Unity/C# - Using [Serializefield] in Inspector vs a Find Method

Question

I am building a simple one scene mobile arcade game in Unity as part of my attempt to learn to code. The game might have multiple levels, say 100. To build the first level, I have used multiple scripts which are all referencing each other via [serializefield] in the inspector. Moreover, there are multiple UI textboxes displaying info, which are also linked to relevant scripts in the inspector. I did this as I thought it is the most efficient way after doing a bit of research (basically avoiding the engine looking for an already existing object in the scene). I prefabbed everything, including the empty game objects holding the scripts and moved to the second level.

However...

When I started building the second level, which would essentially contain the same game objects with different parameters, I noticed that when I dropped the prefabs into the scene I had to manually re-link all references in the inspector. With so many links to make over hundreds of levels, this would be very tedious and I would keep missing some links. It is all well and good to drop prefabbed objects in the scene but the references have to be re-established for each level directly in the scene. Having prefabs link to prefabs does not work (I tried it). So, there seems to be a lot of manual linking work this way.

So the upshot is...

I am starting to think I am better off using GameObject.Find("string") and FindObjectOfType<> for all my references to avoid having to continually make lots of links in the inspector for each level.

However...

Checking on forums, people say Find methods are inefficient and should be avoided, how inefficient I don't know. That concerns me as this will be a mobile game. Most of them are recommending [serializefield] and links in the Inspector as the best solution.

So, I am wondering if you can shed some light from your experience. What would work best for my situation? Other options I haven't considered ?

Many thanks.

If all the objects are linked together, then you should create one empty parent gameobject, drag all those objects that you need every scene and make a prefab out of it. Then you will not have those missing references. — Immorality
What do you mean by "and moved to the second level"? You specify that you are building inside "one scene". — NSJacob1
@Immorality, thank you so much for this!!! I just tested it by creating an empty game object and inserting the entire hierarchy in there. The links are preserved between scenes. Also any edits will then get applied across all levels. Another example of a solution that is easier than it seems. Solved! — user13794497

Andrew Łukasik Andrew Łukasik · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-30T20:12:23

You don't need to search for objects, ever. Just makes sure those objects' existence is tracked with some kind of static field.

For many instances of something (like players or enemies):

static list

For manager classes etc:

SerializableField pointing to ScribtableObjects assets
static singleton field

Simplest & best way to track life cycle of a pool of objects is this:

public class Enemy : MonoBehaviour
{
    public static List<Enemy> instances = new List<Enemy>(100);
    void OnEnable () => instances.Add( this );
    void OnDisable () => instances.Remove( this );
}

With little care this list will self-maintain to be always correct - after making sure you don't access this list before all OnEnable are called (in Start and Update is totally fine).

As you can hopefully see - search is just being lazy.

Unity/C# - Using [Serializefield] in Inspector vs a Find Method

1 Answers