6th October 2020, Feet First Outside of My Comfort Zone
Today is the day I take on one of my greatest fears…
Programming.
This definitely isn’t my strong suit, but I am prepared to do what ever is necessary to get this game done. No exceptions. If we don’t get this done? We fail, and that is not an option I am willing to put on the table for my team and for myself.
Why am I doing… well, this?
While Glen tirelessly works away trying to get a scene changing code complete as well as a point, click, drag code for the objects etc. I have decided to take it upon myself to take a handful of the scripts off his hands. The code I will be doing is in correlation to the 20 second timer scheme we put forward during our concept and planning phase of development– a phase which took longer than it should have.
7/10/2020 update:
I have done some more research into the timer coding, and it appears to me that you need to set up a Time.DeltaTime script separately if this one is to work. From my understanding, this code is for the actual second-by-second counter and not the actual countdown– sort of like what the hands are to a clock. I’ll contact my teammates and tell them the scenario and try to tackle this here and now.
https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/Time-deltaTime.html
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The link above appears to be for a timer that counts to 2 then resets, this is not what I am wanting to do. I am trying to create a 20 second timer that counts down and displays a game over scene when the timer runs out, with the players score displayed along with it.
update: ITS ALIVE! ITS ALIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE!
I went to my programming and production tutor and sent the finished script over to him to verify some details. He didn’t mention much in the way of delta time, however gave me some excellent pointers:
- When writing void Start() or void Update(), both start and update need capital letters otherwise this may jack something up.
- The string “CurrentTime -= 1 * Time.DeltaTime” is useless, or at least part of it is; the 1 multiplication is unnecessary so the code can be just “CurrentTime -= Time.DeltaTime”
- Something else is needed to make the timer serve its purpose: I need to put an if statement for when the countdown reaches 0, and what the computer should do if that is to happen. When asking about this, my tutor agreed that I would be correct if I told the code to change scene to a game over screen.
- Currently, Kieron is working on that very game over screen, however I will task myself in what coding should be done for it. For the game over screen we will need:
- A number of how many tasks went completed by the player in the time frame
- A number of how many tasks went incompleted by the player in the time frame
- Whether the number gathered is a good enough score to redeem a pass
- Whether the number gathered is a bad enough score to redeem a fail
- A retry and exit button should probably be in order as well
12/10/2020 update: Man down
On Friday of last week, Glen and I had received news from Kieron that he is in self isolation due to his close family testing positive for covid-19. He will be off for the next two-or-so weeks and Glen and I will gave to work as a duo to get this done and finished.
I feel like this event kind of highlighted the importance that I try to get the file onto my laptop and work on the game on my own if I have to, for if the worst was to happen and we were sent back into lock-down or if one of us tests positive. I am of the opinion that our deadline will not be postponed and we would not have an easy time if we got sent home, as I am limited in what I can do and Glen can’t do anything.
15/10/2020 More programming
As of Thursday the 15th, I have revamped the timer script.
The CountDown timer:
NOTES:
- We have tested the actual timer in the game and IT WORKS!!! YES!
- There is only one issue that needs fixing, which is why the script might look experimental and janky towards the end to a programmer: the timer seems to reset when the scene is changed and we are unsure how to stop this from happening, henceforth my experimentation. We will be finding a fix soon.
- When the timer ends we need it to change to the game over scene, something we are currently working on.
22/10/20
The Drag and Drop script:
- We, as a group, got this to work in seconds and the reason it wouldn’t work was because of one simple mistake
- We need a secondary script to act as a goal for the object to be dragged upon, so that it will activate the button to go back to the main screen
Joel's blog 