CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#unity-game-enginegame-engine
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Reputation: 1505

What is "Messages" in Unity's MonoBehaviour class? (Start,Update,Awake...etc)

What is the "Messages" of this page? (Start,Update,Awake...etc)
Is is a something like virtual method or event?
Or "Messages" is one of the C# syntax?
https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/MonoBehaviour.html

Upvotes: 2

Views: 1681

Answers (2)

Menyus777
Menyus777

Reputation: 7007

The Unity engine basically calls these methods on MonoBehaviours if they are defined, depending on Engine events.

For example:

  • Awake is called when the script instance is being loaded.
  • Start is called in the first frame when the script is being enabled, before every Update method and after Awake
  • Update is being called in every frame

There are numerous messages as you can see it int the DOCs, and they are being called depending on engine events.

You can not call these events they are being handled by the engine!

Most commons are:

  • Update
  • Start
  • Awake
  • OnDestroy
  • OnEnable

But please note that using these methods(messages) while they are empty have a small overhead because the engine will call them, even if they are empty.

Another advanced thing is that some of these messages can be Coroutines. And you can give them some advanced functionality.

IEnumerator Start()
{
    Debug.Log("First frame I'm being enabled! yeee");

    Debug.Log("I'm going to blink after 2 seconds");
    yield return new WaitForSeconds(2.0f);

    Debug.Log("Executing blinking!");
    Blink();
}

Upvotes: 6

ChoopTwisk
ChoopTwisk

Reputation: 1334

'Message' here is a synonymous for Function/Method, which are just Automatically called functions by unity engine, for any script inheriting from MonoBehaviour and attached to an ACTIVE gameobject in your scene.

Consider an animal script

public class Animal : MonoBehaviour
{
    void Awake()
    {
        Debug.Log("Code here in awake is executed by unity the first time this object is activated, and never again in the lifetime of this object.");
    }

    void Start()
    {
        Debug.Log("Start is similar to awake but is executed after 'Awake' is executed on all game objects.");
    }

    void OnEnable()
    {
        Debug.Log("Code executed EVERYTIME your object is activated, including the first time you enter playmode, provided this object is active.");
    }

    void OnDisable()
    {
        Debug.Log("Code executed EVERYTIME your object is deactivated, does not include the first time you enter playmode if the object was disabled before playing.");
    }

}

And so on, every Message/Function/Method has its use case and time, you'll get the hang of it when you start using them, they are the core of the engine.

Upvotes: 1

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