Using a Timer in a script that's not attached to a node?

blyterrr

Hello everyone,

I'm not sure why I'm having so much trouble figuring this out... I'll keep this simple.

I'm testing out some idle game mechanics, where something gets incremented every second. Because it's an idle game with no graphics, I just have a script that is not attached to a node. Stuff gets incremented in the class, then the GUI updates with the updated value.

I have been trying to create a Timer that calls the increment() function every second, but it doesn't work. How can I use a timer in a script that is not attached to a node? Is there any way to do this? Here is what I have been trying:

timer = Timer.new()
timer.one_shot = false
timer.wait_time = 1
timer.connect("timeout", self, "_on_Timer_timeout")
timer.start()

it doesn't seem to connect properly, it never makes it to the "_on_Timer_timeout" function.

TwistedTwigleg

I think a Timer node needs to be added to the scene to work, as it uses the _process function (I think) to tell how much time has elapsed.

If you want to make a timer without any code, you could use a float and track the amount of time using something like this:

var timer_value = 0;

func start_timer(time_in_seconds):
	timer_value = time_in_seconds
	print ("Starting timer...")

func _process(delta):
	if (timer_value > 0):
		timer_value -= delta
		if (timer_value <= 0):
			on_timer_finished()
			timer_value = 0

func on_timer_finished():
	print ("Timer finished!")

blyterrr

@TwistedTwigleg said: I think a Timer node needs to be added to the scene to work, as it uses the _process function (I think) to tell how much time has elapsed.

If you want to make a timer without any code, you could use a float and track the amount of time using something like this:
var timer_value = 0;

func start_timer(time_in_seconds):
	timer_value = time_in_seconds
	print ("Starting timer...")

func _process(delta):
	if (timer_value > 0):
		timer_value -= delta
		if (timer_value <= 0):
			on_timer_finished()
			timer_value = 0

func on_timer_finished():
	print ("Timer finished!")

So there's no way to use a Timer without having to add it as a child in the scene? My script isn't attached to any node and is therefore not currently in a scene, it's separate.

TwistedTwigleg

@blyterrr said:
@TwistedTwigleg said: I think a Timer node needs to be added to the scene to work, as it uses the _process function (I think) to tell how much time has elapsed.

If you want to make a timer without any code, you could use a float and track the amount of time using something like this:
var timer_value = 0;

func start_timer(time_in_seconds):
	timer_value = time_in_seconds
	print ("Starting timer...")

func _process(delta):
	if (timer_value > 0):
		timer_value -= delta
		if (timer_value <= 0):
			on_timer_finished()
			timer_value = 0

func on_timer_finished():
	print ("Timer finished!")
So there's no way to use a Timer without having to add it as a child in the scene? My script isn't attached to any node and is therefore not currently in a scene, it's separate.

I think so, as the Timer needs to have some way to be called in a loop-like fashion and I think it uses the SceneTree for this.

You could try using a SceneTreeTimer instead though, as long as you have a reference to the scene in your code. Then you could create it and use the timeout signal to tell if it's finished similarly to the Timer's timeout function. I have not tried it myself, but something like this might work:

func start_timer(time_in_seconds):
	var scene_timer = get_tree().create_timer(time_in_seconds)
	scene_timer.connect("timeout", self, "on_timer_timeout")
	print ("Timer started")
func on_timer_timeout():
	print ("Timer finished!")