Change order in layer to a new number

kloot · May 2021

Hi there,
Any action that allows changing the "Order in layer" for a non-character game object (and also any remember component to remember this)?

Thanks

ChrisIceBox · May 2021

You can control such a property through animation, play it back with the Object: Animate Action, and store its state with the Remember Animator component.

kloot · May 2021

Oh, do you mean by also creating an animation then? I was thinking of something more along the lines of the "Character:Change rendering".
Since this isn't all that uncommon and I don't really want to animate anything, it might be worth adding a dedicated action for it?

Either way, thank you for the anim solution though - would've never thought of doing it that way

Rairun · May 2021

Edit: sorry, I thought I had a similar script, but I don't.

ChrisIceBox · May 2021

it might be worth adding a dedicated action for it?

Custom Actions can be plugged in to extend AC whenever necessary - here's a sample one that changes the order of a supplied Renderer.

Name the file ActionSortingOrder.cs, place it in a dedicated folder, and point to it in the Actions Manager. It'll then be available as Object: Change sorting order.

using UnityEngine;

namespace AC
{

    [System.Serializable]
    public class ActionSortingOrder : Action
    {

        public Renderer renderer;
        public int newSortingOrder;

        public override ActionCategory Category { get { return ActionCategory.Object; }}
        public override string Title { get { return "Change sorting order"; }}

        public override float Run ()
        {
            renderer.sortingOrder = newSortingOrder;
            return 0f;
        }

        public override void Skip ()
        {
             Run ();
        }

        #if UNITY_EDITOR

        public override void ShowGUI ()
        {
            renderer = (Renderer) UnityEditor.EditorGUILayout.ObjectField ("Renderer:", renderer, typeof (Renderer), true);
            newSortingOrder = UnityEditor.EditorGUILayout.IntField ("New sorting order:", newSortingOrder);
        }

        #endif

    }

}

kloot · May 2021

Thanks for the action. Changing the sorting order in runtime isn't so much the problem as having it saved though, why I figured it might be worth to pair it with a Remember component in AC.

ChrisIceBox · May 2021

Custom Remember components are possible, too - see this tutorial.

Though, with the animation workflow, and use of the Remember Animator component, no scripting is necessary.

kloot · May 2021

Ah, cool - I'll write a RememberSorting component then. Thanks for the pointers!

sonicjoy · July 2022

I'd love to use this script but I'm getting a console error. I've put the script in a folder called Custom Actions, where my other custom actions live.

Suggestions as to what I'm doing wrong?

(My AC v 1.75.4, Unity 2020.3.20f1)

ActionSortingOrder.cs(16,31): error CS0161: 'ActionSortingOrder.Run()': not all code paths return a value

ActionSortingOrder.cs(30,76): error CS1503: Argument 1: cannot convert from 'string' to 'UnityEngine.Object'

ActionSortingOrder.cs(30,89): error CS1503: Argument 2: cannot convert from 'UnityEngine.Renderer' to 'System.Type'

ChrisIceBox · July 2022

It was a typo on my part. Try the updated script above.

Zombiehype · November 2022

I used this script in my game and it works great. I'm trying to extend it a bit to make it accept an AL parameter. I think I'm almost there and when I launch the AL directly it works great, accepting the default value of the parameter.

The problem is that when I launch the AL from another AL, assigning the parameter (or even without assigning it and using the default values), I get this error:

UnassignedReferenceException: The variable objectToAffect of ChangeSortingOrder has not been assigned.
You probably need to assign the objectToAffect variable of the ChangeSortingOrder script in the inspector.

I found this particularly weird since the action works by itself

My edits are mainly taken from the script tutorial 2/3. here's my script:

public GameObject objectToAffect;
    public Renderer renderer;
            protected SortingGroup sortingGroup;
    public int newSortingOrder;
            public int parameterID = -1;
            private int constantID;

    public override ActionCategory Category { get { return ActionCategory.Custom; }}
    public override string Title { get { return "Change sorting order"; }}


    public override float Run ()
    {
                renderer = objectToAffect.GetComponent<Renderer>();
                sortingGroup = renderer.GetComponent<SortingGroup>();
                if (sortingGroup)
                {
                    sortingGroup.sortingOrder = newSortingOrder;
                }
                renderer.sortingOrder = newSortingOrder;
      return 0f;
    }

    public override void Skip ()
    {
         Run ();
    }

    #if UNITY_EDITOR

    public override void ShowGUI (List<ActionParameter> parameters)
    {
                parameterID = Action.ChooseParameterGUI("GameObject to affect:", parameters, parameterID, ParameterType.GameObject);
                if (parameterID >= 0)
                {
                    constantID = 0;
                    objectToAffect = null;
                }
                else
                {
                    objectToAffect = (GameObject) EditorGUILayout.ObjectField("GameObject to affect:", objectToAffect, typeof (GameObject), true);
                    constantID = FieldToID (objectToAffect, constantID);
                    objectToAffect = IDToField (objectToAffect, constantID, true);
                }

                newSortingOrder = UnityEditor.EditorGUILayout.IntField ("New sorting order:", newSortingOrder);
    }

            override public void AssignValues (List<ActionParameter> parameters)
            {
                objectToAffect = AssignFile (parameters, parameterID, constantID, objectToAffect);
            }

    #endif

ChrisIceBox · November 2022

Your AssignValues function needs to be outside of the UNITY_EDITOR directive.

Zombiehype · November 2022

Thanks, but unfortunately that wasn't it. I'm still getting the same error. Here's the actual .cs file for good measure

Zombiehype · November 2022

Not sure if related, but I also noticed that when clicking on the little button besides the action parameters that brings up the assets list, I get this other error (the button works fine though)

GUI Error: Invalid GUILayout state in ActionListEditorWindow view. Verify that all layout Begin/End calls match
UnityEngine.GUIUtility:ProcessEvent (int,intptr,bool&)

Zombiehype · November 2022

My bad, the error was in the AL, not the script I had forgot one additional instance of the action that had lost the target when I refactored the script, and it was that one that was blocking the whole thing. The script works as it is!

I still get the console error of my last message, but it's not blocking and doesn't impact any aspect of the action apparently.

Lawfish · December 2023

@kloot Could you please share me the RememberSorting script? I really need it and I can't write one by myself, thank you so much!

kloot · December 2023

Hey @Lawfish, here's the RememberSorting script I used for this:

using UnityEngine;

namespace AC
{
    [RequireComponent(typeof(SpriteRenderer))]
    public class RememberSorting : Remember
    {
        public int previousSortingOrder;

        public override string SaveData()
        {
            var renderer = GetComponent<SpriteRenderer>();

            var data = new SortingData();
            data.sortingOrder = renderer.sortingOrder;
            data.previousSortingOrder = previousSortingOrder;
            data.objectID = constantID;

            return Serializer.SaveScriptData<SortingData>(data);
        }

        public override void LoadData(string stringData)
        {
            var data = Serializer.LoadScriptData<SortingData>(stringData);
            if (data == null)
                return;

            var renderer = GetComponent<SpriteRenderer>();
            renderer.sortingOrder = data.sortingOrder;
            previousSortingOrder = data.previousSortingOrder;
        }
    }

    [System.Serializable]
    public class SortingData : RememberData
    {
        public int previousSortingOrder;
        public int sortingOrder;
        public SortingData() { }
    }
}

Lawfish · January 2024

Thank you so much!

luuk · July 27

Hi @ChrisIceBox, I'd really like to use the ActionSortingOrder.cs script you created earlier in this thread, but I'm getting an "error CS0115: 'ActionSortingOrder.Category': no suitable method found to override". My first guess is this is due to the fact I'm running an old version of AC (v1.72.4) and, well, the Unity version is 2019.4.17f1. I've been working on my game since late 2020 and haven't updated Unity nor AC to not break anything, also a friend has made some changes which would likely be in conflict with any update so I'm stuck with that version. Is it possible to make a simple alteration to make this script work with this old version or should I try to make do without this functionality?

...unless, of course, the reason behind the error is somewhere else. Thanks beforehand!

ChrisIceBox · July 28

Yes, the Action API was updated in v1.73 - details on the changes are covered here.

To port back, replace:

public override ActionCategory Category { get { return ActionCategory.Custom; }}
public override string Title { get { return "Change sorting order"; }}

with:

public ActionSortingOrder ()
{
    this.isDisplayed = true;
    category = ActionCategory.Custom;
    title = "Change sorting order";
}

And, at the end of the ShowGUI function:

AfterRunningOption();

Change order in layer to a new number

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