Trying desperately to use method of object; C# wouldn't allow

Unity Engine
,
1

hey yall I’m quite desperate tbh.
I got a terrain with borders. When a gameobject hits a border, I want it to reappear elsewhere. it is quite easy actually: inside the borders class, inside the OnTriggerEnter, I’m trying to call the gameobect’s Start function. Here’s the code:

    private void OnTriggerEnter(Collider other)
    {
                other.gameObject.Start();
    }

of course it won’t compile, though. Despite I’ve set all the Start methods of the gameobjects that could possible collide with the borders to public, of course C# just thinks they are ordinary gameobjects. it should be noted that all the relevant gameobjects are also children of a parent class which has a public Start, too (the children extend the parent’s Start using base.Start). of course it doesnt make the error disappear, as C# just doesnt know it’s not an ordinary gameobject.
Even when I tell C# the type of the gameonbject - the error doesn’t disappear. this is how I told C# the type:

            if(other.gameObject.GetType() == typeof(Spawners))
                other.gameObject.Start();

(Spawners is the parent class, which includes a public Start)

If anyone knows how to let C# trust me that the type is indeed Spawners, or let it know that the method indeed exists, please tell me.

If anyone even knows how to make C# ignore the error and run anyway, it’d be wonderful as well. (yes, i’m that desperate)

Thanks for any help.

PS I know object pooling could handle this kind of stuff, but it both takes time to undedrstand how to use, and I want to keep everything simple (I don’t really need the functionality of pool objecting; start is perfect for my specific case).
PPS I know I could just use the OnTriggerEnter in the gameobjects itself, but I dont wanna change my entire script in order to make this stupid line of code work:(

2

Look at the docs for GameObject. It doesn’t have a Start method. MonoBehaviour script components do. Those are automatically called by unity because they’re callbacks.

The type of a GameObject is always GameObject. It doesn’t matter what you name it or tag it with or if it has a component added to it of type “Spawners”. A GameObject is a container of Components, some internal to Unity and the rest user-defined scripts (MonoBehaviour).

It looks like you’ve got a major misunderstanding on how things work in Unity and/or C#.

I have no idea what to suggest as a starting point because I have no idea of your current knowledge.

2 Likes
3

C# doesn’t “think”. It’s a language.

Trust doesn’t enter into this problem.

Did you go to the documentation and see that GameObjects do not have a Start() method? This is instantly checkable anywhere you are in the world with online documentation.

That makes absolutely zero sense whatsoever.

If your entire script was based on the misunderstandings above, something is going to have to change: either Unity will have to change and function the way you think it is organized, or you will need to correct your script. I’ll leave it to you to decide which approach will actually happen in reality.

I suggest you forget everything you THINK you know about C# and Unity… it sounds like there are serious gaps and misapprehensions and these thing are going to entangle you ceaselessly into the future unless you forget them all and move onto the correct mental model of what you’re doing.

Start with fresh tutorials, such as these:

Imphenzia / imphenzia - super-basic Unity tutorial:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwZpJzpE2lQ

Jason Weimann:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR0e-1UBEOU

Brackeys super-basic Unity Tutorial series:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlKaB1etrik

Sebastian Lague Intro to Game Development with Unity and C#:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cCGBMmMOFw

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…

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.

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.

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.

1 Like
4

indeed I’ve had misunderstandings abt regarding the script as component instead of the very object. i guess im gonna try to use the OnTriggerEnter in the gameobjects instead. thanks for trying to help.