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How to instantiate a GameObject initially, then have a timer count down?
Hey everyone, so I have these empty game objects in my game that are enemy spawners. When the player gets within a certain distance from a spawner, a timer starts and when a certain amount of time has elapsed an enemy spawns. The problem is that I don't know how to have an enemy spawn initially when the player is within the range of the spawner. As of now, when a spawner is activated by the player, there's just a wait for an enemy to spawn. Any help would be appreciated!
using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using UnityEngine;
public class EnemySpawner : MonoBehaviour {
public GameObject enemyPrefab; // holds enemy to be spawned
public float distBetween;
public float timer = 5f;
private float timeElapsed;
private Transform player; // holds the player
void Start()
{
player = GameObject.FindGameObjectWithTag("Player").GetComponent<Transform>(); // get player position
}
void Update()
{
if (Vector2.Distance(transform.position, player.position) <= distBetween)
{
timeElapsed += Time.deltaTime;
if (timeElapsed >= timer)
{
Instantiate(enemyPrefab, transform.position, Quaternion.identity);
timeElapsed = 0f;
}
}
}
}
Answer by IronBytes · Mar 27, 2019 at 08:27 PM
You can use InvokeRepeating to trigger methods every X seconds:
https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/MonoBehaviour.InvokeRepeating.html
You can then stop it again with CancelInvoke:
https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/MonoBehaviour.CancelInvoke.html
So I came up with this code instead:
private bool isActive = false;
private int range = 10;
void Update()
{
CheckToActivateSpawner();
}
void CheckToActivateSpawner()
{
if (!isActive && Vector3.Distance(transform.position, player.position) <= range)
{
InvokeRepeating("SpawnEnemy", 0, 5);
isActive = true;
}
else if(isActive && Vector3.Distance(transform.position, player.position) > range)
{
CancelInvoke("SpawnEnemy");
isActive = false;
}
}
void SpawnEnemy()
{
Instantiate(enemyPrefab, transform.position, Quaternion.identity);
}
Thanks a ton! I didn't even know about InvokeRepeating, this is exactly what I was looking for.
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