Unity singleton manager classes
c#, design-patterns, singleton, unity-game-engine
Solution
Like always: it depends. I use singletons of both kinds, components attached to `GameObject` and standalone classes not derived from `MonoBehaviour`. IMO the overall question is how are instances bound to the lifcycle of scenes, game objects, ... And not to forget sometimes it is more convenient to have a component especially referencing other `MonoBehaviour` objects is easier and safer.
- There are classes that just need to provide some values like for example a config class that needs to load settings from persistence layer when called. I design theese classes as simple singletons.
- On the other hand some objects need to know when a scene is started i.e. `Start` is called or have to perform actions in `Update` or other methods. Then I implement them as component and attach them to a game object that survives loading new scenes.
I designed component based singletons (type 2) with two parts: a persistent `GameObject` called `Main`, which holds all components and a flat singleton (type 1) called `MainComponentManager` for managing it. Some demo code:
public class MainComponentManger {
private static MainComponentManger instance;
public static void CreateInstance () {
if (instance == null) {
instance = new MainComponentManger ();
GameObject go = GameObject.Find ("Main");
if (go == null) {
go = new GameObject ("Main");
instance.main = go;
// important: make game object persistent:
Object.DontDestroyOnLoad (go);
}
// trigger instantiation of other singletons
Component c = MenuManager.SharedInstance;
// ...
}
}
GameObject main;
public static MainComponentManger SharedInstance {
get {
if (instance == null) {
CreateInstance ();
}
return instance;
}
}
public static T AddMainComponent <T> () where T : UnityEngine.Component {
T t = SharedInstance.main.GetComponent<T> ();
if (t != null) {
return t;
}
return SharedInstance.main.AddComponent <T> ();
}
Now other singletons that want to register as `Main` component just look like:
public class AudioManager : MonoBehaviour {
private static AudioManager instance = null;
public static AudioManager SharedInstance {
get {
if (instance == null) {
instance = MainComponentManger.AddMainComponent<AudioManager> ();
}
return instance;
}
}
Problem
In Unity, whats a good way to create a singleton game manager that can be accessed everywhere as a global class with static variables that will spit the same constant values to every class that pulls those values? And what would be the way to implement it in Unity? Do I have to attach it to a GameObject? Can it just be there in a folder without being in the scene visually?