Resolved Need help with variable referencing in another script

Hi, I'm working on a project where you scope in to shoot enemies with a sniper, I have the sniper scoping bit working and I need to use the variable "canShoot" in the script for shooting enemies. I have it set up so when you click on the enemy it should log in the console "alive" if you shoot when not scoped in, and "dead" if you shoot and are scoped in, but no matter if I'm scoped in or not it always logs "dead". I need help figuring out why it does this, and how I can fix it.

Video of the bug

This is the script for logging if the enemy is dead or alive

Code (CSharp):

1. using System.Collections;
2. using System.Collections.Generic;
3. using UnityEngine;
4.  
5. public class kill : MonoBehaviour
6. {
7.     public scope canShoot;
8.  
9.     // Start is called before the first frame update
10.     void Start()
11.     {
12.         canShoot = FindObjectOfType<scope>();
13.     }
14.  
15.     private void OnMouseDown()
16.     {
17.         if (canShoot == true)
18.         {
19.             Debug.Log("dead");
20.         }
21.         if (canShoot == false)
22.         {
23.             Debug.Log("alive");
24.         }
25.     }
26.  
27. }
28.  

This is the script used for scoping in, which also sets canShoot to true or false

Code (CSharp):

1. using System.Collections;
2. using System.Collections.Generic;
3. using UnityEngine;
4.  
5. public class scope : MonoBehaviour
6. {
7.     public GameObject scoped;
8.     public GameObject sniper;
9.     public bool canShoot = false;
10.  
11.     // Start is called before the first frame update
12.     void Start()
13.     {
14.         scoped.SetActive(false);
15.         sniper.SetActive(true);
16.         canShoot = false;
17.     }
18.  
19.     // Update is called once per frame
20.     void Update()
21.     {
22.         // SHOOTING
23.         // 0 is left 1 is right
24.         if(Input.GetMouseButtonDown(1))
25.         {
26.             scoped.SetActive(true);
27.             sniper.SetActive(false);
28.             canShoot = true;
29.             if(canShoot == true)
30.             {
31.                 Debug.Log("can shoot");
32.             }
33.         }
34.         if(canShoot == true && Input.GetMouseButtonUp(1))
35.         {
36.             scoped.SetActive(false);
37.             sniper.SetActive(true);
38.             canShoot = false;
39.             if (canShoot == false)
40.             {
41.                 Debug.Log("can not shoot");
42.             }
43.         }
44.     }
45. }
46.  

If someone can figure out why the variable isn't working right in the kill script or how to fix it I would greatly appreciate the help. Incase it helps, I'm making this project in unity 2020.3.32f1

 

While I suggest more tutorials, the simple answer is canShoot in kill is a scope type. If you want to check the one that is on the scope script, you would have to check canShoot.canShoot.

Naming them the same doesn't connect them. I would suggest you change the variable name in the kill script to something else.

 

Referencing variables, fields, methods (anything non-static) in other script instances:

https://forum.unity.com/threads/hel...-vars-in-another-script.1076825/#post-6944639

https://forum.unity.com/threads/accessing-a-gameobject-in-different-scene.1103239/

It isn't always the best idea for everything to access everything else all over the place. For instance, it is BAD for the player to reach into an enemy and reduce his health.

Instead there should be a function you call on the enemy to reduce his health. All the same rules apply for the above steps: the function must be public AND you need a reference to the class instance.

That way the enemy (and only the enemy) has code to reduce his health and simultaneously do anything else, such as kill him or make him reel from the impact, and all that code is centralized in one place.

 

What I'm trying to do now is just to log if the player is able to kill the enemy

 

What I thought I had done is just use the variable canShoot from the scope script in the kill script, and is what I want to do

 

Then what I posted is what you need. Perhaps some of this too:

Time to start debugging! Here is how you can begin your exciting new debugging adventures:

You must find a way to get the information you need in order to reason about what the problem is.

Once you understand what the problem is, you may begin to reason about a solution to the problem.

What is often happening in these cases is one of the following:

- the code you think is executing is not actually executing at all
- the code is executing far EARLIER or LATER than you think
- the code is executing far LESS OFTEN than you think
- the code is executing far MORE OFTEN than you think
- the code is executing on another GameObject than you think it is
- you're getting an error or warning and you haven't noticed it in the console window

To help gain more insight into your problem, I recommend liberally sprinkling

Debug.Log()

statements through your code to display information in realtime.

Doing this should help you answer these types of questions:

- is this code even running? which parts are running? how often does it run? what order does it run in?
- what are the names of the GameObjects or Components involved?
- what are the values of the variables involved? Are they initialized? Are the values reasonable?
- are you meeting ALL the requirements to receive callbacks such as triggers / colliders (review the documentation)

Knowing this information will help you reason about the behavior you are seeing.

You can also supply a second argument to Debug.Log() and when you click the message, it will highlight the object in scene, such as

Debug.Log("Problem!",this);

If your problem would benefit from in-scene or in-game visualization, Debug.DrawRay() or Debug.DrawLine() can help you visualize things like rays (used in raycasting) or distances.

You can also call Debug.Break() to pause the Editor when certain interesting pieces of code run, and then study the scene manually, looking for all the parts, where they are, what scripts are on them, etc.

You can also call GameObject.CreatePrimitive() to emplace debug-marker-ish objects in the scene at runtime.

You could also just display various important quantities in UI Text elements to watch them change as you play the game.

Visit Google for how to see console output from builds. If you are running a mobile device you can also view the console output. Google for how on your particular mobile target, such as this answer for iOS: https://forum.unity.com/threads/how-to-capturing-device-logs-on-ios.529920/ or this answer for Android: https://forum.unity.com/threads/how-to-capturing-device-logs-on-android.528680/

If you are working in VR, it might be useful to make your on onscreen log output, or integrate one from the asset store, so you can see what is happening as you operate your software.

Another useful approach is to temporarily strip out everything besides what is necessary to prove your issue. This can simplify and isolate compounding effects of other items in your scene or prefab.

Here's an example of putting in a laser-focused Debug.Log() and how that can save you a TON of time wallowing around speculating what might be going wrong:

https://forum.unity.com/threads/coroutine-missing-hint-and-error.1103197/#post-7100494

"When in doubt, print it out!(tm)" - Kurt Dekker (and many others)

Note: the

print()

function is an alias for Debug.Log() provided by the MonoBehaviour class.

 

I have fixed it! I renamed the "canShoot" in the kill script to "script" and I added ".canShoot" after every instance of script. Now it works!