How to time muzzle flash and recoil animations with bullet spread code?

I've been thinking about an annoying problem and it's a bit of a project I've been wondering about the best way to handle muzzle flash and recoil animations. The actual making of the animations involved isn't a problem however I'm trying to make it time right with the actual fire rate in my code.

Has anyone got any idea of how this would work? Perhaps I'm overthinking it and there's a really simple solution I was wondering if it was possible to use the fireTime float somehow but I don't think that will work.

Code (CSharp):

1. using System.Collections;
2. using System.Collections.Generic;
3. using UnityEngine;
4.  
5. public class GunHit
6.  
7. {
8.     public float damage;
9.  
10.     public RaycastHit raycastHit;
11. }
12.  
13. public class RaycastShoot : MonoBehaviour {
14.  
15.  
16.     public float fireDelay = 0.2f;
17.     public float maxBulletSpreadAngle = 35.0f;
18.     public float timeUntilMaxSpreadAngle = 1.0f;
19.  
20.     public GameObject tracerParticle;
21.     public GameObject bulletImpact;
22.     public LayerMask fAimDist;
23.  
24.  
25.     private bool readyToFire = true;
26.     private float fireTime;
27.  
28.     public Vector3 destination;
29.  
30.     // Use this for initialization
31.     void Start () {
32.        
33.     }
34.    
35.     // Update is called once per frame
36.     void Update () {
37.  
38.         if (Input.GetMouseButton (0) )
39.        
40.         {
41.  
42.             fireTime += Time.deltaTime;
43.  
44.             if (readyToFire)
45.            
46.             {
47.  
48.                 Vector3 fireDirection = transform.forward;
49.                 Quaternion fireRotation = Quaternion.LookRotation (fireDirection);
50.                 Quaternion randomRotation = Random.rotation;
51.  
52.                 float currentSpread = Mathf.Lerp (0.0f, maxBulletSpreadAngle, fireTime / timeUntilMaxSpreadAngle);
53.  
54.                 fireRotation = Quaternion.RotateTowards (fireRotation, randomRotation, Random.Range (0.0f, currentSpread));
55.            
56.                 RaycastHit hit;
57.                 bool bHit = Physics.Raycast ( transform.position, fireRotation * Vector3.forward, out hit, fAimDist );
58.    
59.                     Invoke ("SetReadyToFire", fireDelay);
60.                     readyToFire = false;
61.            
62.                     GameObject tracerParticleObject = Instantiate ( tracerParticle, transform.position, transform.rotation ) as GameObject;
63.                     tracerParticleObject.GetComponent<moveTowardsBulletTracer>().destination = bHit ? hit.point : transform.position + ( fireRotation * Vector3.forward ).normalized * fAimDist;
64.  
65.                     if (bHit)
66.  
67.                     {
68.                         GunHit gunHit = new GunHit();
69.                         gunHit.raycastHit = hit;
70.                         Instantiate ( bulletImpact, hit.point, Quaternion.LookRotation ( hit.normal ) );
71.                     }
72.  
73.  
74.             }
75.  
76.         }
77.  
78.         else
79.        
80.         {
81.             fireTime = 0.0f;
82.         }
83.  
84.     }
85.  
86.  
87.  
88.     void SetReadyToFire ()
89.  
90.     {
91.         readyToFire = true;
92.     }
93.  
94.  
95.  
96.  
97.  
98. }
99.  

 

Why you can not make simple logic,
if ( fire ) { // do animation }
Wouldn't that just work?

And, don't use instantiate in Update. these are expensive procedures, specially for firing bluets. Cache bullets in list, or other collection type as references.

 

In Addition to Antypodish: Why isn't the muzzle flash part of the animation?

 

That would be a pain in the ass to swap, if something changes.

 

I was wondering about that, but I don't want it to just keep firing as the mouse button is pressed down, I want the animation and muzzle flash to match up with the fireRate so that way it looks right with the bullet spread. I'll check out the stuff you mentioned later, right now I'm just focusing on getting everything working, I also don't want the bullet spread to be changed because of any position movement due to the animation.

You got it, I want to keep all of that seperate so that way I can swap any animations or muzzle flashes in and out if I want to do something fancy plus the if the recoil is caused by position changes then I don't want any weirdness happening if the muzzle flash is a child of the gun which is another thing I've been thinking about.

. The recoil should not affect the bullet spread code and affect the bullets coming out as I want to be able to change the values easily

. The muzzle flash should be timed with the recoil so every time the gun actually fires it needs to activate and then disable itself

. The recoil animations themselves should time with the actual fire rate so it looks realistic and believable rather than just being some idle animation playing every time you hold the mouse button, if it were just a single shot weapon this would be easily dealt with but I'm going to have automatic weapons in my game too

I appreciate I've picked a complicated subject that I'm a noob at but I'm moving onto shooters now so I'm learning as much as I can about how to deal with automatic weapons especially and it all needs to look right.

 

Simple fire rate is below.
Or alternatively you can try use "invoke repeat" method. But I don't think is best approach for multiple weapons, with different fire rates.

Code (CSharp):

1.  
2. private float fireRate = 0.1f ; // 10 times a second ( if fireTime is in seconds )
3. private float nextFireTime = 0f ;
4.  
5. private bool fireNow = false ;
6.  
7. // Update is called once per frame
8.     void Update () {
9.  
10.         fireNow = false ;
11.  
12.         if (Input.GetMouseButton (0) )      
13.         {
14.  
15.             fireTime += Time.deltaTime;
16.  
17.             if (readyToFire)          
18.             {
19.  
20.                 if ( fireTime >= nextFireTime )          
21.                 {
22.                     nextFireTime = fireTime + fireRate ;
23.                     fireNow = true ;
24.                 }
25.  
26.             }
27.  
28.         }
29.  
30.     }

 

So would I simply activate my effects and animations within the fireNow boolean to get the mechanics I'm thinking of?