Problem updating animation with intervals

Questions & Answers
1

Hello guys, first question over here, i’m really new with unity(1 and 1/2 weeks), i picked it up because i need to make a mobile app for uni.

So my question is the following, i have this animation (basically it’s a scale and color alpha change), but i only want to run in within a timed interval, i cant put my head arround it, i’m sure i’m missing something easy.

Please check it out! Thanks in advance, Roger

public float alphaStart;
public float alphaEnd;
public float duration;
public float interval;
public float targetscaleMul;
public float force;
public float forceradius;
private float start;
private float actual;
private bool active;
private float lerp;
private Vector3 originalLocalScale=Vector3.zero;
private Vector3 originalLocalScaleaux=Vector3.zero;
private Vector3 targetLocalScale=Vector3.zero;
private float alphaaux;
private Color newc;
    void Start () {
	start =Time.time;
	actual =Time.time;

	active=false;
	originalLocalScale=transform.localScale;
	targetLocalScale=transform.localScale;
	targetLocalScale.y=originalLocalScale.y*targetscaleMul;
	newc=renderer.material.color;
}
	void Update () {
		actual=Time.time;
		if(active){
			fazanim();
		}else{
			if(actual>=(start+interval)){
				fazanim ();
			}
				
		}
	private void fazanim(){
		
		if(!active){
			active=true;
			start=Time.time;
		}
			
		if(active){
			if((actual-start)>=duration*2){
				newc.a=alphaStart;
				renderer.material.SetColor("_Color",newc);
				transform.localScale = originalLocalScale;
					
				start=Time.time;
				active=false;
				return;
			}	
			
			lerp = Mathf.PingPong(actual,duration)/duration;
			alphaaux=Mathf.Lerp(alphaStart,alphaEnd,lerp);
			newc.a=alphaaux;
			renderer.material.SetColor("_Color",newc);
			transform.localScale = Vector3.Lerp(originalLocalScale, targetLocalScale,lerp);
			
			}
			
		}

what i intended with the interval float is to space out the anim. ex : wait interval. do animation.wait interval . do animation. wait…

but this implementation is basicly skipping the anination the interval ammount

2

tryed with a coroutine, same results, what am i not seeing???

void Update () {
	actual=Time.time;
	if(actual>=(start+interval) && !active){
		StartCoroutine(fazanim ());
	}
	
}



private IEnumerator fazanim(){
		
			if(!active){
				active=true;
				start=Time.time;
			}
			
			if(active){
			while(true){
				if((actual-start)>=duration*2){
				//yield return new WaitForEndOfFrame();
					newc.a=alphaStart;
					renderer.material.SetColor("_Color",newc);
					transform.localScale = originalLocalScale;
					
					start=Time.time;
					active=false;
					
				}	
				yield return new WaitForEndOfFrame();
				lerp = Mathf.PingPong(actual,duration)/duration;
				alphaaux=Mathf.Lerp(alphaStart,alphaEnd,lerp);
				newc.a=alphaaux;
				renderer.material.SetColor("_Color",newc);
				transform.localScale = Vector3.Lerp(originalLocalScale, targetLocalScale,lerp);
			}
			}
			
		}
3

First off, your update code is a waste. The logic you have in there is:

if(something) 
    runA(); 
else if(somethingElse) 
    runA();

Why not simply runA? By that I mean get rid of runA and move the code to update.

Also in my experience you’re doing timers in a rather unconventional way. I’ve seen them mostly as:

float TIMER_DURATION = 2.0f; //Two second timer
float m_timer = 0f; //Countdown timer

//... somewhere in update
if(m_timer <= 0f)
{
    //timer is done. do timer ended logic.
    //and then reset your timer.
    m_timer = TIMER_DURATION;
}
m_timer -= Time.deltaTime;

You’re code is more complex than it needs to be. Simplify it and put some Debug.Logs in various places to verify what numbers you’re getting. I would start with Debug.Log(lerp);. I also would put some around to make sure things are getting called in the correct order. Debug.Log(“starting anim”); Debug.Log(“stopping anim”); Debug.Log(“animating”);