Signals

What are signals?

Signals allow you to communicate between decoupled parts of the game in Unity3d. The work with signals is very straightforward and can be shown in few steps:

• Step 1 - Write a signal. It's a plain struct.

 public struct SignalExampleDamage
    {
        public GameObject go;
        public int damage;
    }

• Step 2 - Inherit from IRecieve<T> a class where you want your signal to be received.

public class ExampleClassReciever : MonoBehaviour, IReceive<SignalExampleDamage>
    {
    
        private void OnEnable()
        {
            // Add this object to ProcessingSignals.Default
            ProcessingSignals.Default.Add(this);
        }

        private void OnDisable()
        {
           // Remove this object from ProcessingSignals.Default. You don't want this object to receive signals anymore!
             ProcessingSignals.Default.Remove(this);  
        }
        // This method will work when the signal is received.
        public void HandleSignal(SignalExampleDamage arg)
        {
            Debug.Log(string.Format("{0} deals {1} damage!", arg.go, arg.damage));
        }
    }

• Step 3 - Create a new signal and send it through ProcessingSignals.Default

public class ExampleClass : MonoBehaviour {
    private void Update()
    {
        if (Input.GetKeyDown(KeyCode.Space))
        {
            // create new signal
            SignalExampleDamage signalExample;
            signalExample.damage = Random.Range(1, 10);
            signalExample.go = gameObject;
            // send signal to the processor
            ProcessingSignals.Default.Send(signalExample);
        }
    }
}

Other content

• Foldout groups - an extension to add foldable groups to the inspector.
• ACTORS - Unity3d data-driven framework I'm currently working on. Signals work as part of the framework.