Time Based Events.

[TylerKinkade]

Hello Löve-ites.

I have a question about time.

Lets say every ten seconds I want something to spawn. How do I go about implementing that?

This is what I've tried to far:

Code: Select all

powerTicks = 0
function activePower(dt)
	--timeA = a static point in time defined in love.load
	timeB = love.timer.getMicroTime() -- ripping
	if timeB - timeA == 10 and powerTicks == 0 then
		timeB = timeA
		powerTicks = 1
	else

	end

end
function drawPowerTime()
	if powerTicks == 1 then
		love.graphics.print("##########",200,250)
		love.graphics.print("##########",200,260)
		love.graphics.print("##########",200,270)
		love.graphics.print("##########",200,280)
	else
	--just for testing...
		love.graphics.print(timeB,200,300)
		love.graphics.print(timeA,200,290)
	end
end

Much Löve,
Kinkade

[Virox]

I would use this construct

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function activePower(dt)
 if varTime >= 10 then
  -- execute event
 else
  varTime = varTime + dt
 end
end

dt or deltatime is the time in seconds between two displayed frames.
varTime would be a global variable declared in the load

[TylerKinkade]

Awesome awesome thank you much

[pygy]

I'm currently debugging Polygamy.timer which will allow the following things:

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my_timer = Polygamy.timer {
	delay = time,      -- the delay in seconds before the first occurrence. 0 if not specified
	times = integer,   -- How many times do you want to execute it? 1 if not specified, 0 = infinite
	interval = time;   -- the interval in seconds between  each repeats. set to "delay" if not specified.
	function(times, countdown) 
		-- do whatever you want to do repeatedly  
		-- <times> is the number of times the timer has been executed and 
		-- <countdown> is how many times are left before it expires (0 if infinite)
	end
}
my_other_timer = Polygamy.timer{ etc ... }

my_timer:pause()
my_timer:resume(delay)

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Polygamy.timer:pause() -- pauses all timers
Polygamy.timer:resume() -- resumes all timers previously active. The ones paused individually are still paused.

Polygamy.timer refers to the default timeline, but you can create new ones, that can be enabled and paused individually.

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Polygamy.timeline("my timeline"){ a timer request object}

Stay posted :-)

[Robin]

Note that this approach (the one of the OP) doesn't scale well: if you have more than a few events, you'll have globals all over the place.

Some sort of "event queue" might solve this in a better way if you want to write a larger game. For example:

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eventQueue = {
    [6]=function() powerTicks = true end,
    [11]=function() --[[do something awesome]] end
        }
totalTime = 0

function update(dt)
    totalTime = totalTime + dt
    for time, event in pairs(eventQueue) do
        if time < totalTime then
            event()
            eventQueue[time] = nil
        end
    end
end

(Standard warning:) This is completely untested.

[TylerKinkade]

Wow, excellent support all around. Thanks guys.
The event system seems extremely practical for what my team is working on.
I'll definitely look into working it in.

<3