Getting an unexpected Null Reference Exception

[PavlosKon]

Hello,

So after adding the following snippets of code in Player -

[SerializeField] SpecialAbilityConfig specialAbility01;

specialAbility01.AddComponent(gameObject);

and selecting the Power Attack for specialAbility01 under Player in the inspector, on runtime I get the following error:

NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
RPG.Characters.PowerAttackConfig.AddComponent (UnityEngine.GameObject gameObjectToAttachTo) (at Assets/Characters/SpecialAbilities/PowerAttack/PowerAttackConfig.cs:18)
RPG.Characters.Player.Start () (at Assets/Characters/Player/Player.cs:46)

‘PowerAttackConfig.cs:18’ points to

behaviourComponent.SetPowerAttackConfig(this);

and ‘Player.cs:46’ points to

specialAbility01.AddComponent(gameObject);

This has me scratching my head , any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[PavlosKon]

Just to follow up on this, after some debugging it appears that ‘behaviourComponent’ is null, which is what is cause the error.

Now to find why that is…

[Rob]

Hi,

If it is the behaviourComponent that is causing you NullReferenceException error, follow the code back looking for where you declare and subsequently initialise this variable, perhaps in certain circumstances this isn’t happening.

[PavlosKon]

Thanks for the input Rob

I managed to find the issue, bit of a 'doh! moment. It was this line

 var behaviourComponent = gameObjectToAttachTo.AddComponent<PowerAttackBehaviour>(); 

Turns out I was using ‘GetComponent’ instead of ‘AddComponent’.

[Rob]

Well done for finding the issue and resolving it yourself Pavlos, how rewarding is that!