Saving and loading a ton of variables, c#

I am creating a game similar to fire emblem. I have a script that I attached to all of my player prefabs that I can edit all of the variables in in inspector. I want to be able to save and load the variables such as stat points and level and assign them to the correct entity of the "CharacterSheet" script. there are going to be about 12 variables to be saved per character and about 40 characters. So in total I need to save and load up to 500 variables and load them to the correct script.

Character sheet script for reference:

Code (CSharp):

1. using UnityEngine;
2. using System.Collections;
3.  
4. public class CharacterSheet : Character{
5.  
6.     public string characterClass;
7.  
8.     public int strength
9.     {
10.         get { return CurrentClass.Strength + baseStrength; }
11.     }
12.     public int magic
13.     {
14.         get { return CurrentClass.Magic + baseMagic; }
15.     }
16.     public int speed
17.     {
18.         get { return CurrentClass.Speed; }
19.     }
20.     public int agility
21.     {
22.         get { return CurrentClass.Agility + baseAgility; }
23.     }
24.     public int defense
25.     {
26.         get { return CurrentClass.Defense + baseDefense; }
27.     }
28.     public int luck
29.     {
30.         get { return CurrentClass.Luck + baseLuck; }
31.     }
32.     public int health
33.     {
34.         get { return CurrentClass.Health + baseHealth; }
35.     }
36.  
37.  
38.     void Start(){
39.         if (characterClass == "FighterClass") {
40.             CurrentClass = new FighterClass ();
41.         } else if (characterClass == "MageClass") {
42.  
43.         } else if (characterClass == "ArcherClass") {
44.  
45.         } else if (characterClass == "SpearmanClass") {
46.  
47.         }
48.  
49.         //current level and exp
50.         level = 1;
51.         exp = 0;
52.         neededExp = 100;
53.  
54.         //Testing if variables are being assigned and working
55.         Debug.Log (characterName);
56.         Debug.Log (CurrentClass.ClassName);
57.         Debug.Log (CurrentClass.ClassDescription);
58.         Debug.Log (CurrentClass.ClassWeaponType);
59.         Debug.Log (CurrentClass.ClassStrength);
60.         Debug.Log (CurrentClass.ClassWeakness);
61.         Debug.Log (strength);
62.         Debug.Log (magic);
63.         Debug.Log (speed);
64.         Debug.Log (agility);
65.         Debug.Log (defense);
66.         Debug.Log (luck);
67.         Debug.Log (health);
68.  
69.         AddExp (10000);
70.  
71.     }
72.     //Calculates and determins if this character levels up and how many times they do when exp is given.
73.     public static void AddExp(int EXP){
74.         exp += EXP;
75.         Debug.Log ( " gained " + EXP + " EXP!");
76.         while (exp >= neededExp) {
77.             level ++;
78.             Debug.Log(" leveled up to " + level);
79.             exp -= neededExp;
80.             neededExp += 50;
81.         }
82.         Debug.Log (exp);
83.         Debug.Log (neededExp);
84.     }
85.  
86. }

What the inspector looks like:

 

Have you taken a look at the BinaryFormatter? I suppose it would work well here.

Check out the Unity tutorial here.

 

Further to the above - you could use the XmlSerializer. Bang all your "CharacterSheets" into a collection and use the xmlserializer to save the whole thing.

 

Currently I am trying to do BinaryFormatter but I am not sure as to how to grab and assign variable to the correct entity of the script between saving and loading. I cant just say "playerdata.exp = charactersheet.exp" for saving and "charactersheet.exp = playerdata.exp" for loading. Becasue there will be almost 40 different entity's of "charactersheet", it will be very hard to reference each of the 40 prefabs and save/load up to 12 variables to each prefab.

 

How could I? all of the character sheets are named "characterSheet" and all I do is attach it to a object and assign variables in the inspector.

 

Why can't you mark the class with Serializable property? That's what you would use with the BinaryFormatter

 

How would that work though. let me give an example. I have 3 characters with the CharacterSheet script on them and they all have different values stored in each variable(Example: Character 1 HP: 5, Character 2 HP: 7, Character 3 HP: 11) If I put [Serializable] at the top of the CharacterSheet script, would it save all 3 variables and load them to their respective entity of that script or will it jumble all the numbers up and apply the same variable to all the scripts(Example: Character 1 HP: 5, Character 2 HP: 5, Character 3 HP: 5) .

 

If you want to go down the xml route - put your characters into a List<T> and call the below to save to disk.

Code (CSharp):

1. public void SaveCharacters(List<CharacterSheet> characters, string filename)
2. {
3.     using (StreamWriter writer = new StreamWriter(Path.Combine(Application.persistentDataPath, filename + ".xml")))
4.     {
5.         XmlSerializer serialiser = new XmlSerializer(typeof(List<CharacterSheet>));
6.  
7.         serialiser.Serialize(writer, characters);
8.     }
9. }

 

So I would just put all of my prefabs in a list then save it and load them from the saved list whenever I need them?

 

Yeah just save the scripts assigned to them

 

Okay I have the code but where to I put the prefabs? do I need to create another list that appears in the inspector?

 

those are Models in MVP pattern, (Object that holds data configuration and no logic)

luckily, Unity has a built-in class called "Scriptable Object",

 

Also I am getting an error:
InvalidOperationException: To be XML serializable, types which inherit from IEnumerable must have an implementation of Add(System.Object) at all levels of their inheritance hierarchy. UnityEngine.Transform does not implement Add(System.Object).

 

When you re-instantiate an entity from a save file, you'll be loading up the saved character sheet data back into the entity, as long as that's how it was serialized to the file. I'd like to know some reasons why you'd get "jumbled" numbers. One way I can think of is if you use a Dictionary or Set or something, since the order can't be guaranteed. In this case, you should have at least some unique identifier for the character and its associated character sheet.

 

There is a string where I assign the characters name in the inspector. would that work as an identifier?

 

As long as it's unique. Why not? One reason I can think that they might not be unique is NPCs. If you have a generic NPC, you could have them numbered or something. NPC01, NPC02, etc. The key is to make them unique. You'll hear that a lot when identifying your item data. Unique Identifiers and Globally Unique Identifiers (guids), etc. This allows you to, well, identify any item in your game. This is especially useful when saving/loading. Because you can't save references to file. Well, you can, but they won't mean anything when you deserialize it. But you can save ids to reference an entity to its various data that its related to.

Oh, and one more step to be more pro, is it's better to store unique ids as integers, rather than names. Storing names will eat up memory and disk usage, and is more error prone if the serialization process resolves the strings to variable length encoding. Better to serialize ids, and then map the ids to names in a different object.

 

Presumable CharacterSheet inherits from monobehaviour at some point - you don't want to serialise the whole unity gameobject as it'll be massive. Instead create a model (just a class) that contains the properties you need to save.

 

Alright. So any suggestions on how to ID things? If I am using Integers, how would I be able to tell the difference between a character, NPC, Enemy, Weapon, and item? Also how would I keep track of what has what ID?

 

So I would have to change how I inherited things?

Code (CSharp):

1. public abstract class Character{
2.  
3.     public ICharacterClass CurrentClass;
4.  
5.     public string characterName;
6.    
7.     public static int level;
8.     public static int exp;
9.     public static int neededExp;
10.  
11.     public int baseStrength;
12.     public int baseMagic;
13.     public string baseSpeed = "DO NOT CHANGE";
14.     public int baseAgility;
15.     public int baseDefense;
16.     public int baseLuck;
17.     public int baseHealth;
18. }

Code (CSharp):

1. public class CharacterSheet : Character{
2.  
3.     public string characterClass;
4.  
5.     public static bool alive = true;
6.  
7.     public static bool characterActive = false;
8.  
9.     public int strength
10.     {
11.         get { return CurrentClass.Strength + baseStrength; }
12.     }
13.     public int magic
14.     {
15.         get { return CurrentClass.Magic + baseMagic; }
16.     }
17.     public int speed
18.     {
19.         get { return CurrentClass.Speed; }
20.     }
21.     public int agility
22.     {
23.         get { return CurrentClass.Agility + baseAgility; }
24.     }
25.     public int defense
26.     {
27.         get { return CurrentClass.Defense + baseDefense; }
28.     }
29.     public int luck
30.     {
31.         get { return CurrentClass.Luck + baseLuck; }
32.     }
33.     public int health
34.     {
35.         get { return CurrentClass.Health + baseHealth; }
36.     }
37.  
38.  
39.     void Start(){
40.         if (characterClass == "FighterClass") {
41.             CurrentClass = new FighterClass ();
42.         } else if (characterClass == "MageClass") {
43.  
44.         } else if (characterClass == "ArcherClass") {
45.  
46.         } else if (characterClass == "SpearmanClass") {
47.  
48.         }
49.    
50.         //current level and exp
51.         level = 1;
52.         exp = 0;
53.         neededExp = 100;
54.  
55.         //Testing if variables are being assigned and working
56.         Debug.Log (characterName);
57.         Debug.Log (CurrentClass.ClassName);
58.         Debug.Log (CurrentClass.ClassDescription);
59.         Debug.Log (CurrentClass.ClassWeaponType);
60.         Debug.Log (CurrentClass.ClassStrength);
61.         Debug.Log (CurrentClass.ClassWeakness);
62.         Debug.Log (strength);
63.         Debug.Log (magic);
64.         Debug.Log (speed);
65.         Debug.Log (agility);
66.         Debug.Log (defense);
67.         Debug.Log (luck);
68.         Debug.Log (health);
69.  
70.         AddExp (10000);
71.  
72.     }
73.     //Calculates and determins if this character levels up and how many times they do when exp is given.
74.     public static void AddExp(int EXP){
75.         exp += EXP;
76.         Debug.Log ( " gained " + EXP + " EXP!");
77.         while (exp >= neededExp) {
78.             level ++;
79.             Debug.Log(" leveled up to " + level);
80.             exp -= neededExp;
81.             neededExp += 50;
82.         }
83.         Debug.Log (exp);
84.         Debug.Log (neededExp);
85.     }
86.  
87. }

 

Just make another object which contains the properties you need to save, then when you want to save make an instance of it and copy values from CharacterSheet to it.

 

This all loops back to my original problem, how? I must first find a way to to get and set values both ways but with several instances of the same script, this can become a problem. How would I know that every variable is being saved and loaded and how would I apply getters and setters to variables that have unique values for each instance of the same script?

 

Basically you'd get back a list of "model objects" when you loaded - you'd use these to create / modify your character sheets. Rather than creating them in the designer you could create them programmatically - which would just be a new character sheet for each model object. If you don't want to do that then you need to have a unique id on each character sheet so that you can map the models to them.

 

Here a quick example of using a character manager game object to look after all your character sheets.

Code (CSharp):

1. public class CharacterManager : MonoBehaviour
2. {
3.     private List<GameObject> _characters;
4.  
5.     public void Start()
6.     {
7.         _characters = new List<GameObject>();
8.    
9.         // if you want to create them programatically
10.  
11.         for (int i = 0; i < HowManyYouWant; i++)
12.         {
13.             // Create the character prefab
14.             _characters.Add(Instantiate(CharacterPrefab));
15.        
16.             // Maybe set some properties on it
17.             var character = _characters.Last().GetComponent<CharacterSheet>();
18.             character.strength = 10;
19.             character.defense = 20;
20.         }
21.    
22.         // or if you want to get them from the scene
23.    
24.         _characters.add(GameObject.Find("Character1"));
25.         _characters.add(GameObject.Find("Character2"));
26.     }
27.  
28.     public void Save()
29.     {
30.         // Loop through the character sheets and create a model for each of them
31.         List<CharacterModel> toSave = _characters.Select(x => new CharacterModel() { strength = x.GetComponent<CharacterSheet>().strength }).ToList();
32.    
33.         // save above list to file
34.     }
35.  
36.     public void Load()
37.     {
38.         var loadedCharcters // load from xml file
39.    
40.         // loop through _characters and find the matching loadedCharcters item and set properties
41.     }
42. }

 

is there a way that I could group all of the variables in each script in its own container that is marked with an ID then just save/load from matching containers and script ID's? So pretty much I would set an ID in the inspector and when I instantiate a character it would grab whatever container has the same ID and apply the variables inside that container.

 

Here is an Example of what I am saying:

Code (CSharp):

1. using UnityEngine;
2. using System.Collections;
3.  
4. public class TestContainers : MonoBehaviour {
5.  
6.     public static string[] names = new string[10];
7.     public static int[] health = new int[names.Length];
8.  
9.     public OtherTest otherTest;
10.  
11.     public void SaveData(int ID, GameObject CharacterObject){
12.         otherTest = CharacterObject.GetComponent<OtherTest> ();
13.         health [ID] = otherTest.characterHealth;
14.     }
15.  
16.     public void LoadData(int ID, GameObject CharacterObject){
17.         otherTest = CharacterObject.GetComponent<OtherTest> ();
18.         otherTest.characterHealth = health [ID];
19.  
20.     }
21. }
22.  
23. public class OtherTest{
24.     public GameObject CharacterObject;
25.     public int characterID = 1;
26.  
27.     public int characterHealth;
28.  
29.     void Awake(){
30.         TestContainers.LoadData (characterID, CharacterObject);
31.     }
32.  
33.     public bool save = false;
34.     void Update(){
35.         if (save == true) {
36.             TestContainers.SaveData(characterID, CharacterObject);
37.             save = false;
38.         }
39.     }
40. }

I know that this could use some more tweaking, but in theory would this work if I saved the "health" array assuming OtherTest would function as a charactersheet and I can type the ID in the inspector?

 

There's no reason why you couldn't but its not a very good way - you've best just saving a model that reflects the charactersheet

 

I ma getting a lot of errors. Am I missing any library's besides Generic?

 

Errors in the above code? It probably won't compile - just wrote it as an example.

 

Ok. I don't think "var" is part of c#, I could be wrong. also there are a lot of commands you were using for the generic list that do not work. Could you possibly have mixed some javaScript in there?

 

var is part of c#, you need to include system.linq to get the list extensions.

 

var is for inferred typed variables... for example you can say:

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. var obj = new GameObject("Foo");
3.  

And the compiler will infer that the variable 'obj' is supposed to be type 'GameObject' and stick it in there.

You can't just willy nilly use var, there has to be an inference.

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. var obj; //error, compiler can't infer type
3. obj = new GameObject("Foo");
4.  

In newer versions of .Net there is 'dynamic' which does allow something like that... but the version used in Unity does not support it.

As for Jackal16's code, the use of var appears to be place-holder, a sample to demonstrate that something should be there. Don't just copy-paste code and expect it to "just work"... read the code, understand the code, and understand when we show you example code on the forums, it's not the "working solution" it's a "guidance towards a working solution".

 

I am having trouble understanding what is happening in the save method. Could you please explain it to me?

 

After further experimenting I came up with this, I think this might be a good solution but I keep getting an "Index out of range" error whenever I try testing the save method. I am not sure why because I filled the gameobject list in the inspector and I fill the CharacterSheet list before I try writing it to a file.

Code (CSharp):

1. public class CharacterManager : MonoBehaviour
2. {
3.     public static CharacterManager characterManager;
4.  
5.     void Awake () {
6.         if (characterManager == null) {
7.             characterManager = this;
8.             DontDestroyOnLoad (gameObject);
9.         }else if(characterManager != this){
10.             Destroy(gameObject);
11.         }
12.     }
13.  
14.     public List<GameObject> CharactersSaveAndLoad = new List<GameObject>(1);
15.     private List<CharacterSheet> CharacterSheetsSaveAndLoad = new List<CharacterSheet>(1);
16.  
17.     public void GetSheets(){
18.         for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
19.             CharacterSheetsSaveAndLoad[i] = CharactersSaveAndLoad[i].GetComponent<CharacterSheet>();
20.         }
21.     }
22.     public void Save(){
23.         BinaryFormatter bf = new BinaryFormatter ();
24.         FileStream file = File.Create (Application.persistentDataPath + "/playerInfo.dat");
25.  
26.         GetSheets ();
27.         CharacterData data = new CharacterData ();
28.  
29.         data.Sheets = CharacterSheetsSaveAndLoad;
30.      
31.         bf.Serialize (file, data);
32.         file.Close();
33.         Debug.Log ("Save Compleated");
34.      
35.     }
36. }
37.  
38. public class CharacterData{
39.     public List<CharacterSheet> Sheets ;
40. }

 

http://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/JsonUtility.html

Code (CSharp):

1. using UnityEngine;
2. [Serializable]
3. public class PlayerInfo
4. {
5.     public string name;
6.     public int lives;
7.     public float health;
8.     public static PlayerInfo CreateFromJSON(string jsonString)
9.     {
10.         return JsonUtility.FromJson<PlayerInfo>(jsonString);
11.     }
12.     public void Load(string savedData)
13.     {
14.         return JsonUtility.FromJsonOverwrite(savedData, this);
15.     }
16.     public string SaveToString()
17.     {
18.         return JsonUtility.ToJson(this);
19.     }
20.     // Given JSON input:
21.     // {"name":"Dr Charles","lives":3,"health":0.8}
22.     // this example will return a PlayerInfo object with
23.     // name == "Dr Charles", lives == 3, and health == 0.8f.
24. }

 

Some context would be helpful.

 

you can use this new JSONUtility class to transform most serializable classes into a string which can easily be saved in user prefs or to file or cloud

not binary but easier it seems

 

I would prefer to have things in binary.