Can not access game object added in overlay scene

Question

I have a text object in a scene. That scene is added at the start of the game as an overlay scene. Whenever I try to access the text object, named "HUD.text" (to change the game text) the bge returns:

Traceback (most recent call last): File "path\to\my\script.py", line 71, in main HUDtext = hud.objects['HUD.text'] KeyError: "CList[key]: ''HUD.text'' key not in list"

Which if I'm understanding it right means the object 'HUD.text' is not available for the game engine.

I have checked that the overlay scene is being added correctly (it is), and if I print all the objects in that scene 'HUD.text' is in the array.

I add the overlay scene with this line in a script that runs once at game start. bge.logic.addScene('hud', 1)

hud is defined by hud = bge.logic.getSceneList()[-1]

print(hud.name) outputs hud

print(hud.objects) outputs [Plane, HUD.text, Camera.001]

Is there something I have to do to make objects added in a overlay scene available? Or is there some huge delay in the time it takes to add the scene?

Here is an example blend file showing the error.

Answer 1

Your file works for me in 2.78, after pressing Space I see text saying "123".

I still get the error the first time hud.objects is accessed, on the same tic as the scene is added. The documentation explains:

This function is not effective immediately, the scene is queued and added on the next logic cycle where it will be available from getSceneList.

^{Emphasis mine}

To avoid this error, you could do something like:

def main(cont):
    own = cont.owner

    if "scene_init" not in own:
        own["scene_init"] = True
        bge.logic.addScene('hud',1)
    else:
        hud = bge.logic.getSceneList()[-1]
        HUDtext = hud.objects['HUD.text']
        print(HUDtext.text)
        HUDtext['Text'] = '123'

Answer 2

You can not use a variable for KX_GameObject that contains characters like ".", ",", "!" etc. You must use only lowercase and uppercase letters and numbers. In this case you must do something like:

HUDtext = hud.ojects["HUD.text"]

or

HUD_text = hud.objects["HUD.text"]

You can use any variable name that contains only letters and numbers. Note that it can't start with number.