Lua question

[tyreafus]

I'm working on a timer script for Lunar that will allow Windower scripted macros to display up to 6 onscreen countdown timers to be used for monitoring time-til-use on abilities(imagine being a war/mnk and being able to see timers for voke, berserk, defender, boost, and dodge all at once). However I'm looking for a Lua command that I'm sure exists, but I can't seem to find(I'm a beginner ; .

I need a command that will make a while loop pause for 1 second, while leaving the script open to accept function commands from the Windower console. I don't think I can use Windower.script_Sleep(1000) because this will lock the entire script for 1 second, disallowing it to accept commands from the console. Is this true? If so, is there another command I can use?

Here is what I have so far:

--Global variable initialization, creation of text objects--
global going = true
global on1 = false
global on2 = false
global on3 = false
global on4 = false
global on5 = false
global on6 = false
global label1 = ""
global label2 = ""
global label3 = ""
global label4 = ""
global label5 = ""
global label6 = ""
global time1 = 0
global time2 = 0
global time3 = 0
global time4 = 0
global time5 = 0
global time6 = 0
global t1 = Graphics.text_CreateObject()
Graphics.text_SetColor(255, 0, 100, 100, t1)
Graphics.text_SetPosition(50, 20, t1)
Graphics.text_SetVisibility(false, t1)
global t2 = Graphics.text_CreateObject()
Graphics.text_SetColor(255, 0, 100, 100, t2)
Graphics.text_SetPosition(50, 100, t2)
Graphics.text_SetVisibility(false, t2)
global t3 = Graphics.text_CreateObject()
Graphics.text_SetColor(255, 0, 100, 100, t3)
Graphics.text_SetPosition(50, 180, t3)
Graphics.text_SetVisibility(false, t3)
global t4 = Graphics.text_CreateObject()
Graphics.text_SetColor(255, 0, 100, 100, t4)
Graphics.text_SetPosition(50, 260, t4)
Graphics.text_SetVisibility(false, t4)
global t5 = Graphics.text_CreateObject()
Graphics.text_SetColor(255, 0, 100, 100, t5)
Graphics.text_SetPosition(50, 340, t5)
Graphics.text_SetVisibility(false, t5)
global t6 = Graphics.text_CreateObject()
Graphics.text_SetColor(255, 0, 100, 100, t6)
Graphics.text_SetPosition(50, 20, t6)
Graphics.text_SetVisibility(false, t6)
--functions, to be initialized from the Windower console.-------
function start(timernum, t, label)
 if timernum = 1 then
   on1 = true
   label1 = label
   time1 = t
 elseif timernum == 2 then
   on2 = true
   label2 = label
   time2 = t
 elseif timernum == 3 then
   on3 = true
   label3 = label
   time3 = t
 elseif timernum == 4 then
   on4 = true
   label4 = label
   time4 = t
 elseif timernum == 5 then
   on5 = true
   label5 = label
   time5 = t
 elseif timernum == 6 then
   on6 = true
   label6 = label
   time6 = t
 else
   Control.control_SendString("/echo Timer.start: invalid timer#.")
 end
end
funtion off(tnum)
 if tnum == 1 then
   on1 = false
   Graphics.text_SetVisiblity(false, t1)
 elseif tnum == 2 then
   on2 = false
   Graphics.text_SetVisiblity(false, t2)
 elseif tnum == 3 then
   on3 = false
   Graphics.text_SetVisiblity(false, t3)
 elseif tnum == 4 then
   on4 = false
   Graphics.text_SetVisiblity(false, t4)
 elseif tnum == 5 then
   on5 = false
   Graphics.text_SetVisiblity(false, t5)
 elseif tnum == 6 then
   on6 = false
   Graphics.text_SetVisiblity(false, t6)
 else
   Control.control_SendString("/echo Timer.off: invalid timer#.")
 end
end
--While loop for countdown/update------------------------
while going == true do
 if on1 == true then
   Graphics.text_SetVisiblity(true, t1)
   Graphics.text_SetText(label1 .. ":  " .. time1)
 end
 if on2 == true then
   Graphics.text_SetVisibility(true, t2)
   Graphics.text_SetText(label1 .. ":  " .. time1)
 end
 if on3 ==true then
   Graphics.text_SetVisibility(true, t3)
   Graphics.text_SetText(label3 .. ":  " .. time3)
 end
 if on4 == true then
   Graphics.text_SetVisibility(true, t4)
   Graphics.text_SetText(label4 .. ":  " .. time4)
 end
 if on5 == true then
   Graphics.text_SetVisibility(true, t5)
   Graphics.text_SetText(label5 .. ":  " .. time5)
 end
 if on6 == true then
   Graphics.text_SetVisibility(true, t6)
   Graphics.text_SetText(label1 .. ":  " .. time6)
 end
 if time1 > 0 then
   time1 = time1 - 1
 end
 if time2 > 0 then
   time2 = time2 - 1
 end
 if time3 > 0 then
   time3 = time3 -1
 end
 if time4 > 0 then
   time4 = time4 - 1
 end
 if time5 > 0 then
   time5 = time5 -1
 end
 if time6 > 0 then
   time6 = time6 - 1
 end
Windower.script_Sleep(1000)    
--^time command in question--
end

What command should I use? Any other suggestions are also welcome.

[TinyTerror]

Yeah, sleeping for 1000ms will lock the script and prevent the processing of input. Users can still enter stuff in the console, it just wont get picked up by the script until sleep is done. A solution to this is to not use a single big sleep function, but a bunch of small ones. If you need to process input during a sleep period, make a function that looks a bit like this:


for i=0,10,1 do
Windower.script_Sleep(100)
--Process commands and input here
end


This will make your script sleep for about a second, while checking for input 10 times during that second. Depending on how long it takes for you to process input, you might run into a bit of clock skewing. This might happen if each input processing function call takes 5 ms or something. You might expect to sleep for 1000ms, but actually sleep for 1050ms.

A more accurate way to tell time than sleep functions is to use the time functions in the OS library. Here is a link to the docs for this function:

www.lua.org/pil/22.1.html

Good luck!