how to kill time?

[rdcube]

sorry for noob question (and more to come 'til I get the hang of this

I have this functions:

-- set initial timer speed  
local speedTimer = 6000  
-- update time  
if (speedTime \> 1000) then  
local function fnSpeedTime()  
 speedTimer = speedTimer - 100  
end  
-- run timer every 3 seconds until it speedTimer is 1000 (1 second)  
SpeedManager: timer.performWithDelay(3000, fnSpeedTime,0)  
else  
timer.cancel(SpeedManager)  
end  
  
-- do something  
local function fnDoSomething()  
 -- something  
end  
  
-- regular timer with 'variable' speedTimer controlling frequency)  
doTimer:timer.performWithDelay(speedTimer, fnDoSomething,0)  
  

The problem, is that even though the speedtime gets updated, the IF statement doesn’t seemed to go in effect and I’m going into negative values causing the ‘viewer’ to crash

Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
RD [import]uid: 7856 topic_id: 4092 reply_id: 304092[/import]

[jstrahan]

This is what I would do

[blockcode]
local speedTimer = 6000
local fnSpeedTime, fnDoSomething, speedManager, doTimer

function fnSpeedTime()
if speedTimer > 1000 then
speedTimer = speedTimer - 100
else
cancel.timer( speedManager )
end
end

function fnDoSomething()
Something
end

doTimer = timer.performWithDelay( speedTimer, fnDosomething, 0 )
speedManger = timer.performWithDelay( 3000, fnSpeedTime, 0 )

[/blockcode] [import]uid: 7911 topic_id: 4092 reply_id: 12680[/import]

[rdcube]

Thanks jstrahan, I think that worked (except the cancel.timer, I switch to timer.cancel
However, this ( speedTimer, fnDosomething, 0 ) doesn’t seem to be working.

when I overwrite the ‘speedTimer’ to 1000, I can see ‘something’ happening every second.

Any ideas? [import]uid: 7856 topic_id: 4092 reply_id: 12687[/import]

[jstrahan]

Not sure but try this I’m on iPad right now and can not test

[blockcode]
local speedTimer = 6000
local fnSpeedTime, fnDoSomething, speedManager, doTimer
 
function fnSpeedTime()
    if speedTimer > 1000 then
timer.cancel(doTimer)
        speedTimer = speedTimer - 100
doTimer = timer.performWithDelay( speedTimer, fnDoSomething, 0 )
    else
        timer.cancel( speedManager )
    end
end
 
function fnDoSomething()
    Something
end
 
doTimer = timer.performWithDelay( speedTimer, fnDoSomething, 0 )
speedManger = timer.performWithDelay( 3000, fnSpeedTime, 0 )  
[/blockcode]
[import]uid: 7911 topic_id: 4092 reply_id: 12690[/import]

[rdcube]

Hey y’all…still struggling with this.
Jstrahan example doesn’t seemed to work.

To recap, I have updated my code to something move ‘real world’ and I just need to get the following working:

--\> start physics engine and set the gravity  
local physics = require ("physics")  
physics.start()  
physics.setScale( 60 )  
physics.setGravity(0,0)  
-- display a new ball every 3 seconds  
local timeManager = 3000  
local ballSpeed = 6000  
local fnRandomBall = function()  
 local rndBall = display.newImage( "ball\_orange.png" ) -- grab the ball from pool sample  
 rndBall.x = 40 + math.random( 240 ); rndBall.y = 10  
 physics.addBody( rndBall, { bounce=0.1, radius=14 } )  
 rndBall.myName = "orange"  
 rndBall.isHit = false  
 transition.to(rndBall, {time=ballSpeed, y=360})  
end  
-- run the above function on a timer  
tmrBall = timer.performWithDelay( timeManager, fnRandomBall, 0 )  
-- update timeManager variable  
function fnSpeedTime()  
 if timeManager \>= 1000 then  
 timeManager = timeManager - 100  
 ballSpeed = ballSpeed - 200  
 local t = display.newText( timeManager, 115, 105, "ArialRoundedMTBold", 21 )  
 t:setTextColor( 255, 255, 255 )  
  
 else  
 timer.cancel( tmrSpeed )  
 end  
end  
-- run speed function  
tmrSpeed = timer.performWithDelay( 1000, fnSpeedTime, 0 )  

If you run this on a stand alone main.lua, you’ll see that ‘TimeManager’ does update, but in ‘tmrBall’ still spawning at 3 seconds…noticed as well that ‘ballSpeed’ does seem to be updating accordingly.

I also tried to just change ‘tmrSpeed’ to 10 (just loop 10 times), but is the same issue, ‘TimeManager’ doesn’t seem to spawn balls any faster.

Any additional help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
RD [import]uid: 7856 topic_id: 4092 reply_id: 14559[/import]

[firemaplegames]

As far as I understand, you cannot change the frequency of a Timer once you set it initially. So even though you have the frequency tied to the timeManager variable, it will only use the initial value of timeManager - which is 3000.

You would run into the same issue with GameSalad. Something like: Timer Every random(3,10) seconds would NOT trigger the Timer like this: 3,5,7,8,4,10,6,3,etc… Instead, it would choose the initial random number, say 4, and trigger the Timer like this: 4,4,4,4,4,4,4,etc…

The same thing is happening here. Both Corona and GameSalad are built upon Lua, so maybe that is simply a limitation of the language.

It seems that you cannot have a Timer that fires repeatedly with a variable frequency.

The workaround is to wrap the Timer in a function, and then call the function repeatedly.

This code will give you want you want:

-- declare variables  
local myTimer  
local timeManager = 3000  
local ballSpeed = 6000  
local t = display.newText( timeManager, 115, 105, "ArialRoundedMTBold", 21 )  
local physics = require ("physics")  
  
--\> start physics engine and set the gravity  
physics.start()  
physics.setScale( 60 )  
physics.setGravity(0,0)  
  
-- set text color  
t:setTextColor( 255, 255, 255 )  
  
local function spawnRandomBall()  
  
 local rndBall = display.newImage( "ball\_orange.png" ) -- grab the ball from pool sample  
 rndBall.x = 40 + math.random( 240 )  
 rndBall.y = 10  
 physics.addBody( rndBall, { bounce=0.1, radius=14 } )  
 rndBall.myName = "orange"  
 rndBall.isHit = false  
 transition.to(rndBall, {time=ballSpeed, y=360})  
  
 if timeManager \>= 1000 then  
 timeManager = timeManager - 100  
 ballSpeed = ballSpeed - 200  
 t.text = timeManager  
 end  
  
 -- call this function again  
 myTimer = timer.performWithDelay( timeManager, spawnRandomBall)  
end  
  
-- set everything in motion  
spawnRandomBall()  

Just paste that into your main.lua file and you should be good to go.

Hope this helps!
Joe [import]uid: 8444 topic_id: 4092 reply_id: 14564[/import]

[rdcube]

Awesome Joe (haven’t tested, have to wait 'til after work), but I’m confident you did and it does work

You mentioned it is the same issue in GS; however, I’m trying to recreate something I did in GS and is this exact same concept.

In GS, I have an actor with those same ‘global variables’ (ballspeed and timemanager) and inside the actor behavior, I have ‘move’ with speed set to ‘ballspeed’.

I then have another actor that controls how often they get spawned, based on ‘timemanager’.

But then again, this now makes sense cuz is wrapped around a function, which I guess could be the same as wrapped around a behavior?

Thanks again…you might have just given me the greatest xmas present ever!

Glad to have you around this side of the woods

RD [import]uid: 7856 topic_id: 4092 reply_id: 14591[/import]

[jonbeebe]

There’s really no “limits” when it comes to this stuff. If the built-in timer function doesn’t let you change the frequency at which it fires off, try using “faux timers” as I like to call them:

http://ideveloper.kodingen.com/2010/creating-a-time-counter-and-practical-usage/

A tad bit more work, but should easily be able to pull off what you’re trying to do (change the timer length at specific intervals).

Hope that helps!

Jonathan Beebe [import]uid: 7849 topic_id: 4092 reply_id: 14603[/import]

[rdcube]

ok, this kind of works the way I want to…I just don’t have control on when ‘timeManager’ updates speed.

In GS, I had created an actor call ‘spawnBall’; set a behavior to spawn a ball every second (1sec).
My ‘ball’ actor has a move behavior to move down based on a global variable call ‘ballSpeed’ set on ‘speed’ box (starting at a value of 90 integer)
And last, I had an actor, ‘speedManager’ (don’t know why I call this one ‘timeManager’).
‘speedManager’ will run every 30 seconds updating ‘ballSpeed’ until ‘ballSpeed’ was no more than 10.

What FMG provided, seems like is running every single second, therefore, ‘timeManager’ is updating its speed and everything is moving too fast, instead of every 30 seconds.

Does that make sense?

As I started writing this reply, I kind of saw the logic and I played with os.time like jonbeebe pointed out, but I think I’m running into the same issue, how do I update ‘timeManager’ or ‘ballSpeed’ on a timer with different speed to mimic my pseudo?

Again, any additional feedback would be appreciated.

so close for a final answer =\ [import]uid: 7856 topic_id: 4092 reply_id: 14629[/import]

[rdcube]

shoot, I think I just figured it out:

  
-- declare variables  
local myTimer  
local mySpeed  
local timeManager = 1500  
local ballSpeed = 3000  
local t = display.newText( ballSpeed, 115, 105, "ArialRoundedMTBold", 21 )  
local physics = require ("physics")  
   
--\> start physics engine and set the gravity  
physics.start()  
physics.setScale( 60 )  
physics.setGravity(0,0)  
   
-- set text color  
t:setTextColor( 255, 255, 255 )  
--control speed  
local function fnSpeedManager()  
 if ballSpeed \>= 700 then  
 --timeManager = timeManager - 100  
 ballSpeed = ballSpeed - 300  
 t.text = ballSpeed  
 else  
 timer.cancel(mySpeed)  
 end  
end  
mySpeed = timer.performWithDelay( 10000, fnSpeedManager, 0 )  
--spawn random ball  
local function spawnRandomBall()  
 local rndBall = display.newImage( "ball\_orange.png" ) -- grab the ball from pool sample  
 rndBall.x = 40 + math.random( 240 )  
 rndBall.y = 10  
 physics.addBody( rndBall, { bounce=0.1, radius=14 } )  
 rndBall.myName = "orange"  
 rndBall.isHit = false  
 transition.to(rndBall, {time=ballSpeed, y=360})   
end  
   
-- set everything in motion  
myTimer = timer.performWithDelay( timeManager, spawnRandomBall, 0)  
  

so simple…just my logic sucked
I’m not quite sure if this is optimal or best performance; could having multiple timers affect performance in the way I’m doing it here? I’m planning on having several.
Is it better to have a transition instead of just changing gravity to default 9.8?
I’ll probably won’t be around 'til next week, so thanks again to all for the help and merry xmas.

RD [import]uid: 7856 topic_id: 4092 reply_id: 14633[/import]

[rdcube]

shoot, this ain’t working exactly how I want it.
I have it set up to run every second, but I actually need it to start at every 3 seconds, and then after 30 seconds update to run every 2.5 until it gets to .5.

any ideas?

Thanks,
RD [import]uid: 7856 topic_id: 4092 reply_id: 14691[/import]

[jstrahan]

Try this

Create a global variable called timeInHalfSeconds=0
and on called timeToExecute=6
then change your timer to go to the function every .5 seconds
Then inside function put if statement that say
if timeInHalfSeconds%timeToExecute==0 then
(what ever the function does)
timeInHalfSeconds = 0
else
timeInHalfSeconds=timeInHalfSeconds+1
end

then just change the timeToExecute when you need a lesser time to execute the function

Hope this helps I’m on the iPhone
Right now sorry i could be more specific but it’s tough typing all this from phone [import]uid: 7911 topic_id: 4092 reply_id: 14694[/import]

[jstrahan]

Or instead of every ,5 seconds make it every .1 second then change
timeToExecute=30 for 3 seconds then you could decrease by .1 seconds [import]uid: 7911 topic_id: 4092 reply_id: 14695[/import]

[rdcube]

Thanks jstrahan,
I’ll try your suggestion and/or a combination of

RD [import]uid: 7856 topic_id: 4092 reply_id: 14766[/import]

[jstrahan]

welcome let us know how it works out [import]uid: 7911 topic_id: 4092 reply_id: 14795[/import]