Question Make camera follow object

I am creating a game that has loads of objects receiving live input from my computer. As such, there is a varying amount of objects every time I run the scene. I would like to make it so that if I click on one of these objects, it will teleport the camera to that object and follow that object around until I click another button to cancel it out.

Code (CSharp):

1. public class CameraFollower : MonoBehaviour
2. {
3.  
4.  
5.     // Start is called before the first frame update
6.     void OnMouseDown()
7.     {
8.         GameObject cameraaa = GameObject.Find("VR Rig");
9.         cameraaa.transform.position = this.transform.position;
10.     }
11.  
12. }

This is my script for this job and it is attached to each game object. VR Rig is the name of my camera (I'm using a XR headset if that matters). It doesnt throw any errors, it just doesnt do anything at all. this.transform.position is supposed to be the location the object is attached to. My end goal is to have something that looks like the following
void Update()
(if mouse left button is clicked) {
x = 1
}
while(x = 1) {
camera follows object
}
(if right mouse button is clicked) {
x = 0
camera returns to starting position
}

 

Ive made some more progress thats more promising but I'm getting an error I cant explain.

Code (CSharp):

1. using System.Collections;
2. using System.Collections.Generic;
3. using UnityEngine;
4.  
5. public class CameraFollower : MonoBehaviour
6. {
7.     void Update() {
8.  
9.         if (Input.GetMouseButtonDown(0)) {
10.             RaycastHit hit;
11.         Ray ray = Camera.main.ScreenPointToRay(Input.mousePosition);
12.        
13.         if (Physics.Raycast(ray, out hit)) {
14.             string name = hit.transform.name;
15.             Debug.Log(name);
16.             GameObject aircraft = GameObject.Find(name);
17.             this.transform.position = aircraft.transform.position;
18.         }
19.         }
20.     }
21. }
22.  

But whenever I click anything the console just writes:
Object reference not set to an instance of an object on line 11 (Ray ray = Camera.main.ScreenPointToRay(Input.mousePosition)
Any ideas? Is there an import I'm missing? When I click I am hitting something.

 

The answer is always the same... ALWAYS!

How to fix a NullReferenceException error

https://forum.unity.com/threads/how-to-fix-a-nullreferenceexception-error.1230297/

Three steps to success:
- Identify what is null <-- any other action taken before this step is WASTED TIME
- Identify why it is null
- Fix that

Beyond that, keep in mind that Camera stuff is pretty tricky... you may wish to consider using Cinemachine from the Unity Package Manager.

There's even a dedicated forum: https://forum.unity.com/forums/cinemachine.136/

 

Except (from my understanding) what I'm clicking isnt null. All I have is a square and a flat plane, which both have box colliders and their respective mesh renderers. I even tried making a cube inside the scene while its running to no avail, and unfortunately cinemachine wont be able to fufill what I need.

 

Code (CSharp):

1. using UnityEngine;
2.  
3. public class SelectAndFollow : MonoBehaviour
4. {
5.     Transform target;
6.     Vector3 offset; // our hover position relative to the target
7.  
8.     void Start()
9.     {
10.         target=transform;  
11.     }
12.  
13.     void Update()
14.     {
15.         Transform cam=Camera.main.transform;
16.         if (Input.GetMouseButtonDown(0))
17.         {
18.             Ray ray=Camera.main.ScreenPointToRay(Input.mousePosition);
19.             if (Physics.Raycast(ray,out RaycastHit hit,2000f))
20.             {
21.                 target=hit.transform;
22.                 offset=(target.position-cam.position).normalized*15f;   // lets get within 15 meters of target
23.             }
24.         }
25.        
26.         cam.position=Vector3.Lerp(cam.position,target.position-offset,Time.deltaTime);  // gradually move towards target
27.         Quaternion rot=Quaternion.LookRotation(target.position-transform.position,Vector3.up);
28.         cam.rotation=Quaternion.Lerp(cam.rotation,rot,5f*Time.deltaTime);               // gradually look towards target
29.  
30.         offset=Quaternion.AngleAxis(-Input.GetAxisRaw("Horizontal")*3f,Vector3.up)*offset;  // rotate the camera offset around the target
31.         offset=Quaternion.AngleAxis(Input.GetAxisRaw("Vertical")*3f,cam.right)*offset;      // go up and down
32.         offset*=1f-Input.GetAxis("Mouse ScrollWheel");  // zoom in and out using mouse wheel
33.     }
34.  
35. }
36.  

 

That only means you didn't find what is null.

It's not like the computer will find something NOT null and then tell you it's null!! Trust the computer.

You are still on step #1.

 

Okay then Ill go ahead and ask this, why would a cube or sphere be null? They have no scripts attached, their only modifiers are mesh renderer and cube/sphere colliders.

 

Code (csharp):

1. GameObject cube = GameObject.CreatePrimitive( PrimitiveType.Cube);
2.  
3. cube = null;
4.  
5. cube.SetActive(false);  // nullref

And yet you'll notice a fully-formed cube still in scene, and yet cube is null!

Next question: have you actually found what is null, printed it to Debug.Log() and verified?

 

ALSO... you want nullrefs? because this is how to get nullrefs.

Remember the first rule of GameObject.Find():

Do not use GameObject.Find();

More information: https://starmanta.gitbooks.io/unitytipsredux/content/first-question.html

More information: https://forum.unity.com/threads/why-cant-i-find-the-other-objects.1360192/#post-8581066

In general, DO NOT use Find-like or GetComponent/AddComponent-like methods unless there truly is no other way, eg, dynamic runtime discovery of arbitrary objects. These mechanisms are for extremely-advanced use ONLY.

If something is built into your scene or prefab, make a script and drag the reference(s) in. That will let you experience the highest rate of The Unity Way(tm) success of accessing things in your game.

 

I've tried adapting my code to look like this still to no avail unfortunately. My new code looks like this:

Code (CSharp):

1. using System.Collections;
2. using System.Collections.Generic;
3. using UnityEngine;
4. using System;
5.  
6. public class CameraFollower : MonoBehaviour
7. {
8.  
9.     Transform target;
10.     Vector3 offset; // our hover position relative to the target
11.     void Start()
12.     {
13.         target = transform;
14.     }
15.     void Update()
16.     {
17.  
18.         if (Input.GetMouseButtonDown(0))
19.         {
20.  
21.             Ray ray = Camera.main.ScreenPointToRay(Input.mousePosition);
22.  
23.             if (Physics.Raycast(ray, out RaycastHit hit, 2000f))
24.             {
25.                 string name = hit.transform.name;
26.                 Debug.Log(name);
27.                 GameObject aircraft = GameObject.Find(name);
28.                 this.transform.position = aircraft.transform.position;
29.             }
30.         }
31.  
32.     }
33. }

 

Im not creating the objects from a script, simply right clicking in hierarchy and creating a new 3d object. No, I do not know what is null aswell, and to respond to your second response, I tried removing the gameobject.find aswell but that had no effect. How would I print a cube created in the hierarchy's null status?