Wait/Delay Question

Hello,

I'm looking to place a wait/delay in the middle of a block of code. The code specifically is meant to turn a light on or off. Actually to be clear is meant to enable/disable a prefab. In this case a light. Here is the code.

Code (CSharp):

1. using UnityEngine;
2. using System.Collections;
3.  
4.  
5. public class lightSwitch : MonoBehaviour {
6.     static bool  activate = false;
7.     public GameObject spotLight;
8.  
9.  
10.     void  OnTriggerEnter ( Collider other  )
11.     {
12.      
13.         if (other.gameObject.tag == "Activate")
14.         {
15.          
16.             if(!activate)
17.             {
18.  
19.                 activate = true;
20.                 spotLight.SetActive(true);
21.                 //yield WaitForSeconds(1f);
22.             }
23.  
24.             else
25.             {
26.  
27.                 activate = false;
28.                 spotLight.SetActive(false);
29.             }
30.  
31.          
32.         }
33.  
34.  
35.     }
36.  
37.  
38. }

The code itself is pretty simple, but figuring out how to put in a delay wait is not. The reason I want to do this is because when I do activate the light switch it turns on just fine. But when I try to turn it off it flickers on and off very quickly. So I thought a short 1 second delay ought to remove the on/off/on/off flicker.

I looked at using WaitForSeconds using StartCoroutines and IEnumerator, but it seems to not work with OnTriggerEnter.

Anyway, any advice from someone more knowledgeable than me would be very appreciated.

Thank you

 

You can't "pause" a function via a coroutine. That's not how coroutines are working.

I would add a second flag and the OnTriggerLeaving event (or whatever the exact name is). Then set the second flag to true on OnTriggerLeaving and do the OnTriggerEnter stuff only if the second flag is true.

 

Well logic for this kind of situations is to add a delay as you mentioned, and use a control boolean in order to control the delay. So, best workout for adding delays is using Coroutines, and you can change your script like this :

Code (CSharp):

1. using UnityEngine;
2.     using System.Collections;
3.  
4.  
5.     public class lightSwitch : MonoBehaviour {
6.         static bool  activate = false;
7.         public GameObject spotLight;
8.         private bool b_CanActivate = true;
9.    
10.         void  OnTriggerEnter ( Collider other  )
11.         {
12.        
13.             if (other.gameObject.tag == "Activate")
14.             {
15.            
16.                 if(!activate && b_CanActivate)
17.                 {
18.                     b_CanActivate = false;
19.                     activate = true;
20.                     spotLight.SetActive(true);
21.                     StartCoroutine(Delay (1));
22.                 }
23.            
24.                 else if(activate && b_CanActivate)
25.                 {
26.                     b_CanActivate = false;
27.                     activate = false;
28.                     spotLight.SetActive(false);
29.                     StartCoroutine(Delay (1));
30.  
31.                 }
32.            
33.            
34.             }
35.        
36.        
37.         }
38.  
39.         IEnumerator Delay(float time)
40.         {
41.             yield return new WaitForSeconds(time);
42.             b_CanActivate = true;
43.         }
44.    
45.    
46.     }
47.  
48.  
49.  

What I did was to add a "b_CanActivate" boolean, if this is false there is no way that the light will be enabled / disabled. Each time light has changed it's status, it makes this boolean false, preventing it from changing again until the Delay coroutine is called and finished waiting. By the way, you can use yield waitforseconds in js like that, but not in cs, it has nothing to do with using it on Trigger functions, the way you were using was wrong. The correct usage is like I've showed above.

Cheers,
Inan

 

Thank you for your suggestion!

 

Ok that is a really clever way to do it. So create b_CanActivate boolean, then wait for it to be set to true, which allows the rest of the script to run. Awesome!

Thank you so much Inan!

 

Wohooo! It works!!!! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

 

No problem dude, just keep this kind of logic in your mind, you will use a lot when programming gameplay parts, have a nice day!

 

Im actually learning C# right now, so I'm slowly learning the language! Thank you again!