Need help Translating a small Script from UnityScript to C#

Unity Engine
1

I am kind of new to Unity. I am trying to follow a game tutorial on YouTube, but the guy uses UnityScript instead of C#. I won’t be using UnityScript/JavaScript on my games so I have been trying to translate his tutorial as a go from JavaScript to C#. I hit a roadblock from a small scrip that he made to control the camera so that it can follow the ship:

His script. written in javaScript/UnityScript:

var Target : Transform;
   var Distance : float = 14;
   var CameraY : float = 12;


   function Update() {
   transform.position.z = Target.position.z -Distance;
   transform.position.x = Target.position.x+7;
   }


   function LateUpdate() {
   GetComponent.<Camera>().main.transform.position.y = CameraY;

   }

Here is my attempt at translating it to C#:

using UnityEngine;
   using System.Collections;

   public class CameraScript : MonoBehaviour {

       Transform Target;
       float Distance = 15.0f;
       float CameraY = 10.0f;

       // Update is called once per frame
       void Update () {

           transform.position.z = Target.position.z - Distance;
           transform.position.x = Target.position.x + 5;
 
       }

       void LateUpdate()
       {
           GetComponent<Camera>().transform.position.y = CameraY;
       }
   }

I keep getting an error at the “transform.position.z” and “transform.position.x” that says: "Cannot modify the return value of ‘Transform.position’ because it is not a variable’

my attempt at the LateUpdate function is all kinds of jacked up.

please help

Link to video:

2

If your only roadblock is changing transform.position, in C# of Unity Transform.Position only takes in a Vector3. you cannot edit the individual values. What you want is to create a Vector3, manipulate it as if it is transform.position, and re-apply it to transform.position.

Oh and use code tags for displaying your code in your post, like this:

Vector3 temp = transform.position
//do changes to temp
..
temp.y = //whatever
..
transform.position = temp
3

Thanks a lot!
Could you also help me out translating the last part to CSharp?

GetComponent.<Camera>().main.transform.position.y = CameraY;
4

I can help!

Camera.main.transform.position.y = CameraY;

I think that’s what you’re looking for. I’m also sure that’s correct, but not 100% since I wrote this while at work without access to unity API or an IDE.

5

I really appreciate your help. This is what i got from your code:

2789583--202204--Capture.PNG
2789583--202204--Capture.PNG

6

Ah, yeah. Same issue as what Laperen was saying.
So you’ll need to do something like this:

 Vector3 temp = Camera.main.transform.position;
temp.y += CameraY;
Camera.main.transform.position = temp;
7

This is my final code, which didn’t show any errors. Could you please check it out and tell me whether it will perform the same as the original UnityScript version? can I make the code better? I will post both the original code and mine for your convenience:

Original UnityScript Code:

   var Target : Transform;
   var Distance : float = 14;
   var CameraY : float = 12;
   function Update() {
   transform.position.z = Target.position.z -Distance;
   transform.position.x = Target.position.x+7;
   }
   function LateUpdate() {
   GetComponent.<Camera>().main.transform.position.y = CameraY;
   }

My CSharp Code (Our code?):

using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections;

public class CameraScript : MonoBehaviour {

    Transform Target;
    float Distance = 15.0f;
    float CameraY = 10.0f;
    Vector3 tempPosition;
    Vector3 tempCamera;

    void Update () {
        tempPosition = transform.position;
        tempPosition.z = Target.position.z - Distance;
        tempPosition.x = Target.position.x + 5;
        transform.position = tempPosition;
   
    }

    void LateUpdate()
    {
        tempCamera = Camera.main.transform.position;
        tempCamera.y = CameraY;
        Camera.main.transform.position = tempCamera;
       
    }
}
8

You could, possibly, condense Update() to

tempPosition = new Vector3(Target.position.x +5, transform.position, Target.position.z - Distance);
transform.position = tempPosition;

Not necessarily an improvement, but it’s compact.

Otherwise, everything looks good. I’m worried that Camera.main might not actually be what you were doing in the JavaScript.

9

Main improvement I would suggest is making tempCamera and tempPosition local variables instead of class variables. Like this. This is better practice and closer to the original.

using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections;

public class CameraScript : MonoBehaviour {

    Transform Target;
    float Distance = 15.0f;
    float CameraY = 10.0f;

    void Update () {
        Vector3 tempPosition = transform.position;
        tempPosition.z = Target.position.z - Distance;
        tempPosition.x = Target.position.x + 5;
        transform.position = tempPosition;
    }

    void LateUpdate()
    {
        Vector3 tempCamera = Camera.main.transform.position;
        tempCamera.y = CameraY;
        Camera.main.transform.position = tempCamera;
    }
}

The other subtle change you have introduced is that the access modifiers to Target, Distance and CameraY have changed. In UnityScript they default to public, in C# they default to private. The main effect of this change is the variables will not be configurable from the inspector. The best practice is actually to tag them with [SerialiseField].

So that becomes

using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections;

public class CameraScript : MonoBehaviour {

    [SerialiseField] Transform Target;
    [SerialiseField] float Distance = 15.0f;
    [SerialiseField] float CameraY = 10.0f;

    void Update () {
        Vector3 tempPosition = transform.position;
        tempPosition.z = Target.position.z - Distance;
        tempPosition.x = Target.position.x + 5;
        transform.position = tempPosition;
    }

    void LateUpdate()
    {
        Vector3 tempCamera = Camera.main.transform.position;
        tempCamera.y = CameraY;
        Camera.main.transform.position = tempCamera;
    }
}

And if you really want to go all the way into Unity best practice, your field names should all be in camelCase.

1 Like
10

That looks good!. my code worked by the way. I really appreciate your help

11

Thanks a lot for your help. I’ll try to follow your advice