What is Unity's GameObject Class?

Unity’s GameObject class represents anything which can exist in a Scene .

This page relates to scripting with Unity’s GameObject class. To learn about using GameObjects in the Scene and Hierarchy in the Unity Editor, see the GameObjects section of the user manual. For an exhaustive reference of every member of the GameObject class, see the GameObject script reference.

GameObjects are the building blocks for scenes in Unity, and act as a container for functional components which determine how the GameObject looks, and what the GameObject does.

In scripting, the GameObject class provides a collection of methods which allow you to work with them in your code, including finding, making connections and sending messages between GameObjects, and adding or removing components attached to the GameObject, and setting values relating to their status within the scene.

Scene Status properties

You can use scripts to modify many properties related to a GameObject’s status in the scene. These typically correspond to the controls visible near the top of the inspector when you have a GameObject selected in the Editor.

They don’t relate to any particular component, and are visible in the inspector of a GameObject at the top, above the list of components.

GameObjects are active by default, but can be deactivated, which turns off all components attached to the GameObject. This generally means it will become invisible, and not receive any of the normal callbacks or events such as Update or FixedUpdate.

The GameObject’s active status is represented by the checkbox to the left of the GameObject’s name. You can control this using GameObject.SetActive.

You can also use GameObject.activeSelf to read the current active state of a GameObject. Use GameObject.activeInHierarchy to read whether the GameObject is actually active in the scene. GameObject.activeInHierarchy is necessary because whether a GameObject is actually active is determined by its own active state and the active state of all of its parents. If any of its parents aren’t active, then it’s not active despite its own active setting.

Some of Unity’s systems, such as Global Illumination, Occlusion, Batching, Navigation, and Reflection Probes, rely on the static status of a GameObject. You can control which of Unity’s systems consider the GameObject to be static by using GameObjectUtility.SetStaticEditorFlags.