Scripting Changes to Unity 5

I'm doing the project stealth tutorial after doing the survival shooter, and it seems that there was a major change as to how to access the components and object properties the script is attached to.

Here's what they call for in code:

Code (CSharp):

1. public class LaserBlinking : MonoBehaviour
2. {
3.     public float onTime;            // Amount of time in seconds the laser is on for.
4.     public float offTime;           // Amount of time in seconds the laser is off for.
5.    
6.    
7.     private float timer;            // Timer to time the laser blinking.
8.    
9.    
10.     void Update ()
11.     {
12.         // Increment the timer by the amount of time since the last frame.
13.         timer += Time.deltaTime;
14.        
15.         // If the beam is on and the onTime has been reached...
16.         if(renderer.enabled && timer >= onTime)  //*****
17.             // Switch the beam.
18.             SwitchBeam();
19.      }
20. //I left the rest out)
21.  

The line where I added the "//*****" my "enabled' is in RED highlighting an error. Do I have to define the object that the script is attached to as a private variable first in order to access the renderer? I've seen stuff like this a lot with the previous tutorials, but I haven't seen anyone explain what was changed so that their script works fine as is, but extra steps are needed?

 

Replace renderer with GetComponent<Renderer>()

 

thanks! that worked, but I'm really interested in what was changed between unity 4.x - 5 to make the script logic not work the same so I understand better.

 

This is the case for all component shortcuts (renderer, rigidbody, collider, etc)

 

http://blogs.unity3d.com/2014/06/23/unity5-api-changes-automatic-script-updating/

--Eric

 

thank you, this is exactly what I was looking for! Thanks for the replies everyone