Coroutine is being called just once

I am trying to create my first quite advanced game. I'm supposed to use coroutine in one moment, which works similary, but is not this same. Here I just wanted to present some example. Debug.Log should show value after 1 sec pause, which should look like count down. Imo everything here is logically ok, but it doesn't seem to work, I can't find what am I doing wrong. I would appreciate some help.

Code (CSharp):

1. using UnityEngine;
2. using System.Collections;
3.  
4. public class NewBehaviourScript : MonoBehaviour {
5.  
6.     private bool useCoroutine;
7.     private float counter;
8.     // Use this for initialization
9.     void Start ()
10.     {
11.         useCoroutine = true;
12.         counter = 10;
13.     }
14.  
15.     // Update is called once per frame
16.     void Update ()
17.     {
18.         counter -= Time.deltaTime;
19.         if (useCoroutine)
20.         {
21.             StartCoroutine(Show));
22.         }
23.         else
24.         {
25.             StopCoroutine(Show ());
26.         }
27.     }
28.  
29.     IEnumerator Show()
30.     {
31.         Debug.Log ("Value: " + counter);
32.         if (counter < 0)
33.         {
34.             useCoroutine = false;
35.         }
36.         yield return new WaitForSeconds(1);
37.     }
38. }

 

first problem

you're immediately stopping the coroutine in the next frame by setting the boolean to false

second problem

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. IEnumerator Show()
3. {
4. ..
5. yield return new WaitForSeconds(1);
6. ..
7. }
8.  

do something, wait 1 second, do the rest. The end. There is no loop inside that coroutine.

 

Code Tags.

 

Hm... So how do I turn on/off coroutine depending on bool value? Is there any other way to check if bool value has changed than method update?

 

you would do that like this.

Code (CSharp):

1.     private IEnumerator Show() {
2.         while (myBool) {
3.             // do Logic here
4.             yield return new WaitForSeconds(1f);
5.         }
6.     }
7.  

once that bool becomes false the loop will break.

There is no way to simply just enabe and disable a coroutine best you can do is breaking the loop like that and starting it anew.

If this is a action you need to enable and disable through out your game your best off making it its own component, or method that runs in Unitys Update method instead of a coroutine.


A simple way of having part of your Update run every second would be like this.

Code (CSharp):

1. using UnityEngine;
2.  
3. public class Test : MonoBehaviour {
4.     private float _lastUpdate;
5.  
6.     private void Update() {
7.         if (Time.time - _lastUpdate >= 1f) {
8.             Debug.Log("Do Stuff here");
9.             _lastUpdate = Time.time;
10.         }
11.     }
12. }
13.  

 

Thank you passerbycmc, your advise was great! I was able to make my example code work exactly how I wanted! But the real problem doesn't seem to be as easy in my real case. I've tried to apply this method in my original project, but I met a wall again. In PlayerController script I have bool variable bonus. When bonus becomes true (player catches bonus icon) this script should start spawn bonus pick ups. It does work only when I replace player.GetComponent<PlayerController>().bonus with 'true'. Otherwise it just does not access while loop in method SpawnBonusPickUp. Is this problem result of methods call order?

Code (CSharp):

1. void Start()
2.     {
3.         StartCoroutine(SpawnBonusPickUp());
4.         InvokeRepeating ("SpawnPickUp", 0, pickUpSpawnTime);
5.         InvokeRepeating ("SpawnBonus", 15, bonusSpawnTime);
6.     }
7.  
8.     public void SpawnPickUp ()
9.     {
10.         if (!gameOver)
11.         {
12.             int spawnPointX = Random.Range (-9, 9);
13.             int spawnPointZ = Random.Range (-9, 9);
14.             Vector3 pickUpSpawn = new Vector3(spawnPointX, 0.5f, spawnPointZ);
15.             if(pickUpSpawn != player.transform.position)
16.             {
17.                 var pickUpInstance = Instantiate (pickUp, pickUpSpawn, transform.rotation);
18.                 Destroy(pickUpInstance, pickUpDestroyTime);
19.             }
20.         }
21.     }
22.  
23.     public IEnumerator SpawnBonusPickUp()
24.     {
25.         while (player.GetComponent<PlayerController>().bonus)
26.         {
27.             yield return new WaitForSeconds(0.25f);
28.             if (!gameOver)
29.             {
30.                 int spawnPointX = Random.Range (-9, 9);
31.                 int spawnPointZ = Random.Range (-9, 9);
32.                 Vector3 pickUpSpawn = new Vector3(spawnPointX, 0.5f, spawnPointZ);
33.                 if(pickUpSpawn != player.transform.position)
34.                 {
35.                     var pickUpInstance = Instantiate (pickUp, pickUpSpawn, transform.rotation);
36.                     Destroy(pickUpInstance, pickUpDestroyTime);
37.                 }
38.             }
39.         }
40.         StopCoroutine (SpawnBonusPickUp ());
41.     }

 

I found that my coroutine is not looped. It starts once and after that it just 'dies'. I've tried sereval ways to rerun it, but it didn't work. I've spent hours looking for solution and still got nothing >_>