Communication

The API allows your own scripts to communicate with the GameFlow blocks in case you need to read or write their properties or control their behavior.

Accessing blocks by reference

The most direct way to access a block of GameFlow from your own script is to pass the script a reference to the block. To do this, we will only have to define a member in our script of the desired type and make sure to drag or choose the corresponding object in the editor.

In the following example, our script defines a member of type Variable that we will access to print its value in the console:

using GameFlow;
using UnityEngine;

namespace MyNamespace {

public class MyVar1 : MonoBehaviour {

    public Variable variable;

    void Start() {
        if (variable) {
            Debug.Log("Value = " + variable.stringValue);
        }
    }
}

}

In the Inspector, after the instance of the script MyVar1 we will add a GameFlow component to which we will add a Variable to give it a value (in the example 'Hello!') And finally drag it (by clicking on the title and moving the mouse) to the Field 'Variable' of the MyVar1 script, remaining as shown in the image:

If everything is correctly configured, when entering Play mode we should see a message in the console with the value of our variable confirming that our script can access the value of the variable.

Accessing blocks by identifier

We also have a second way to access GameFlow blocks that consists of searching the block by its type and identifier (and optionally a search scope) to obtain its reference.

The following are the static search methods available in the Blocks utility class:

Method
FindBlock<T>(string id) Search for a block of type T with the id specified in all active GameObjects (or that have been active at any time) in the scene.
FindBlock<T>(string id, GameObject go, bool recursive = false) Search for a block of type T with the specified id but only in the scope of the specified GameObject and optionally (if we specify recursive = true) in its entire hierarchy (that is, in the GameObject children). In this case, it is not taken into account if the GameObject is active or not.

In case of success, these methods will return the reference to the first block that meets the specified search requirements. If no block is found, null is returned.

In the following example we will access a variable again, but this time instead of explicitly passing its reference to it as in the previous example, we will look for it by its name.

using GameFlow;
using UnityEngine;

namespace MyNamespace {

public class FindVar : MonoBehaviour {

    void Start() {
        Variable variable = Blocks.FindBlock<Variable>("Health");
        if (variable) {
            Debug.Log("Value = " + variable.intValue);
        }
    }

}

}

For the example to work, we will need to add a GameFlow component with an Integer variable that we will call "Health", as shown in the image:

If everything is correctly configured, when entering Play mode we should see a message in console with the value of our variable that will confirm that our script finds the variable and can access its value.

Accessing blocks properties

One of the most frequent reasons to access GameFlow blocks from our scripts is to read or write their properties, something that the API also allows.

In the previous examples we have seen how to read the value of two variables using the properties stringValue andintValue, but these properties could also be used to modify the value of the variables just by making an assignment.

So, for example, to change the value of the Variable used in the previous example, we could do:

Variable variable = Blocks.FindBlock<Variable>("Health");
// ...
if (variable) {
    variable.intValue = 500;
}

The properties available for each block class can be found in the API Reference.

Executing methods declared in blocks

In addition to accessing the properties, we also have the ability to invoke the public instance methods of any block to govern their behavior from our scripts.

If for example we wanted to stop a Timer block from which we had previously obtained a reference by searching, it would be enough to invoke the appropriate method:

Timer timer = Blocks.FindBlock<Timer>("MyTimer");
// ...
if (timer) {
    timer.Stop();
}

The available methods for each block class can be found in the API Reference.

Built-in Variables

GameFlow includes a series of pre-defined Variable blocks whose particularity is that of having values that are updated dynamically either at run time or at edit time.

The API offers a simple and unified access to the values of all these variables through the properties of the Builtin utility class:

Property	Description	Type
activeGameObject	Currently selected and focused GameObject	GameObject
currentFPS	Current frames per second	float
day	Number of the current day of the month	int
defaultLanguage	Default language for the application as configured in settings	SystemLanguage
deltaTime	Time (seconds) that the last frame took to complete	float
deviceName	Name of the device in use	string
frame	Number of the current frame	int
hour	Current hour	int
inputAxis	Current value for the input axis	Vector2
inputAxisX	Current value for the horizontal input axis	float
inputAxisY	Current value for the vertical input axis	float
language	Current language in use	SystemLanguage
mainCamera	Reference to the Camera tagged as "Main Camera"	Camera
minute	Current minute	int
month	Current month	int
mouseDelta	Offset from last mouse position	Vector2
mouseDeltaX	Horizontal offset of the last mouse movement	float
mouseDeltaY	Vertical offset of the last mouse movement	float
mousePosition	Current position (x,y) of the mouse cursor	Vector2
mousePositionX	Current horizontal position of the mouse cursor	float
mousePositionY	Current vertical position of the mouse cursor	float
nativeResolution	Native resolution of the screena	Vector2
screenCenter	Coordinates of the center of the screen	Vector2
screenSize	Current screen resolution	Vector2
second	Current second	int
year	Current year	int

So, for example, to obtain the current position of the mouse we could do:

Vector2 mousePos = Builtin.mousePosition;