Is this a timer.delay bug or am I doing this wrong?

Questions
#1

To make this easier to see I put the timer in the function as opposed to calling it outside the function. But they both result in the same issue. If I have two objects combine before the timer delay ends then my call to spawnVeggie doesn’t work. However, if I set it to True (on repeat timer) it will keep on spawning). I need a delay on the spawning, but if I don’t delay the spawn this issue doesn’t occur. it appears somehow the timer is being stopped/deleted by having the object it last spawned be deleted.

-- function to create one of 4 random starting veggies
function spawnVeggie(position)
	if gameover == false then 
	-- Start the timer to let veggie fall so they don't collide with existing and new object
	timer.delay(spawn_wait, false, function()
			--local rot = vmath.quat(0, 0, 0, 50)
			local rot = nil 
			local random_index = math.random(1, #factories)
			local selected_factory = factories[random_index]
			-- Spawn an object from the selected factory
			if selected_factory == "greenpepper" then	
				local objectID = factory.create("main:/factories#startgreenpepperfactory", position, rot, nil, .2)
			elseif selected_factory == "chilipepper" then
				factory.create("main:/factories#startchilipepperfactory", position, rot, nil, .2)
			elseif selected_factory == "redonion" then
				factory.create("main:/factories#startredonionfactory", position, rot, nil, .13)
			elseif selected_factory == "radish" then
				factory.create("main:/factories#startradishfactory", position, rot, nil, .13)
			end
		end)
	end
end
#2

A timer will not trigger if the game object it was started from gets deleted.

1 Like
#3

“Timers created within a script will automatically die when the script is deleted.”

#4

Of course after a night of sleep…this makes perfect sense. Sometimes when your head is buried into making the game, you can’t see the forest because of all the trees.

Thank you.

#5

And just to let people of the future know how I worked around this.

I no longer delay the spawning of objects. I spawn them behind the background by assigning it -1 on the z axis. Then I do a timer delay and move it to 0.2 on the z-axis. Works perfectly.

#6

One last update. I found a better way to handle this. I created a persistent object in the collection and I use that to control when objects spawn.

2 Likes