Random timer (another random question)

General
1

Hi all!

I’m messing around trying to make a timer that spawns objects at .25 second, .5 second, and 1 second intervals randomly.

I’m lost though…

What I have so far is below but not sure where to go from there.


function setup()

     timer=0

     time={}

     timerFreq={.25,.5,1}

end

function draw()

     timer = timer + DeltaTime

     for a,b in ipairs(timerFreq) do
          local random=math.random(1,3)
          table.insert(time,timerFreq[random])
          if timer > time then
               spawnObject()
          end
     end

end

As you can see I’m totally mixed up with this timer, not really sure how to put it all together.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

2

@Crumble how about

-- Random Spawn

-- Use this function to perform your initial setup
function setup()
    timerFreq={0.25,0.5,1}
    nextRespawn=timerFreq[math.random(3)]
    counter=0
end

-- This function gets called once every frame
function draw()
    counter = counter + DeltaTime
    if counter>nextRespawn then
        print("respawn at "..counter)
        counter=0
        nextRespawn=timerFreq[math.random(3)]
    end
end
3

@Crumble Try this.


function setup()
    start=true
end

function draw()
    background(40, 40, 50)
    if start then
        startTween()
    end
end

function startTween()
    local timerFreq={.25,.5,1}
    start=false
    local delay=timerFreq[math.random(3)]
    print("delaying",delay)
    t1=tween.delay(delay,function() start=true end)
end
4

@Crumble Or this.


function setup()
    startTween()
end

function draw()
    background(40, 40, 50)
end

function startTween()
    local timerFreq={.25,.5,1}
    local delay=timerFreq[math.random(3)]
    print("delaying",delay)
    t1=tween.delay(delay,function() startTween() end)
end
5

is this timer accurate?compared to the use of tween.delay?0, callback??

6

I’ll try these when I get home, thanks guys!

7

Those work great! It’s cool to see the different ways that it can be done, would have never thought to use Tweens.

Kind of along the same lines, but how would when tapping the screen, make Codea play random sounds from a table?

I tried:


function setup()

soundsTable={sound("A Hero's Quest:Bottle Break 1"),sound("A Hero's Quest:Arrow Shoot 1")}

soundPlayed=soundsTable[math.random(2)]

end

function touched(t)

if t.state==BEGAN then
     if t.x > 0 and t.x < WIDTH and t.y > 0 and t.y < HEIGHT then
          sound(soundPlayed)
end 
end 
end

function draw()

background(0)

end

but it plays a sound when program starts then I’m getting an error when touching the screen saying “codeasoundbuffer expected, got user data”… I need to wrap my head around how to use the random function with tables…

Any tips?

Edit: never mind I figured it out, was a dumb mistake, I was using sound() in the table instead of just using the file name… so Codea was trying to run sound(sound(file name))