Storing Inspector Values into Globals

Hello there,

I have a simple question:
How do I store the currently given scale value (or anything else on that GameObject) to a global variable inside a C# script?

Scenario example:
Tree growing.
You place a tree, you scale it to your liking (as big as a house with 2 levels), place it so that it will clip just right beyond surface level and let it scale up, and want to store the X-value (Y and Z become obsolete, since the scale is 1:1:1 / a³) so it can resize itself back to the original height/width.

I made a script letting trees grow, but I am not aiming to decrease every single tree's current X Y and Z scale one by one (will be impossible by over 1000 of trees in my scene), so I need their current "max growth" size stored automatically by the given transform value.


I've tried it via "public float maxGrowthInit = transform.localScale.x;" and other ones but I guess that logic I have from MSSQL isn't the same here. :'D

 

To clarify desired purpose:

• Place tree in edit mode
• Scale to desired final growth size
• Press play to enter runtime
• Tree begins at 0,0,0 scale
• Tree slowly returns to final size

Your attempt is pretty close, you just need to assign the value in Start:

Code (CSharp):

1. float maxGrowth;
2.  
3. void Start () {
4.    maxGrowth = transform.localScale.x; //Store size here
5.    transform.localScale = Vector3.zero; //Reset tree to small
6. }

 

Not exactly.
As I said, I made a script which does the growing part already, but I need to store the current scale of the tree gather information about an automated "maxGrowth" function.

Example:

Transform values of my current Tree,
Redwood 15,15,15
Birch Tree 3,3,3
... and so on

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. public class PlantGrowth : MonoBehaviour {
3.  
4.     // instead of giving a global like "public float maxGrowth = 999f;"
5.     // and adjusting it manually in the inspector, it should parse the information
6.     // like this without my input:
7.     public float maxGrowthInit = GameObject.localScale.x; // I know that this ain't working, but this is how I think that the logic should be handled by refering to data.
8.     // which in this case should be: "public float maxGrowthInit = 15f;"
9.     // or "public float maxGrowthInit = 3;" depending on the tree type
10.     public float speedGrowth = 0.00001f;
11.     Vector3 initScale;
12.     Vector3 tempScale;
13.  
14.     void Start()
15.     {
16.     //Start scale happens here
17.     }
18.  
19.     void Update ()
20.     {
21.     //Growing happens here
22.     }
23. }
24.  

Instead of manually inputting the 3 and overwriting the placeholder "999"

 

You could achieve this with editor scripting.
Make an inspectorgui override for PlantGrowth, add HideInInspector to maxGrowthInit, and write to maxGrowthInit in onInspectorGui

However, I see no reason why you cant just read the value in Start (or awake) if you are beginning runtime with the objects scale at its final grow value (and then settings to small in start)
[is 'automated "maxGrowth" function' an editorside thing, if so then i get it now - though you could still just read the scale from the transform at that point]

Spoiler: Added line 14

Code (CSharp):

1.  
2. public class PlantGrowth : MonoBehaviour {
3.     // instead of giving a global like "public float maxGrowth = 999f;"
4.     // and adjusting it manually in the inspector, it should parse the information
5.     // like this without my input:
6.     public float maxGrowthInit = GameObject.localScale.x; // I know that this ain't working, but this is how I think that the logic should be handled by refering to data.
7.     // which in this case should be: "public float maxGrowthInit = 15f;"
8.     // or "public float maxGrowthInit = 3;" depending on the tree type
9.     public float speedGrowth = 0.00001f;
10.     Vector3 initScale;
11.     Vector3 tempScale;
12.     void Start()
13.     {
14.     //Read max scale here first
15.     //Start scale happens here
16.     }
17.     void Update ()
18.     {
19.     //Growing happens here
20.     }
21. }