How to alter a timer within a different script

Questions & Answers
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1

I have a timer script that goes down throughout my game, however I need the time to increase when an event happens.

Timer.cs script:

using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using Unity.VisualScripting;
using UnityEngine;
using UnityEngine.UI;
using static UnityEditor.Experimental.GraphView.GraphView;

public class Timer : MonoBehaviour
{
    public GameObject Mouth;
    public GameObject SadMouth;
    public GameObject Pizza;
    
    public Image timerBar;
    public float maxTime = 50f;
    float timeLeft;
    public Animator animComponent;

    // Start is called before the first frame update

    void Start()
    {
        timerBar = GetComponent<Image> ();
        timeLeft = maxTime;

        SadMouth.SetActive(false);

        //       if (PlayerPrefs.HasKey("timeValue"))
        //       {
        //           timeLeft = PlayerPrefs.GetFloat("timeValue");
        //       }
    }

    // Update is called once per frame
    public void Update()
    {
        if (timeLeft > 0)
        {
            timeLeft -= Time.deltaTime;
            timerBar.fillAmount = timeLeft / maxTime;
        }
        else
        {
            Time.timeScale = 0;
        }

        if (timeLeft <= 40)
        {
            animComponent.SetBool("IsLiving", false);
            Mouth.SetActive(false);
        }
        if (timeLeft <= 39)
        {
            SadMouth.SetActive(true);
        }

        //    PlayerPrefs.SetFloat("timeValue", timeLeft);
    }
}

The event that is happening is referenced here, within a different script

if (Input.GetMouseButtonUp(0))
{
    transform.position = originalPos;
    this.dragging = false;
    if (collided)
    {
        Debug.Log("Collding while mouse is up");
    }
}

I need to add time to the timer when collided. I’ve looked on different platforms but can’t seem to figure it out. Any help would be appreciated.

2

In order for one script to influence another script, you need two things:

  1. ScriptA needs a public interface for the thing you want to change.
  2. ScriptB needs a reference to ScriptA

It is typically a good idea to define a public method rather than change variables in other scripts directly. This gives you more control on the interaction. For example, in your timer script you could add a method like this:

public void AlterTimer(float value)
{
    //value could be positive or negative, so this could be used to increase
    //or decrease the current timer.
    timeLeft += value;
}

In order to access this method, your other script will need a reference to the Timer instance. If both objects are in the same scene, then you can add a [SerializeField] for the Timer in your other script, like this:

[SerializeField] private Timer myTimer;

This should create a field in the inspector where you can drag the object with the Timer script. Then to call the function it is:

myTimer.AlterTimer(5f); //pass in whatever value you need

If your situation has some special conditions, then another solution may be required, but this is often good enough for simple cases.

3

This worked perfectly, thank you! I’ve been stuck on that for ages ^^