Unity attach script to another script not working

Question

I'm currently writing a script to control environmental lighting of the scene. I have a drop down list and three scripts for different environmental lighting, script1, script2 and script3. In my control script, I wrote:

public class ControlScript : MonoBehaviour {

    public Dropdown dropdown;
    public script1 s1;
    public script2 s2;
    public script3 s3;

    public void change() {
        int option = dropdown.value;
        disableAll();

        switch (option){
        case 0: 
            s1.enabled = true;
            break;

        case 1:
            s2.enabled = true;
            break;

        case 2:
            s3.enabled = true;
            break;
        }

    private void disableAll() {
        s1.enabled = false;
        s2.enabled = false;
        s3.enabled = false;
    }
}

Then I attached this script to camera, set the scripts accordingly and set the change() method listens to the onValueChanged() event.

The change() method reacts correctly with the dropdown list, however, the scripts s1/s2/s3 are not enabled properly and thus performs no function. I tried to attach the s1,s2,s3 to the camera additionally, but doesn't seem to work.

Is there a way to solve this problem?

-------------------------------Edit Update------------------------------- The scripts s1, s2, s3 are just sudo codes to illustrate what I intend to do in this project. script s1 is an environmental lighting script using spherical harmonics, script s2 uses monte carlo sampling and script s3 uses median cut algorithm. The three scripts works well on their own when they are attached to the camera, however when I tried to control them using another script, after they have been disabled, even when setting them to be enabled the scripts still not function properly.

Answer 1

You need to make sure that:

• The class and script names of the three scripts are Script1, Script2 and Script3, i.e.: public class Script1 : MonoBehaviour {} and Script1.cs (case sensitive, please use a capital first letter for class names).
• That all three scripts are assigned as a component to a game object.
• That you have properly assigned the reference to all three of them, via Inspector, in the Control Script, like this:

And it should all work, your code in the Control Script is ok.

Edit: try to use this code in all the three scripts, and look what happens in the console when you switch from Option A to B (or C etc.) in the dropdown (code is just for Script1, edit it for 2 and 3 ofc).

using UnityEngine;

public class Script1 : MonoBehaviour {

    private void OnEnable() {
        Debug.Log("Script 1 Activated");
    }

    private void OnDisable() {
        Debug.Log("Script 1 Deactivated");
    }
}

Answer 2

Note: * As pointed out by @Programmer, if you're trying to use the class as a component to for a GameObject then you can't create it's instance using new yourself. As then it won't be known to Unity and it's core methods like Start,Update, OnXX won't be called. You should use new only if your solve goal is to use the Script as a normal C# class which has nothing to do with Unity.

You can't provide script itself as the value for the variables. Variables shown in the Inspector window expect objects. In case of scripts it's easy as you can just call their constructor to instantiate the instances like below

/* don't use `new` if scripts are inherited from MonoBehavior or are intended
 * to be managed by Unity. Instead use someGameObject.AddComponent<script1>
 * This will have to be done where script instance is created. 
 * This instance can be accessed by using the method provided in the second
 * part of this answer.
 */
s1 = new script1();
s2 = new script2();
s3 = new script3();

However if you're trying to share .enabled field between classes then you will have to find a way to share these instances. One way is to attach them on an empty object, lets call it OptionManager and attach all the scripts to it. Now you will have to provide an instance of OptionManager to the ControlScript by exposing a public field of it. After that you can get s1, s2, s3 in it's components, see the example below

public class ControlScript : MonoBehaviour {
    public ScriptManager scriptManager;
    public Dropdown dropdown;

    private script1 s1;
    private script2 s2;
    private script3 s3;

    void Start() {
        s1 = scriptmanager.GetComponent<script1>();
        s2 = scriptmanager.GetComponent<script2>();
        s3 = scriptmanager.GetComponent<script3>();
    }
    //.... rest of the code