How to Handle Scriptable Object Items that have to change Data at runtime?

Question

I have an Item class that stores ItemSO scriptable object

public class Item : MonoBehaviour
{
    [SerializeField] private ItemSO inventoryItem;
}

My Item SO is an abstract class that stores general info that every item has

public abstract class ItemSO : ScriptableObject
    {
        public string ItemName;
        public GameObject prefab;
    }

For every specific Item type, I made another Scriptable object that inherits from ItemSO

public class FuelItemSO : ItemSO, IDestroyableItem
{
    [Tooltip("Burn Time of the fuel in minutes")]
    public float BurnTimeIncreasePerKg;
    public float TemperatureIncreasePerKg;    
}

Now everything was working fine, while I was using my Scriptable objects as data containers as they are meant to be, but now I need to have another Item type, where I need to change the values of the variables. Let's say this class

public class ContainerItemSO : ItemSO, IDestroyableItem
{
    public float maxAmount;
    public float CurrentAmount;    
}

I can't seem to find a solution how the base Item class would GET, and SET different data according to the ItemSO. Like let's say it's a water container, and I want to add water into it.

I'm thinking of having an interface IHaveChangableData that ContainerItemSO will inherit from

public interface IHaveChangableData 
{
    ContainerData GetData();
}

and maybe a ContainerData class that will store the variables, so that I don't store them directly in the Item class

public class ContainerData
{
    //No idea how to store ItemSO specific data
}

idk if I'm overcomplicating stuff, but maybe someone could share a solution to this.

Also, should I consider so switching to classes from Scriptable objects if I want to have a coulpe of items with changeble data?

Answer 1

it's not very straightforward to revert runtime changes to scriptable objects, as they're designed around the idea of being configurations rather than runtime data. However if you're looking for a way to do this anyway, my suggestion is not to serialize your runtime data, so for example your ContainerItemSO class would look like so:

public class ContainerItemSO : ItemSO, IDestroyableItem
{
    public float maxAmount;
    [NotSerialized]
    public float CurrentAmount;    
}

or make it a property, whatever works best for you.

If you want the runtime data be inspectable and serializable (maybe for testing scenarios?) you can create a separate type for runtime data and make a copy on OnEnable

public class ContainerItemSO : ItemSO, IDestroyableItem
{  
    public float maxAmount;
    public RuntimeData runtimeData { get; set; }
 
    [SerializeField] 
    private RuntimeData serializedRuntimeData;
     
    private void OnEnable()
    {
        runtimeData = serializedRuntimeData;
    }

    [Serializable]
    public struct RuntimeData
    {
        public float CurrentAmount;
    }
}

Answer 2

Depends a bit on your exact requirements.

The property approach as mentioned here is actually pretty clever and intuitive.

---

You could also e.g. simply use a copy instance at runtime:

public class Item : MonoBehaviour
{
    [SerializeField] private ItemSO _inventoryItem;

    private void Awake()
    {
        _inventoryItem = Instantiate(_inventoryItem);
    }
}

This creates a clone of the referenced ScriptableObject while entering playmode / when being spawned. So the original SO would never be touched and modified at all.

Drawback: If you need those all to be connected to the original SO then this would not work as every instance would end up with their own respective clone instance ;)

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You could however introduce a global Singleton Manager to handle that and only create one clone per instance of any SO

public static class SOManager
{
    private readonly static Dictionary<ScriptableObject, ScriptableObject> cloneByOriginal = new();

    public static T GetCloneSave(T original) where T : ScriptableObject
    {
        if(!cloneByOriginal.TryGetValue(original, out var clone)
        {
            clone = Instantiate(original);
            cloneByOrigonal[original] = clone;
        }

        return clone as T;
    }
}

and then use

public class Item : MonoBehaviour
{
    [SerializeField] private ItemSO _inventoryItem;

    private void Awake()
    {
        _inventoryItem = SOManager.GetCloneSave(_inventoryItem);
    }
}

This way there should only be created a clone once and every other user of the same SO - which has to also use the upper way for getting the clone - would get the same SO instance so they are all connected again but to a runtime clone instance of the original SO without ever touching the original one.

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Typing only on the phone but I hope the idea gets clear