Can't get a prefab to update

I am trying to make changes to a prefab using an instance of the prefab but it is not working. What I am trying to do is add a reference to a text object. I have created a variable(text) and put the text object into the variable slot in the inspector. After that I hit apply but the prefab doesn't have the variable in the slot. It just says that there is no gameobject in the slot.

 

Is the text object a child of the prefab (because it needs to be for the reference to work)? My suspicion is that you're trying to reference something else in the scene but a prefab cannot store scene references in that way. The reason being, imagine you loaded that prefab into a completely different scene, that reference would be invalid, thus it isn't allowed.

 

The text object is not a child of the prefab. How do I make it a child?

 

And yes, it is an object in the scene I am currently working on.

 

Does the problem persist if you reload the project?

Sometimes, the best is to delete the prefab and remake it entirely by dragging the instance into the prefab folder.

 

If you're using a text object, that should already be a child of a canvas (because it needs to be). So to make it a child of your prefab you'd need to drag the canvas onto your prefab instance in the hierarchy. If this is a small text label that renders in the world that should be ok.

However, if your text is part of something which you want only one of (let's say it's a HUD) then the issue gets a little more complicated. You don't want every prefab instance bringing a new hud with it. In that case I'd leave the canvas in the scene and add a tag to it labelled as "hud". Then in your prefab that wants to reference that have a call in the awake function of your script use GameObject.FindWithTag("hud") to get a reference to the hud within your scene. As with a lot of coding, this isn't necessarily the fastest or smartest way to do it, but it works while you're learning.

 

You can't reference anything in a scene via an inspector field on a prefab. As already mentioned you should establish your reference at run time.

 

I have tried using GameObject.FindObjectWithTag, but the object I am trying to reference is a UI element, so it get an error saying that i can't convert from a UI element to a GameObject.

 

You can then find the UI component on that GameObject using GetComponent

 

Thanks, i will try that