Hiding Properties in Inherited Classes

I've created a class to deal with a new hit detection use case which inherits from an abstract class handling the main hit detection logic.
The new class displays properties in the inspector which are redundant for its use case, and I'm wondering is there an easy way to hide them (or if it's a job for an InspectorGUI script)?

 

You'd have to use a custom editor I guess.

Frankly it sounds like you're kludging something into an inheritance pattern that doesn't really fit.

 

inheritance is likely not what you want here, like PraetorBlue suggested, and you'll have to write a custom editor

thing is... having an editor hide the property doesn't mean it's not there anymore. It just means the inspector doesn't show it.

if you shared your code we may be able to point you in a better direction of how to accomplish what you want

 

Good to know, thanks. I'm ok with the property still existing, just wont do anything in the new derivation so I want to hide it away so that it's not mistaken for a necessary property. If it's a job for an editor script I'll probably grin and bear it until I can have a proper look at it.

The stripped down version class and its derived classes are below.

Code (CSharp):

1. public abstract class Target : MonoBehaviour
2. {
3.     public TargetType targetType;
4.  
5.     //General hit detection and health logic
6. }
7.  
8. public TargetAI : Target
9. {
10.     //Extended functionality for AI Behaviour, uses targetType
11. }
12.  
13. public TargetPlayer : Target
14. {
15.     //Extended functionality for Player, uses targetType
16. }
17.  
18. public TargetTrigger : Target
19. {
20.     //NEW
21.     //Extended functionality for in-game triggers (shoot to interact), targetType not needed
22. }

 

Yeah, I'd just go a basic component approach. Unity is designed with a composited component based system first rather than inheritance first.

Think of it how Rigidbody is for simulating physics, but it does not inherit from Collider.

The so-called "is/has" situation. A Rigidbody HAS a collider, not is a collider. So you attach a Rigidbody and a Collider to the GameObject.

AIBehaviour HAS a Target, not is a Target.

Also, KISS, keep it simple stupid. Why is Target both offering up target information, resolving hit detection, AND health logic? Why not have a Health component for the health?

Your code doesn't have enough information for me to really glean what it is you're doing (you've stripped pretty much anything of informative value). But I bet you could break apart all of this functionality into appropriate scripts that have the fields necessary only to themselves. If you showed us the actual code, we could likely show you what we mean.

 

There's probably a good few ways to improve the structure of the code but I wont have an opportunity to review it any time soon so I wont go dumping the various scripts on you.

It isn't clear from the code above but Target isn't handling everything, it's more of a point of access for damage interaction (for instance, AI behaviour is a separate component decoupled from the TargetAI. TargetAI just holds additional code for triggering certain behaviors such as aggro). The idea with the inheritance pattern is that a gun or other damage source can use GetComponentOfType(Target) and polymorphism ensures it doesn't care what type of Target it is.

Thanks for the advice, I appreciate you guys taking the time to give the feedback.

 

And building upon lordofduct's high shoulders, you can even use interfaces in Unity to generalize access to components... this lets you make more abstract things such as IDamageable, IHealable, ITargetable, IShooter, etc.

That can further decouple your scripts from each other.

More blurbery I have scribbled in the past:

Using Interfaces in Unity3D:

https://forum.unity.com/threads/how...rereceiver-error-message.920801/#post-6028457

https://forum.unity.com/threads/manager-classes.965609/#post-6286820

Check Youtube for other tutorials about interfaces and working in Unity3D. It's a pretty powerful combination.

 

Thanks for all of this, it's been a great help.