Change order in layer to a new number

kloot

Hi there,
Any action that allows changing the "Order in layer" for a non-character game object (and also any remember component to remember this)?

Thanks

ChrisIceBox

You can control such a property through animation, play it back with the Object: Animate Action, and store its state with the Remember Animator component.

kloot

Oh, do you mean by also creating an animation then? I was thinking of something more along the lines of the "Character:Change rendering".
Since this isn't all that uncommon and I don't really want to animate anything, it might be worth adding a dedicated action for it?

Either way, thank you for the anim solution though - would've never thought of doing it that way

Rairun

Edit: sorry, I thought I had a similar script, but I don't.

ChrisIceBox

it might be worth adding a dedicated action for it?

Custom Actions can be plugged in to extend AC whenever necessary - here's a sample one that changes the order of a supplied Renderer.

Name the file ActionSortingOrder.cs, place it in a dedicated folder, and point to it in the Actions Manager. It'll then be available as Object: Change sorting order.

using UnityEngine;

namespace AC
{

    [System.Serializable]
    public class ActionSortingOrder : Action
    {

        public Renderer renderer;
        public int newSortingOrder;

        public override ActionCategory Category { get { return ActionCategory.Object; }}
        public override string Title { get { return "Change sorting order"; }}

        public override float Run ()
        {
            renderer.sortingOrder = newSortingOrder;
            return 0f;
        }

        public override void Skip ()
        {
             Run ();
        }

        #if UNITY_EDITOR

        public override void ShowGUI ()
        {
            renderer = (Renderer) UnityEditor.EditorGUILayout.ObjectField ("Renderer:", renderer, typeof (Renderer), true);
            newSortingOrder = UnityEditor.EditorGUILayout.IntField ("New sorting order:", newSortingOrder);
        }

        #endif

    }

}

kloot

Thanks for the action. Changing the sorting order in runtime isn't so much the problem as having it saved though, why I figured it might be worth to pair it with a Remember component in AC.

ChrisIceBox

Custom Remember components are possible, too - see this tutorial.

Though, with the animation workflow, and use of the Remember Animator component, no scripting is necessary.

kloot

Ah, cool - I'll write a RememberSorting component then. Thanks for the pointers!

sonicjoy

I'd love to use this script but I'm getting a console error. I've put the script in a folder called Custom Actions, where my other custom actions live.

Suggestions as to what I'm doing wrong?

(My AC v 1.75.4, Unity 2020.3.20f1)

ActionSortingOrder.cs(16,31): error CS0161: 'ActionSortingOrder.Run()': not all code paths return a value

ActionSortingOrder.cs(30,76): error CS1503: Argument 1: cannot convert from 'string' to 'UnityEngine.Object'

ActionSortingOrder.cs(30,89): error CS1503: Argument 2: cannot convert from 'UnityEngine.Renderer' to 'System.Type'

ChrisIceBox

It was a typo on my part. Try the updated script above.

Zombiehype

I used this script in my game and it works great. I'm trying to extend it a bit to make it accept an AL parameter. I think I'm almost there and when I launch the AL directly it works great, accepting the default value of the parameter.

The problem is that when I launch the AL from another AL, assigning the parameter (or even without assigning it and using the default values), I get this error:

UnassignedReferenceException: The variable objectToAffect of ChangeSortingOrder has not been assigned.
You probably need to assign the objectToAffect variable of the ChangeSortingOrder script in the inspector.

I found this particularly weird since the action works by itself

My edits are mainly taken from the script tutorial 2/3. here's my script:

public GameObject objectToAffect;
    public Renderer renderer;
            protected SortingGroup sortingGroup;
    public int newSortingOrder;
            public int parameterID = -1;
            private int constantID;

    public override ActionCategory Category { get { return ActionCategory.Custom; }}
    public override string Title { get { return "Change sorting order"; }}


    public override float Run ()
    {
                renderer = objectToAffect.GetComponent<Renderer>();
                sortingGroup = renderer.GetComponent<SortingGroup>();
                if (sortingGroup)
                {
                    sortingGroup.sortingOrder = newSortingOrder;
                }
                renderer.sortingOrder = newSortingOrder;
      return 0f;
    }

    public override void Skip ()
    {
         Run ();
    }

    #if UNITY_EDITOR

    public override void ShowGUI (List<ActionParameter> parameters)
    {
                parameterID = Action.ChooseParameterGUI("GameObject to affect:", parameters, parameterID, ParameterType.GameObject);
                if (parameterID >= 0)
                {
                    constantID = 0;
                    objectToAffect = null;
                }
                else
                {
                    objectToAffect = (GameObject) EditorGUILayout.ObjectField("GameObject to affect:", objectToAffect, typeof (GameObject), true);
                    constantID = FieldToID (objectToAffect, constantID);
                    objectToAffect = IDToField (objectToAffect, constantID, true);
                }

                newSortingOrder = UnityEditor.EditorGUILayout.IntField ("New sorting order:", newSortingOrder);
    }

            override public void AssignValues (List<ActionParameter> parameters)
            {
                objectToAffect = AssignFile (parameters, parameterID, constantID, objectToAffect);
            }

    #endif

ChrisIceBox

Your AssignValues function needs to be outside of the UNITY_EDITOR directive.

Zombiehype

Thanks, but unfortunately that wasn't it. I'm still getting the same error. Here's the actual .cs file for good measure

Zombiehype

Not sure if related, but I also noticed that when clicking on the little button besides the action parameters that brings up the assets list, I get this other error (the button works fine though)

GUI Error: Invalid GUILayout state in ActionListEditorWindow view. Verify that all layout Begin/End calls match
UnityEngine.GUIUtility:ProcessEvent (int,intptr,bool&)

Zombiehype

My bad, the error was in the AL, not the script I had forgot one additional instance of the action that had lost the target when I refactored the script, and it was that one that was blocking the whole thing. The script works as it is!

I still get the console error of my last message, but it's not blocking and doesn't impact any aspect of the action apparently.

Lawfish

@kloot Could you please share me the RememberSorting script? I really need it and I can't write one by myself, thank you so much!

kloot

Hey @Lawfish, here's the RememberSorting script I used for this:

using UnityEngine;

namespace AC
{
    [RequireComponent(typeof(SpriteRenderer))]
    public class RememberSorting : Remember
    {
        public int previousSortingOrder;

        public override string SaveData()
        {
            var renderer = GetComponent<SpriteRenderer>();

            var data = new SortingData();
            data.sortingOrder = renderer.sortingOrder;
            data.previousSortingOrder = previousSortingOrder;
            data.objectID = constantID;

            return Serializer.SaveScriptData<SortingData>(data);
        }

        public override void LoadData(string stringData)
        {
            var data = Serializer.LoadScriptData<SortingData>(stringData);
            if (data == null)
                return;

            var renderer = GetComponent<SpriteRenderer>();
            renderer.sortingOrder = data.sortingOrder;
            previousSortingOrder = data.previousSortingOrder;
        }
    }

    [System.Serializable]
    public class SortingData : RememberData
    {
        public int previousSortingOrder;
        public int sortingOrder;
        public SortingData() { }
    }
}

Lawfish

Thank you so much!