C# JSONs not formatting array of objects stored inside another object.

Question

I know the title is a bit confusing because I don't really know how to phrase this. This is what I have:

[System.Serializable]
public class Sector
{
    public string name;
    public Vector3 sectorPosition;
    public float sectorRadius;

    public buildingComponent[] components;

}
[System.Serializable]
public class buildingComponent : ScriptableObject
{
    public string componentType;
    public Vector3 componentPosition;
    public Vector3 compenentRotation;


}

When I try converting this into a json string like this:

        Sector ssector = new Sector();
        ssector.name = "sTom";
        ssector.sectorPosition = Vector3.up;
        ssector.sectorRadius = 2;
        ssector.components = new buildingComponent[3];
        print("component length " + ssector.components.Length);
        ssector.components[1] = new buildingComponent();

        ssector.components[1].componentPosition = new Vector3 (1, 2, 3);


        string sdata = JsonUtility.ToJson(ssector);

I end up with the following:

{"name":"sTom","sectorPosition":{"x":0.0,"y":1.0,"z":0.0},"sectorRadius":2.0,"components":[{"instanceID":0},{"instanceID":-341752},{"instanceID":0}]}`

The components array is not actually being formatted, it's only saved with an instanceId or whatever this does. Is there any solution to this or will I have to go with an alternative formatting. I just want to save this data on a server but I only get one string to do so, so I have to format everything into one string. Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

I am really new to Unity but have a C# developer so I did some digging and found the this forum question on Unity's site.

I think this is what you are looking for as an answer. It would appear that Unity's serialization of Monobehaviour has some magic on the backend that tells it what it requires only through those instance IDs.

This may also be of some help. He recommends saving the information explicitly.