What is a good method for tracking an array of different times?

Questions & Answers
1

Hello, I am trying to implement a spawner object and am looking for some advice about the best approach in dealing with multiple timers.
Here is a stripped down example of what I am doing, in c#:

[System.Serializable]
public class SpawnerList
{
	public Transform objectToSpawn;
	public float secondsUntilNextSpawn = 1;
}

public class Spawner : MonoBehaviour
{
	public SpawnerList[] spawnerList;
}

So in the inspector you have an array of SpawnerList objects, each having a prefab and a spawn time. What would be the best approach to dealing with tracking those different times, and spawning the different prefabs at the right times?

2

If each "SpawnerList"-item (which should have a singular name like SpawnItem) should be spawned independently, just start a seperate coroutine for each item.

edit: changed my example

[System.Serializable]
public class SpawnItem
{
    public Transform objectToSpawn;
    public float secondsUntilNextSpawn = 1;
}

public class Spawner : MonoBehaviour
{
    public SpawnItem[] spawnList;
    IEnumerator SpawnLoop(SpawnItem Item)
    {
        while(true)   // spawns infinite
        {
            Instantiate(Item.objectToSpawn);
            yield return new WaitForSeconds(Item.secondsUntilNextSpawn);
        }
    }
    void Start()
    {
        foreach (SpawnItem I in spawnList)
            StartCoroutine(SpawnLoop(I));
    }
}

Or which is propably much simpler, attach as many scripts as needed to a GameObject. Since every item works on it's own just create a MonoBehaviour which handles a single object and just attach as many you need:

public class Spawner : MonoBehaviour
{
    public Transform objectToSpawn;
    public float secondsUntilNextSpawn = 1;
    IEnumerator Start()
    {
        while(true)   // spawns infinite
        {
            Instantiate(objectToSpawn);
            yield return new WaitForSeconds(secondsUntilNextSpawn);
        }
    }
    // If you want to stop the spawn loop when the script get disabled, just add this:
    void OnDisable()
    {
        StopAllCoroutines();
    }
}
3

Start a coroutine inside each object…

[System.Serializable]
public class SpawnerItem
{
	public Transform objectToSpawn;
	public float m_spawnDelay = 1;
	Spawner m_spawner;
	bool m_canRun;
	public void Start(Spawner p_spawner)
	{
		m_spawner = p_spawner;
		m_canRun = true;
		p_spawner.StartCoroutine(SelfRun());
	}
	
	public void Stop()
	{
		m_canRun = false;
	}
	
	IEnumerator SelfRun()
	{
		while(m_canRun)
		{
			yield return new WaitForSeconds(m_spawnDelay);
			Debug.Log("Im running every..." + m_spawnDelay);
		}
	}
}

public class Spawner : MonoBehaviour
{
	public SpawnerItem[] m_spawnerItems;
	
	void Start()
	{
		if(m_spawnerItems == null)
			return;
		foreach(SpawnerItem eachItem in m_spawnerItems)
		{
			if(eachItem == null)
				continue;
			eachItem.Start(this);
		}
	}

}