pause charactercontroller movement briefly?

Question

So I set up a simple waypoint script, where my AI patrols several waypoints, and when it reaches a waypoint, it rotates towards and moves to the next waypoint.

All I want to do is make it so that when the AI gets to a waypoint, he pauses for a moment, and THEN rotates and moves to the next waypoint. I've tried a couple things, like setting up timers and using WaitForSeconds, but I can't figure it out. Anyway, here is my script in its current state:

var waypoints : Transform[]; var moveSpeed = 3.0; var rotationSpeed = 3.0; var waypointStopRange = 1.0;

private var currentWaypoint : int;

function Update(){

 PatrolWaypoints();

function PatrolWaypoints(){

 if(currentWaypoint &lt; waypoints.length){

     var waypointDistance = Vector3.Distance(transform.position, waypoints[currentWaypoint].position);
     var waypointDirection = waypoints[currentWaypoint].position - transform.position;

     if(waypointDistance &lt;= waypointStopRange){
         currentWaypoint++;
     }
     else{
         RotateTowards(waypointDirection);
         MoveForward();
     }

 }
 else{

     if(waypointLoop){
         currentWaypoint = 0;
     }

 }

function RotateTowards (position : Vector3) {

 position.y = 0;
 var targetRotation = Quaternion.LookRotation(position);
 transform.rotation = Quaternion.Slerp(transform.rotation, targetRotation, rotationSpeed * Time.deltaTime);

function MoveForward(){

 var forward = transform.TransformDirection(Vector3.forward);
 var moveDirection = forward * moveSpeed;
 GetComponent (CharacterController).SimpleMove(moveDirection);

I've been trying to do the pause inside of if(waypointDistance <= waypointStopRange), because that is when he has reached currentWaypoint, and when currentWaypoint is incremented to the next. I cannot for the life of me figure out how to get him to stop moving for a few moments there. If I use yield WaitForSeconds(), he will just get stuck there indefinitely.

Answer 1

Best Answer

Answer by Peter G · Apr 27, 2010 at 11:10 PM

I would rather than calling the Patrol function from update, call it from a start function similar how the FPS tutorial does it. Then yield after every check and once the character reaches his waypoint, then you can use WaitForSeconds() without any issue.

//Simplified to show the idea. function Start () { PatrolWaypoints(); }

function Patrol () {
while(true) {
    if(currentWaypoint < waypoints.length) {
         if( waypointDistance <= wayPointStopRange) {
              currentWaypoint++
              yield WaitForSeconds(waitTime);
         }

      else{
          RotateTowards(waypointDirection);
          MoveForward();
      }
 }
 else{

     if(waypointLoop){
         currentWaypoint = 0;
     }

 }
  yield;

function RotateTowards (position : Vector3) {
}

function MoveForward() {
}

The script above looks very similar to the one you wrote so there would not be much to change. I find that state based behavior usually works better from system similar to above because then each state just calls the next instead of a central Update trying to figure it out.

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PrimeDerektive · Apr 28, 2010 at 02:48 PM 0

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Why is it that yield WaitForSeconds would behave differently in Start() versus Update()?

Also, I removed it because it wasn't relevant to my question, but inside patrol() I also do my checks for distance to the player, and run the attack function if hes within range. Would that be effected if I moved Patrol() to Start()?

PrimeDerektive · Apr 28, 2010 at 06:52 PM 0

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Nice! Never$$anonymous$$d I figured it out. I can't say I fully understand how coroutines work, but at least now I can use them :)

pause charactercontroller movement briefly?

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