The ScriptableObject in Unity is a very powerful concept that has many different applications. It lacks one feature that'd skyrocket its usefulness for me and that's being able to add "Components" to it. Unity allows to add "Components" through code, but they didn't expose this functionality to the Inspector.
The ScriptableObject Container package attempts to solve this. It allows to work with ScriptableObjects in a similar way how you work with Components and GameObjects.
You add a ScriptableObject to a ScriptableObjectContainer via the Inspector in a similar way how you add a Component to a GameObject.
On the scripting side, you get a ScriptableObject from the ScriptableObjectContainer in a similar way how you get a Component from a GameObject.
| ScriptableObjectContainer | GameObject |
|---|---|
ScriptableObject GetObject(Type type) |
Component GetComponent(Type type) |
void GetObjects(Type type, List<T> results) |
void GetComponents(Type type, List<T> results) |
T GetObject<T>() |
T GetComponent<T> |
void GetObjects<T>(List<T> results) |
void GetComponents(List<T> results) |
As of Unity 2019.3, Unity supports to add packages from git through the Package Manager window. In Unity's Package Manager, choose "Add package from git URL" and insert one of the Package URL's you can find below.
| Version | Link |
|---|---|
| 1.0.0 | https://github.com/pschraut/UnityScriptableObjectContainer.git#1.0.0 |
If this package is useful to you, please mention my name in your credits screen. Something like "ScriptableObject Container by Peter Schraut" or "Thanks to Peter Schraut" would be very much appreciated.
The package introduces the type ScriptableObjectContainer that derives from ScriptableObject.
A custom inspector implements the magic that allows to add a ScriptableObject as sub-asset, to remove such sub-asset as well as to change properties of such sub-asset through the Inspector. The ScriptableObjectContainer Inspector attempts to mimic the look and feel of Unity's built-in Inspector when working with Components.
The ScriptableObjectContainer itself is rather light-weight. It contains an array with references to its sub-assets. This allows you to retrieve these sub-assets through code, similar how you work with the GameObject.GetComponent and GameObject.GetComponents methods.
Beside the sub-assets array, the ScriptableObjectContainer does not contain much more code that's required in a build. It implements OnValidate when running in the Unity Editor to keep the sub-asset array synced, that's it.
The ScriptableObjectContainer package comes with several tests that run in Unity's Test Runner.
The tests can be enabled through the
SCRIPTABLEOBJECTCONTAINER_ENABLE_TESTS scripting define symbol.
Add this scripting define symbol to the Player Settings and they appear in
Unity's Test Runner.
Additionally to the new tests in the Test Runner window, it adds various context menu items to create test assets, which is the reason why it's disabled by default, basically to avoid cluttering your project with things you most likely don't need.
TODO