How can I add a delay inside the update loop?

[Daniel Belohlavek]

Let's say I have a variable "assets" that is an object and contains several sprites.

 

Inside the update loop, I check the position of each sprite by iterating through the object. If a condition is true (the sprite is outside the game bounds), I want to wait a random amount of milliseconds and then give that sprite a new position without the need of destroying it and creating a new one. I want to use the same amount of sprites and continue re-spawning them until another condition is met (out of lives or whatever).

 

I tried using setTimeout() but it does not work inside the loop. Furthermore, I'm having problems figuring out how to "freeze" one sprite while the rest keep moving (that means I cant pause the update loop, although I don't even know if that's possible).

 

Please keep in mind that this is a mobile game and performance is important.

 

Is it really worth the effort? Should I just kill them and spawn new ones?

 

Thanks for reading.

[lewster32]

There are examples of sprite pooling which is usually the way you'd do this, but if you need it to work as described above, maybe something like this?

function update() {  // loop through our 'assets' group  assets.forEach(function(sprite) {    // check to see if the sprite is fully outside of the camera    if (!sprite.inCamera) {      // stop the sprite moving (if using physics)      sprite.body.velocity.setTo(0, 0);      // create a timer which waits between 10 and 500ms then repositions the sprite randomly within the game world      game.time.events.add(game.rnd.integerInRange(10, 500), function() {        sprite.position.setTo(game.world.randomX, game.world.randomY);      }    }  });}

[user123456789]

 

There are examples of sprite pooling which is usually the way you'd do this, but if you need it to work as described above, maybe something like this?

function update() {  // loop through our 'assets' group  assets.forEach(function(sprite) {    // check to see if the sprite is fully outside of the camera    if (!sprite.inCamera) {      // stop the sprite moving (if using physics)      sprite.body.velocity.setTo(0, 0);      // create a timer which waits between 10 and 500ms then repositions the sprite randomly within the game world      game.time.events.add(game.rnd.integerInRange(10, 500), function() {        sprite.position.setTo(game.world.randomX, game.world.randomY);      }    }  });}

 

Hmm.. Doesn't this result to a situation where each frame calls constantly timers for same object? Probably some sort of flag is needed to determine if the sprite re-positioning is pending.. or some alternative approach 

[lewster32]

Yeah you're right - schoolboy error there on my behalf... 

function update() {  // loop through our 'assets' group  assets.forEach(function(sprite) {    // check to see if the sprite is fully outside of the camera and is not currently being repositioned    if (!sprite.inCamera && !sprite.pendingMove) {      // set our 'pendingMove' flag so the object isn't checked again      sprite.pendingMove = true;      // stop the sprite moving (if using physics)      sprite.body.velocity.setTo(0, 0);      // create a timer which waits between 10 and 500ms then repositions the sprite randomly within the game world      // and resets our 'pendingMove' flag so it can be checked again in the future      game.time.events.add(game.rnd.integerInRange(10, 500), function() {        sprite.position.setTo(game.world.randomX, game.world.randomY);        sprite.pendingMove = false;      }    }  });}

[Daniel Belohlavek]

Thanks!