Timer is not counting down. Staying at original number.

Question

Hello, I'm trying to get an Alien to spawn after 20 seconds, if an Alien doesn't already exist.

The code is:

using UnityEngine; using System.Collections;

public class AlienSpawn : MonoBehaviour {

 public GameObject Alien;
 public float  AlienSpawnTimer = 20f;

 private float alienSpawnTimer;

 // Use this for initialization
 void Start ()
 {
     alienSpawnTimer = AlienSpawnTimer;
 }

 void Update()
 {
     if (Alien == null)
     {
         alienSpawnTimer -= Time.deltaTime;
     }

     Debug.Log(alienSpawnTimer);

     if(alienSpawnTimer < 0)
     {
         Instantiate(Alien);
         alienSpawnTimer = AlienSpawnTimer;
     }
 }

}

The problem is that the timer just keeps outputting "20" over and over again.

If anyone could help with this, I would be grateful.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Best Answer

Answer by Highwalker · May 10, 2016 at 06:32 AM

Okay I see your problem. Try this...

 public GameObject Alien;
 GameObject ActiveAlien;
 
  public float  AlienSpawnTimer = 20f;
  private float alienSpawnTimer;
  // Use this for initialization
  void Start ()
  {
      alienSpawnTimer = AlienSpawnTimer;
  }
  void Update()
  {
      if (ActiveAlien == null)
      {
          alienSpawnTimer -= Time.deltaTime;
      }
      Debug.Log(alienSpawnTimer);
      if(alienSpawnTimer < 0)
      {
          GameObject alien = Instantiate(Alien);
          ActiveAlien = alien;
          alienSpawnTimer = AlienSpawnTimer;
      }
  }

The problem was that your Alien variable is what you set your prefab to. So it wasn't null, since that's your prefab. Instead, you set a variable for the currently active alien which you set when you instantiate the alien, and check if that is null.

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TJRiker · May 10, 2016 at 01:34 PM 0

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Sorry for responding so late, but it works!

Thank you so much! :D

Highwalker · May 10, 2016 at 06:22 PM 0

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No problem. Check out some videos on pooling when you have some time. It makes spawning enemies much more efficient and will allow you to have many more aliens on screen.

Good luck on your endeavors. :)

Timer is not counting down. Staying at original number.

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