Device Logs on Android

If you are working in VR, it might be useful to make your on onscreen log output, or integrate one from the asset store, so you can see what is happening as you operate your software.

Another useful approach is to temporarily strip out everything besides what is necessary to prove your issue. This can simplify and isolate compounding effects of other items in your scene or prefab.

If your problem is with OnCollision-type functions, print the name of what is passed in!

Here’s an example of putting in a laser-focused Debug.Log() and how that can save you a TON of time wallowing around speculating what might be going wrong:

“When in doubt, print it out!™” - Kurt Dekker (and many others)

Note: the print() function is an alias for Debug.Log() provided by the MonoBehaviour class.

3

I knew I saw that pfp somewhere :smile:; your answers have solved a lot of my problems before and very often you suggest to debug in a blank scene to find out what’s wrong, how could i forget that!

Anyways thanks for reaching out, I’ll try to find out what’s wrong and let you know if I succeed