CharacterSpawner

Scene-placed MonoBehaviour for spawning networked characters. Supports both Inspector-configured spawning (via FactorableSpawner) and static spawning by character ID (via CharacterDatabase).

Definition

Namespace: Paragon.Townskeep.CharacterSystem Assembly: Townskeep.dll

public class CharacterSpawner : SerializedMonoBehaviour

Inheritance: SerializedMonoBehaviour → CharacterSpawner

Remarks

CharacterSpawner provides two spawning patterns:

1. Instance methods — Uses an Inspector-configured FactorableSpawner<Character, CharacterData> to spawn a specific character type at the spawner's transform.position. The factory and variant are selected in the Inspector.

2. Static methods — Spawns any character by characterID using CharacterDatabase.GetFactory(). Does not require a scene instance.

All spawning goes through NetworkScriptableFactory.NetworkSpawn(), creating replicated NetworkObject instances via Unity Netcode.

The Spawn() button is available in the Inspector during Play Mode via [Button, ShowIf("@UnityEngine.Application.isPlaying")].

Quick Lookup

Goal	How
Spawn from Inspector-configured factory	spawner.Spawn(ownerID, predicted)
Spawn and wait for network ready	await spawner.SpawnAsync(ownerID, predicted)
Spawn any character by ID (static)	CharacterSpawner.Spawn(characterID, variantID, ownerID, predicted)
Spawn any character async (instance)	await spawner.SpawnAsync(characterID, variantID, ownerID, predicted)

Methods

Spawn (instance)

Spawns a character using the Inspector-configured FactorableSpawner, positioned at the spawner's transform.

public Character Spawn(ulong? ownerID = null, bool predicted = false)

Parameter	Type	Description
ownerID	ulong?	Network owner client ID, or null for server-owned
predicted	bool	Whether to use client-side prediction

Returns: The spawned Character instance.

SpawnAsync (instance, configured factory)

Spawns via the configured factory and awaits until the NetworkObject.IsSpawned is true.

public async Task<Character> SpawnAsync(ulong? ownerID = null, bool predicted = false)

Spawn (static, by character ID)

Spawns any character by looking up its factory from CharacterDatabase. Uses variant index 0.

public static Character Spawn(int characterID, ulong? ownerID = null, bool predicted = false)

Parameter	Type	Description
characterID	int	The CharacterID to look up in CharacterDatabase
ownerID	ulong?	Network owner client ID
predicted	bool	Client-side prediction flag

Spawn (static, by character ID + variant)

Spawns any character with a specific variant.

public static Character Spawn(int characterID, int variantID = 0, ulong? ownerID = null, bool predicted = false)

Parameter	Type	Description
characterID	int	The CharacterID to look up
variantID	int	Data variant index (0 = source data)
ownerID	ulong?	Network owner client ID
predicted	bool	Client-side prediction flag

SpawnAsync (instance, by character ID)

Async spawn by character ID. Awaits NetworkObject.IsSpawned.

public async Task<Character> SpawnAsync(int characterID, int variantID = 0, ulong? ownerID = null, bool predicted = false)

Usage Example

// Scene-placed spawner (Inspector-configured factory + variant)
[SerializeField] private CharacterSpawner villagerSpawner;

private void SpawnVillager(ulong clientId)
{
    Character villager = villagerSpawner.Spawn(ownerID: clientId);
}

// Static spawning by ID (no scene instance needed)
private async Task SpawnPlayerCharacter(int characterID, ulong clientId)
{
    Character player = CharacterSpawner.Spawn(characterID, ownerID: clientId);
}

// Async — wait for network replication
private async Task<Character> SpawnAndWait(ulong clientId)
{
    return await villagerSpawner.SpawnAsync(ownerID: clientId);
}

Common Pitfalls

Instance Spawn sets position, static Spawn does not — The instance Spawn() method positions the character at transform.position and calls Physics.SyncTransforms(). The static Spawn() methods do not set any position — the character spawns at the prefab's default position.

SpawnAsync uses busy-wait — SpawnAsync polls NetworkObject.IsSpawned via Yield.WaitWhile(). On slow networks, this may take multiple frames.

Static Spawn requires valid CharacterDatabase — The static methods call CharacterDatabase.GetFactory(), which throws KeyNotFoundException for invalid character IDs.

See Also

• CharacterFactory — the factory used for actual instantiation

• CharacterDatabase — provides factory lookup by character ID for static methods

• FactorableSpawner — the wrapped spawner used by instance methods