How can I write my script without using public? - unity3d

Question

So I'm currently trying to add my player object with it's script into my camera script that is written for camera object.
using UnityEngine;
public class CameraController : MonoBehaviour
{
public Transform target;
private Vector3 offset;
private float damping = 0.2f;
public bool canMove = true;
public PlayerMovement player;
private void Start()
{
player = gameObject.GetComponent<PlayerMovement>();
}
void FixedUpdate()
{
if (player.faceRight)
{
offset = new Vector3(1f, 0.5f, -10f);
transform.position = Vector3.Lerp(transform.position, target.position, damping) + offset;
}
else if (!player.faceRight)
{
offset = new Vector3(-1f, 0.5f, -10f);
transform.position = Vector3.Lerp(transform.position, target.position, damping) + offset;
}
}
}
My problem is that I can't write player = gameObject.Find("Player"); because unity is saying something like "those are different types of elements" but I can drag my player object if I write public PlayerMovement player; and it works. The thing is I want to learn how to use that without dragging my object.

Answer 1

First of all you can expose and assign private (and protected) fields via the Inspector by using the attribute [SerializeField] without being forced to make them public like e.g.
[SerializeField] private PlayerMovement player;
private void Awake()
{
// if it's not referenced via the Inspector
// get it from this object on runtime as fallback
if(!player) player = GetComponent<PlayerMovement>();
}
And then, well, your field player is of type PlayerMovement while Find returns a GameObject → Not the same type.
Now if you want to get that component from the same object this script is attached to .. then why should you use the expensive Find at all?! You already know the object! Use only GetComponent to get the component attached tot he same object as this script (just like in the code above).
If you really want to use Find then you want to use GetComponent on the result, not on gameObject which is the reference to that scripts own GameObject. You would rather do
[SerializeField] private PlayerMovement player;
private void Awake()
{
if(!player) player = GameObject.Find("player").GetComponent<PlayerMovement>();
}
or if there is anyway only one instance of that type in your scene you can also simply use FindObjectOfType
[SerializeField] private PlayerMovement player;
private void Awake()
{
if(!player) player = FindObjectOfType<PlayerMovement>();
}
In general: If you can reference something via the Inspector it is always better doing so. It is way more efficient because the reference will be serialized into your scene or prefab asset so when it is loaded you already "know" the target reference. Using Find is very expensive and even though it was optimized a lot in later versions also GetComponent is work you could be avoiding ;)

Answer 2

I added my both GameObject and PlayerMovement attributes. Wrote gameObject first, which is called as "Player". Then by using my GameObject, I interacted with my script which is called PlayerMovement.
using UnityEngine;
public class CameraController : MonoBehaviour
{
public Transform target;
private Vector3 offset;
private float damping = 0.2f;
public bool canMove = true;
private GameObject playerObject;
private PlayerMovement playerMovementScript;
private void Start()
{
player = GameObject.Find("Player");
player = gameObject.GetComponent<PlayerMovement>();
}
void FixedUpdate()
{
if (player.faceRight)
{
offset = new Vector3(1f, 0.5f, -10f);
transform.position = Vector3.Lerp(transform.position, target.position, damping) + offset;
}
else if (!player.faceRight)
{
offset = new Vector3(-1f, 0.5f, -10f);
transform.position = Vector3.Lerp(transform.position, target.position, damping) + offset;
}
}
}
I fixed that problem when I was writing that issue here. So I'm kinda proud of myself but also I want to share my solution so if anyone encounter a problem like this, they can fix their problems. If anyone has better solution please share.