NullReferenceException error

Hello everyone.

I am currently working on my first Unity project with a small group. I am trying to trigger a Game Over screen when the player dies, but I'm having some trouble accessing a variable from another script. Here is the PlayerDeath script that I'm having trouble with:

Code (CSharp):

1. using System.Collections;
2. using System.Collections.Generic;
3. using UnityEngine;
4.  
5. public class PlayerDeath : MonoBehaviour {
6.  
7.     public Transform Canvas;
8.  
9.  
10.     void Update ()
11.     {
12.         GameObject Player = GameObject.Find("Ikari");
13.         PlayerScript playerScript = Player.GetComponent<PlayerScript>();
14.  
15.         if (playerScript.isDead == true)
16.         {
17.             Canvas.gameObject.SetActive(true);
18.             Time.timeScale = 0;
19.         }
20.     }
21. }

And the error code says "NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object. PlayerDeath.Update () (at Assets/Scripts/PlayerDeath.cs:13).
Which to my undertsanding means it can't find something on line 13, however I have no idea why =/ As I said it's my first project so if anyone can educate me as to what I'm doing wrong I'd be ever so grateful.

Thanks!

 

The NullReferenceException is telling you that one of your variables is undefined. For line 13 that could be a couple of things.

1. The variable "Player" is undefined. This would suggest that the call to Find did not find a GameObject called "Ikari". Check spelling etc.

2. The variable "playerScript" could be undefined. This would suggest that the GameObject called Ikari does not have a PlayerScript component attached to it. Or, the PlayerScript component is attached to a child GameObject on Ikari. Assuming the latter use GetComponentInChildren<PlayerScript>().

Hope that helps

 

Using GameObject.find and getcomponent like that in update isn't very efficient. Since this is a death check, why not just trigger a gameover once the player dies? You are probably doing something either with a health or something where you can just determine if a player is dead instead of checking every frame like this.

@Dennis59 beat me to it. Good chance that player is null.

 

@Brathnann, good catch, I didn't even notice that. Call Find or GetComponent in Start, Awake or in a dedicated initialization method. And generally stay away from Find if you can. Very slow.

 

The player was indeed null. I'd forgotten to remove Destroy(gameObject) from the player script >.> Thank you for your suggestions! ^^