Please help a beginner

I'm working on first game and I need help. I just created a basic terrain with a couple trees and mountains, you know, the basics. Then I wanted to add in a character. Well when I try to add the asset it gives me an error message saying the tree couldn't be instanced because the prefab contains no valid mesh. Please help me because I have no idea what to do and I've been trying to find fixes for this, but everywhere I went said things I didn't understand because I'm just a beginner.

 

The ugly truth here is that you may have to slow down for a bit while you learn what those things mean. Everyone here has had the experience of just starting, and looking for help online, only to hit a wall of not understanding a single word on the help sites/forums.

My advice would be to take a breather and put your current character goal on the shelf for a second. Commit yourself to spending the next hour/week just looking up the terms you don't understand on those sites. Chances are you'll learn a lot more than just the answer you needed, which can be incredibly valuable in the future. It can also speed up future cases of looking for help.

Best wishes!

 

http://unity3d.com/learn

 

It seems like a mountain at first, but keep at it, things will start to fall into place. As you go through tutorials, it will probably also give you some great ideas as well
Welcome to Unity

 

Add me on skype if you want pretty new myself only a few weeks in but ill try to help.

timetravellingbananas

 

He is not asking for where to start. All he wants is a solution to that issue.

 

Maybe you're right...

@RoboticCoder We'd probably need more information to help with figure out your specific issue. But if you're still looking for a quick solution to that problem, please feel free to PM me.

 

are you upgraded to unity 5?

my suggestion (if you are not all ready) is to upgrade to unity 5

and then go from there

and it takes a long time to learn complier errors

i have no clue what they mean now that i have upgraded to unity 5 and i have to learn what they mean as well

 

Except it's clear he needs to start from the beginning.

This is a relatively simple problem to troubleshoot. If you don't know the right question to ask google, or subsequently know what you are looking at when you find an answer, you're chances of success are low. You shouldn't have to come to the forums every time you run into an issue that's probably easy to understand once you go through the many official tutorials.

OP i'm with @orionburcham on this one. Step back a bit. You'd be surprised how much more you know once you get through the official tutorials. It takes a little time, but the stuff you learn you can reuse in your own game so it's not wasted time.

The added bonus is you can solve these types of problems as you run into them or at the very least know what you are looking at when you find solutions in google.

 

You can't just leave the problem lying around, can you?
Pasting a link to "Learn" section won't help OP with a problem either.

The way he is learning right now is by trying out engine features (which is Terrain right now). I know that because I did the same thing the fist time I opened Unity 4 years ago. That's how it worked for me.

The best shot is to help him with a problem so he can move on.

@RoboticCoder Google before posting a duplicate question. Chances that it hasn't been asked/answered before are very low.

 

Probably many just like you.. and based on how many people have tried Unity probably thousands upon thousands that just gave up. I'd venture to guess you are a rare case that made it through the hard way.

I'm talking statistical chances of success. Start at the very fundamentals and go the easy route..

The error he's getting can't be any clearer. His prefab is missing a mesh yet he's using it in such a way that he requires one. Possibly re-importing the model will solve the problem. OP's question isn't very clear though.. Especially not clear enough for us to tell him exactly how to fix it. Something about adding a character, but the trees are an issue..

Hence my point. Start from the beginning get through the tutorials and then he will know how to word his questions well enough that probably google will answer him or at the very least make enough sense that the forum users can get there.

 

Look under the Mesh Filter component and it will show (None). Click the little circle and pick the mesh from the selections that should be the mesh for that prefab. Then once it is reconnected hit Apply.

I never do tutorials. They bore me silly. Hands and mind on with visual feedback is the way I learn.

 

Is what you're attempting beyond your current skill set? It's a mountain of learning, like most things worth doing. Take it SMALL, and by that, I mean cut 90% of what you're planning, then cut 90% more, and then cut a final 1/2. Try a 2D runner, a top-down shooter, or something as simple as pong. You'll be surprised by how hard these seemingly simple concepts are and also by how much you learn building them.

Deliberate practice - try things ALMOST beyond your ability; Improve; Repeat.

Gigi

 

I agree with what everyone is saying here, but there's an important note that I think is sometimes left out of advice to beginners: Making super simple learning games doesn't mean you can't have fun designing and making something cool. Hearing that you have to start out by making a bunch of exact clones of existing games can be soul crushing to newbies who come to game development with incredibly motivating creative dreams.

I never personally remade existing games when I was starting out- The closest I got was creating games in a well known genre, but with some unique twist. What I mean is, you don't really have to make Pong. You can make a Pong variant in which every time the ball hits a paddle, it splits into two. You could make spherical Pong. In the process of doing something creatively stimulating, you'll still end up learning the technical knowledge you would have gained by making a straight Pong clone.

Just do your best to stay realistic in the beginning, and be prepared to start over again if you realize your unique twist is too far beyond your current reach. Them's the facts, and we've all been there.