CairX / game-unity-collection

Game - Unity Collection

This repository is my personal notebook containing scribbles about the Unity game engine. During the short time I have been using the engine it feels like I have spent equal parts doing developing as I have been doing research. There is some useful information that I would like to remember, because I will without a doubt forget some if it, so here are my notes.

Table of Contents

Extension Methods

Feature of the C# language, I recommend reading this guide over at Microsoft Docs for further details. Following examples will show have it can be used to extend functionality to predefined components in Unity.

Example - Vector3

In order to change one value of a Vector3 you have to create a new Vector3 object. An example would that you want to change just the z value of the transform.position. Originally you would write something like the following.

transform.position = new Vector3(transform.position.x, transform.position.y, 0);

With extension methods it's possible to make it a little less verbose. To me it also becomes less error prone, know that I have copy and pasted the above a few times and every now and again a value isn't correctly modified.

transform.position = transform.position.ChangeZ(0);

Not all that much difference but do it several times and it's kinda convenient. The following shows how to set it up.

using UnityEngine;

public static class VectorExtensions {
    public static Vector3 ChangeX(this Vector3 vector, float x) {
        return new Vector3(x, vector.y, vector.z);
    }

    public static Vector3 ChangeY(this Vector3 vector, float y) {
        return new Vector3(vector.x, y, vector.z);
    }

    public static Vector3 ChangeZ(this Vector3 vector, float z) {
        return new Vector3(vector.x, vector.y, z);
    }
}

Example - Transform

Extension methods also allow for direct modification in contrast to the example of extending Vector3.

transform.Reset();

The following shows how to set it up.

using UnityEngine;

public static class TransformExtensions {
    public static void Reset(this Transform transform) {
        transform.position = Vector3.zero;
        transform.localRotation = Quaternion.identity;
        transform.localScale = new Vector3(1, 1, 1);
    }
}