[Part 16] WARNING – Delete this CharacterSelector code!

[soop]

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In one of the episodes, we add this block that is supposed to remedy the NullReferenceException for CharacterData if you do not go through the character select scene. It is EXTREMELY bad for large projects as (I believe) it searches through EVERY asset. Learned this the hard way after importing an asset library, and dealing with 30s+ freezes on Play.

A potential fix would be to create a “Character Database” scriptable object, and just pick one randomly from there.

            //// Randomly pick a character if we are playing from the Editor.
            //#if UNITY_EDITOR
            //string[] allAssetPaths = AssetDatabase.GetAllAssetPaths();
            //List<CharacterData> characters = new List<CharacterData>();
            //foreach (string assetPath in allAssetPaths)
            //{
            //    if (assetPath.EndsWith(".asset"))
            //    {
            //        CharacterData characterData = AssetDatabase.LoadAssetAtPath<CharacterData>(assetPath);
            //        if (characterData != null)
            //        {
            //            characters.Add(characterData);
            //        }
            //    }
            //}

            //// Pick a random character if we have found any characters.
            //if (characters.Count > 0) return characters[Random.Range(0, characters.Count)];
            //#endif

• Terence

and 1 other person have upvoted this post.

[Terence]

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Thanks for flagging this soop. Really appreciate it. Will be looking to recode this piece of code so that it becomes more efficient.

[soop]

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You’re the best Terence :)

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[giselle]

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Hi soop! Here is a more efficient code that uses AssetDatabase.FindAssets with a type filter and a specific ‘Assets’ folder path, letting Unity quickly find and load the CharacterData asset. Let me know if it works for you!

public static CharacterData[] GetAllCharacterDataAssets()
    {
        List<CharacterData> characters = new List<CharacterData>();

        // Populate the list with all CharacterData assets (Editor only).
#if UNITY_EDITOR
        string[] guids = AssetDatabase.FindAssets("t:CharacterData", new[] { "Assets" });
        if (guids.Length > 0)
        {
            string randomGuid = guids[Random.Range(0, guids.Length)];
            string assetPath = AssetDatabase.GUIDToAssetPath(randomGuid);
            CharacterData randomCharacter = AssetDatabase.LoadAssetAtPath<CharacterData>(assetPath);
            return new CharacterData[] { randomCharacter };
        }
#else
        Debug.LogWarning("This function cannot be called on builds.");
#endif
        return characters.ToArray();
    }

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