How to pause a Coroutine?

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I am using Coroutines which yield, WaitForSeconds method. I want to implement a Pause system which pauses these coroutines too.

That is if a Coroutine continues every 5 seconds. And if I pause that coroutine at 3 seconds. I need it to continue after 2 seconds after I unpause.

Why do I want this?

I don't want to set timeScale to 0 because I want animations while game is paused.
By using Pause boolean in a if condition, I can pause only those coroutines which run every frame.
I can achieve this functionality by using Update() method. But then there will be no point in using coroutines at all.

Answer 1

Best Answer

Answer by digzou · May 27, 2015 at 07:32 AM

If you want to use Animations when timescale is 0, U can use the AnimatorUpdateMode.UnscaledTime property. And use timescale = 0 to pause the game.

http://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/AnimatorUpdateMode.UnscaledTime.html

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Answer 2

Answer by f4bo · May 27, 2015 at 07:40 AM

how about to put this in your coroutine?

     for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
         while (paused) {
             yield return new WaitForSeconds (0.2f);
         }
         yield return new WaitForSeconds (1f);
     }

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Priyanshu · May 27, 2015 at 09:15 AM 0

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hi @f4bo. Thnx for the answer.

This can be a cool method to pause any particular coroutine (with yield WaitForSeconds), with an Offset of 1 second only.

But it also runs every second ins$$anonymous$$d of 5 seconds. And when paused every .2 seconds

triangle4studios Priyanshu · Apr 18, 2021 at 01:08 AM 0

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.1 - .3 seconds is the industry standard, as any longer will have a visibly noticeable delay before actions continue. This will often make your game appear to be lagging. Keep it low.

Answer 3

Answer by ShabihDesperado · May 27, 2015 at 07:42 AM

 While(timeCount < 5)
 {
   if(!isPaused)
     timeCount += Time.Deltatime
   yield return null;
 }

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Priyanshu · May 27, 2015 at 09:18 AM 1

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@ShabihDesperado This can be a solution to pause a coroutine. But it pauses only those coroutines which run every frame.

triangle4studios Priyanshu · Apr 18, 2021 at 01:09 AM 0

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All coroutines run every frame. Unless they are not active, and then they are no longer relevant to this post.

ShabihDesperado · May 27, 2015 at 09:56 AM 0

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But you said that you didn't want to touch timeScale, so the only solution (with your restrictions) is this. The best solution is the one of @digzou but is not what you asked neither.

Priyanshu · May 27, 2015 at 10:54 AM 1

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@ShabihDesperado

As i stated in point no. 2 -

By using Pause boolean in a if condition, I can pause only those coroutines which run every frame.

I wanted something like: When pausing -

Stop the coroutine.
save its state. For example:- if WaitForSeconds(5). And i stop the coroutine at 3 seconds. save state like 2 seconds remaining.

And when unpausing -

Start the coroutine from that saved state. Thats is resume after 2 seconds.

These things are not possible without a timer. But Unity might be using something internally to resume an yielded coroutine.

Well anyways thnx for the answer :)

Answer 4

Answer by Chambers88 · Jan 24, 2019 at 02:53 PM

Unfortunately there's no easy way to do it...

There seem to be some assets that solve your problem, though I haven't tested them out myself: https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/safe-coroutine-17316

I personally stopped using coroutines for things like enemy behaviors that needed to be paused/resumed in my game :(

Use Update() instead and enable/disable the script. Depending on what you're doing, a state machine might work to simulate the steps of your coroutine inside the update.

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Answer 5

hello there I know its old topic but while I was searching for an answer I come up this idea what I want to do is display an image for given seconds

  void playImage()
     {
         WWW www = new WWW(url);
         image.texture = www.texture;
         totalWaitTime = duration;
         currentWaitTime = 0;
         StartCoroutine(wait());
     }
     IEnumerator wait()
     {
         if (currentWaitTime < totalWaitTime && !isPaused)
         {
             yield return new WaitForSeconds(1);
             currentWaitTime++;
             StartCoroutine(wait());
         }
         else if (currentWaitTime <= totalWaitTime && isPaused)
         {
 
         }
         else
         {
             //continue
         }
     }

instead of waitforseconds(duration) I wait for 1 second and check if not paused call StartCoroutine(wait()); again and check for the next second, if it is paused do nothing and when continue is pressed or triggered I call StartCoroutine(wait()); again instead of whole second u can divide it to smaller times like 0.1f its up to you I find it pretty easy and hope it will help others

How to pause a Coroutine?

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