Ggtcf

So I have this simple script:

using UnityEngine;

public class MyScript: MonoBehaviour

 public int damage = 25;

 public void PrintStuff()
 
 Debug.Log("Stuff");
 

And this CustomEditor where I use Editor.serializedObject:

using UnityEngine;
using UnityEditor;

[CustomEditor(typeof(MyScript))]
public class LookAtPointEditor : Editor

 SerializedProperty damageProp;

 void OnEnable()
 
 // Setup the SerializedProperties.
 damageProp = serializedObject.FindProperty("damage");
 

 public override void OnInspectorGUI()
 
 serializedObject.Update();

 EditorGUILayout.IntSlider(damageProp, 0, 100, new GUIContent("Damage"));

 serializedObject.ApplyModifiedProperties();

 

This works fine: Undo thing works, exiting out of Play Mode works but I can do the same thing using Editor.target and a lot easier. And all functionality works fine with Editor.target. What is the purpose of serializedObject then?

Good question! The Editor API docs explains this but the info is mostly scattered so I'll summarize:

For starters, there's an option CanEditMultipleObjects which you're currently not using. A quote form the docs:

If this approach is used a user can select multiple assets in the
hierarchy window and change the values for all of them at once.

For a basic example of this, select two GameObjects in your scene that have the same Unity component (like Image or Rigidbody) and you'll be able to modify those components at the same time to have the same values. Most built-in components support it.

This is the first advantage using serializedObject will give you; it supports multi-object editing and Editor.target does not (you'd need Editor.targets for that). So now if you're wondering, "why wouldn't I just use Editor.targets for multi-object editing?" consider this quote from the docs:

Instead of modifying script variables directly, it's advantageous to
use the SerializedObject and SerializedProperty system to edit them,
since this automatically handles multi-object editing, undo, and
Prefab overrides.

What this boils down to is that if you don't want undo, prefab override, and multi-object-editing features to be automatically handled for you, just use Editor.target or Editor.targets. If you do want those features to just work automatically, use SerializedObject and SerializedProperty.