Unhiding/Hiding Objects During Gameplay

Using SetActive()

Use the script below to make a game object visible and its components available:

this.gameObject.SetActive(true);

And unavailable:

this.gameObject.SetActive(false);

Swap "this" with the variable name for a gameObject type.

Note: "gameObject" is only needed if the variable used is of a different type.

Scripts cannot access components of objects that are not active.

Example Code

Examples of a game object called "thing" that appears when "F" is pressed and disappears when "X" is pressed:

Example 1 (using a gameObject type):

using UnityEngine;

public class AppearDisappear : MonoBehaviour
{
    public GameObject thing;
    
    void Update
    {
        if (Input.GetKeyDown(KeyCode.F) {
            thing.SetActive(true);
        }
        
        if (Input.GetKeyDown(KeyCode.X) {
            thing.SetActive(false);
        }
    }
}

Example 2 (using a variable of another type):

using UnityEngine;

public class AppearDisappear : MonoBehaviour
{
    public Transform thing;
    
    void Update
    {
        if (Input.GetKeyDown(KeyCode.F) {
            thing.gameObject.SetActive(true);
        }
        
        if (Input.GetKeyDown(KeyCode.X) {
            thing.gameObject.SetActive(false);
        }
    }
}

REMEMBER: Hiding a parent object will hide its children.

Checking If the Game Object is Active

This code can help if you want things to behave differently if an object is visible or not.

this.gameObject.activeSelf

It is read-only (you cannot directly change this value) and will return true if active and false if not.

In the Hierarchy window, hidden / inactive objects will appear grayed out:

In the Inspector window, the checkbox next to the object's name controls the active state of the object. Example of an inactive object:

REMEMBER: Add the script to a game object in the scene. It will not work if it does not exist in the game.

Updating Game ObjectsDeleting Game Objects