Why doesn't this Timer work?

Questions & Answers
1

I want to make the texture of a gameObject change after a random interval. The timer works in a test scene but doesn’t work in my game scene. I’ve tried a bunch of variations but haven’t been able to get it to work properly and am at a loss as to why not. I’d really appreciate some help understanding what’s going on and how to fix it.

Thanks,

Sue M.

#pragma strict

var welcomeTexture : Texture;								//  the welcome texture, when player first encounters game, before game play has started
var readyTexture : Texture;									//  the first texture after player has chosen to play
var goTexture : Texture;									//  the signal that the player can chose a game piece

var welcomeTex : boolean = false;							//  the welcome texture, when player first encounters game, before game play has started
var readyTex : boolean = false;								//  the first texture after player has chosen to play
var goTex : boolean = false;								//  the signal that the player can chose a game piece


var reset : GameObject;										//  the Reset button	

internal var startTimer : float;							//  the moment the player clicks on the reset button, chooses to play
internal var randomStartTimeLimit : float;					//  the random length of time before texture change
internal var changeTexTimeLimit : float = 2.0;				//  the fixed length of time before texture change
internal var changeTex : boolean = false;					//  flag for texture change

function Awake ()
{
	reset = GameObject.Find ("Reset");						//  locate the Reset game object
}

function Start () 
{
	renderer.material.mainTexture = welcomeTexture;			//  set this  object's texture to Welcome Texture
}

function Update () 
{
	if ( changeTex == true)									//  flag to change the texture
	{
		renderer.material.mainTexture = readyTexture;		//  set this  object's texture to Ready Texture 
		
		randomStartTimeLimit = Random.Range(2.0, 4.0);		//  determine the random time length 
		startTimer = Time.time;								//  start the timer now
		if (Time.time - startTimer > randomStartTimeLimit)	//  if the actual time minus the start time is more than the limit
		{
			renderer.material.mainTexture = goTexture;		//  set this  object's texture to Go Texture
			reset.GetComponent(ResetGame).goTex = true;		//  set goTex to true in the ResetGame script on reset GO
			changeTex = false;								//  inactivate the flag to change the texture
		}
	}
2

StartTimer is getting set to Time.time every frame.

So Time.time - startTimer will always equal zero.

Look at these two lines of code

 startTimer = Time.time;                                //  start the timer now
 if (Time.time - startTimer > randomStartTimeLimit)    //  if the actual time minus the start time is more than the limit
3

Thank you to everyone who answered my question! I ended up by putting startTimer and randomStartTimeLimit in the OnMouseUp function of the ResetGame script to set the timer, and putting the “if (Time.time - startTimer > randomStartTimeLimit)” section in its Update() to control changing the texture via the MessageManager script.

Everything works now and I understand what was happening before so, hopefully, things will go more smoothly now.