Objectspawner

Based on game build 714014 | Last updated: 2026-03-03

Overview

ObjectSpawner is a lightweight component that maintains a list of prefabs it has spawned or been explicitly given ownership of. It is designed for entities (often world or room-related) that need to track child objects—for example, to preserve references across saves or trigger actions when new objects are added. It does not manage object lifecycle beyond ownership tracking; object spawning is delegated to the global SpawnPrefab function.

This component integrates with the game’s save/load system through OnSave() and LoadPostPass() methods, storing only GUIDs to re-establish references after loading.

Usage example

local inst = CreateEntity()
inst:AddComponent("objectspawner")

-- Spawn a new object and take ownership
inst.components.objectspawner:SpawnObject("fireflies")

-- Or manually take ownership of an existing object
local new_obj = SpawnPrefab("torch")
inst.components.objectspawner:TakeOwnership(new_obj)

Dependencies & tags

Components used: None identified
Tags: None identified

Properties

Property	Type	Default Value	Description
inst	Entity	(assigned automatically)	The entity instance that owns this component.
objects	table	{}	List of owned object entities.
onnewobjectfn	function?	nil	Optional callback invoked when a new object is taken ownership of.

Main functions

OnSave()

• Description: Prepares the component’s state for persistence. Collects GUIDs of all owned objects and returns them as data.
• Parameters: None.
• Returns:
  • If objects is non-empty: { objects = table_of_GUIDs }, references — where references is identical to objects.
  • If objects is empty: nil.

LoadPostPass(newents, data)

• Description: Restores references to spawned objects after loading is complete. Uses newents (a map of GUID → entity) to lookup and take ownership of each stored object.
• Parameters:
  • newents (table) — Map of GUID strings to entity instances.
  • data (table) — Saved data containing data.objects (list of GUIDs).
• Returns: Nothing.
• Error states: Silently skips entries where newents[v] is nil (e.g., if a referenced object failed to load).

TakeOwnership(obj)

• Description: Registers an existing object as owned by this spawner, invokes the optional onnewobjectfn callback, and adds the object to the objects list.
• Parameters:
  • obj (Entity) — The object to take ownership of.
• Returns: Nothing.
• Error states: Does nothing if obj is nil. Does not prevent duplicate entries.

SpawnObject(obj, linked_skinname, skin_id)

• Description: Spawns a new prefab using SpawnPrefab() and automatically takes ownership of the result.
• Parameters:
  • obj (string) — Prefab name to spawn.
  • linked_skinname (string?, optional) — Skin name to apply (e.g., "linked").
  • skin_id (number?, optional) — Numeric skin ID.
• Returns: Entity — The newly spawned object (same as returned by SpawnPrefab).

Events & listeners

• Listens to: None identified
• Pushes: None identified