Beginner B28 – SendMessage() to Call External Functions
How to use SendMessage() to call functions in scripts attached to other objects.
Code Used (Javascript) – Reactor.js
var downTexture : Texture2D;
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function React () {
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renderer.material.mainTexture = downTexture;
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yield WaitForSeconds(1);
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gameObject.AddComponent(Rigidbody);
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}
Code Used (Javascript) – Switcher.js
function OnCollisionEnter(col : Collision) {
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if(col.gameObject.name == "Switch"){
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gameObject.Find("Block").SendMessage("React");
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}
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}
Related Modules
- Beginner B01 – Basic Collision Detection
- Beginner B09 – Adding Materials
- Beginner B22 – Pausing Scripts with WaitForSeconds()
- Beginner B15 – Adding Components via Script
Further Reading
20 Comments
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Wow!
New tutorial!
Thanks, man.
Awesome, new stuff coming as promised !
Thank you for your hard work and dedication, these videos are really precious!
Wow! New video! Thanks, this was so helpful. Please post more videos, i love yours.
The goodness just keeps on coming!
Might seem trivial but would it not make more sense to put the switcher script onto the switch and tell it to look for a collision with the ball?
Great tutorial and it’s exactly what I was looking for.
Thanks!
wow
thanks, man
you helped me a lot xD
I’m Wesllei directly from Brazil
Brilliant stuff mate; I’m loving your very helpful and concise tutorials.
I desperately needed this one in particular as I was using an overly complex system where I held a static array of Strings to pass commands to objects, pushed commands like “Camera=Follow”, and then disassembled the strings in a for loop in the receiver script
This is much neater and much more efficient, so thank you!
Wow that was super useful, thank you!!!!!!!!
Good and clear tutorial. Explained it rather well and thorough.
감사합니다 도움 많이 받고 있습니다
당신은 환영
Very helpful tutorial!
Question:
Is there a way to use “gameObject.Find” to reference an object created with a prefab?
Example:
I have a prefab named “GamePiece-Yellow”. What I want to do is spawn an object from the prefab and then move it in a direction.
I can spawn the prefab but when I try to call the function in the script that I have applied to prefab “GamePiece-Yellow” I get a NullReferenceException error using: gameObject.Find(“GamePiece-Yellow”).SendMessage(“movePieceUP”);
Is this because when the object is created from the prefab it is named: “GamePiece-Yellow(Clone)” ?
Thanks!
-TEK
Hi Tek, yes indeed, if you want to avoid that issue, make sure you name your object when you instantiate it- for example (javascript)
var thing : GameObject = Instantiate(prefabRef, position, rotation);
thing.name = “ExactlyWhatYouWantToCallit”;
That worked, thank you Will!
Hi,
The send message example is AWESOME! But what if I have 10 Objects in the scene named “Block”? it seems to only find the first one for some reason ?
How would I send the message to all of the other blocks with the same name?
Or do I have to go through and name them Block, Block1, Block2, Block3 etc.. then update the code like
gameObject.Find(“Block”).SendMessage(“React”);
gameObject.Find(“Block1″).SendMessage(“React”);
gameObject.Find(“Block2″).SendMessage(“React”);
gameObject.Find(“Block3″).SendMessage(“React”);
The reason Im having trouble with this is what if I have 25 or so Blocks how would I handle this? to send the message to all of them with the same name? or maybe I did something wrong?
Cheers,
Zeek
Ps I love these tutorials keep them coming
I found Object.FindObjectsOfType in the scripting reference but I don’t understand it to be able to use with the example above to be able to find all of the Blocks with the name Block.
See my reply to your original question.
Just the wrong approach is all. Things like this, make sure you tag them all the same, then use a for loop to iterate the same command for all of them. Something like (javascript) this -
var blocks : GameObject[] = GameObject.FindObjectsWithTag(“block”);
for(var theblock in blocks){
theblock.SendMessage(“React”);
}
Here we find everything tagged ‘block’ and then use that array in a for loop, making a variable called theblock to represent the current entry in the array, then for each time we find an entry in the array, we send it a message called React.
Good luck!
Thanks Will
it works perfectly now
they all drop its sooo cool I added a bouncy material lol
Again Thank you Sir