CustomInitialize

Introduction

CustomInitialize is called once per entity instance when it is initialized. Initialization happens:

• When an instance is created either in code by using the “new” operator, or if an instance is added through the FRB Editor. See below for more information.
• Whenever an Entity is recycled through a factory.

CustomInitialize and AddToManagers

The CustomInitialize method will only be called when an Entity instance is added to managers. For example consider the following code:

// This assumes that the game has an Entity called Enemy:

// enemy1 will have CustomInitialize called
Enemy enemy1 = new Enemy();

bool addToManagers = false;
// enemy2 will not have CustomInitialize called since it is
// not being added to managers:
Enemy enemy2 = new Enemy(ContentManagerName, addToManagers);

// enemy will not have CustomInitialize called since it is
// not being added to managers (yet):
Enemy enemy3 = new Enemy(ContentManagerName, addToManagers);
// ...but now enemy3 will have CustomInitialize called
enemy3.AddToManagers(null);

CustomInitialize and Inheritance

Entities and Screens which have base types (inheritance) have two or more CustomInitialize functions depending on the inheritance depth. For example, if a screen Level1 inherits from GameScreen, each class (Level1 and GameScreen) has its own CustomInitialize method. Both are called by generated code – a base.CustomInitialize call is not needed.

CustomInitialize is called on the base class first, then to more-derived. Using the example above, GameScreen.CustomInitialize is called first, then Level1.CustomInitialize.