Help with nested if statements? (sf::Time)

[Pikmeir]

Hey guys,
I'm finally adding timers into my game for using special items and spells. I'm not sure if this is a simple nested if statement problem I'm having, or if it's related to sf::Time.

When I click on the screen, it'll wait 5 seconds (it seems a bit short though) then display the message on the console.
After that, when I click again it'll immediately display the message again, instead of waiting the appropriate 5 seconds. Isn't it supposed to have reset to default, and not automatically show the message for another 5 seconds? Anyway I'm a bit stumped here.

Here's the shortest possible example of this I could replicate (this of course isn't my actual code since it's way too long, but this is set up the same way as my real program is).

#include <SFML/Graphics.hpp>
#include <SFML/System.hpp>
#include <iostream>

std::vector <sf::Time> timerArray (200); // one for each spell
sf::Time currentTime;

// Every spell gets a 5 second timer
void castSpell(unsigned int spellNumber)
{ timerArray.at(spellNumber) = currentTime + sf::seconds(5); }

int main () {
        sf::RenderWindow Screen (sf::VideoMode (800, 600, 32), "Game");

        sf::Clock clock;
        sf::Time startTime = clock.restart();
        sf::Time currentTime = clock.getElapsedTime();

        // Activate all consumable timers (set to startTime)
        for (int i = 1; i <= 199; i++)
        { timerArray.at(i) = startTime; } // default is startTime

        while (Screen.isOpen()) {
                Screen.clear();
                currentTime = clock.getElapsedTime();
       
                sf::Event Event;
                while (Screen.pollEvent (Event)) {
                        if (Event.type == sf::Event::Closed)
                        { Screen.close(); }
                        if (Event.type == sf::Event::MouseButtonPressed)
                        { castSpell(4); }
                }

                // Remove effects of spells (if any)
                for (int i = 1; i <= 199; i++)
                {
                        if (timerArray.at(i) != startTime) // if not in default setting
                        {
                                if (timerArray.at(i) <= currentTime) // if the current time surpasses the set timer
                                {
                                        timerArray.at(i) = startTime; // reset the timer to default
                                        switch (i)
                                        {
                                                case 4: // Spell # 4
                                                        std::cout << "Death spell has worn off!" << std::endl;
                                                        break;
                                                default:
                                                        break;
                                        }
                                }
                        }
                }

                Screen.display();
        }

        return 0;
}

[eXpl0it3r]

Although you do reset it before displaying the message, it doesn't matter since you change the time value currentTime+5 at any point in time.
But it actually should indeed wait for another 5 seconds.

Btw you should never put the Screen.clear() command at the beginning of the game loop, but instead it should come directly before the first draw call.

[Pikmeir]

You're saying that what I have should work, but simply isn't?
Maybe I should figure out a new way to set/clear timers.

I'll swap the Screen.clear() command before my first draw call. I wasn't sure the best place to put it. Thanks for that advice.

[eXpl0it3r]

You're saying that what I have should work, but simply isn't?
Maybe I should figure out a new way to set/clear timers.

No it meant I did have time to test and debug it on my own and could only stare at it.

The problem is that you declare currentTime twice, once in the global scope and once in the main function:

sf::Time currentTime; // 1
int main() {
//...
sf::Time currentTime = clock.getElapsedTime(); // 2

Now calling currentTime within the main function will use the currentTime marked as 2 but from the castSpell function it will call currentTime marked as 1.
The global currentTime will always be 0 thus currentTime + sf::second(5) in the castSpell function will always result in 5s. In the beginning when the application didn't run for 5 seconds it will shown delayed (but a porbably a bit too short as you've noticed) and later on the runtime will long have exceeded those 5s.
Although you said your code looks diffrent in the original, I just wanted to point out that using global varaibles isn't such a good idea.
Btw if you want to access a global variable but you have the same name used for a local variable you can use ::var to access it.

[Pikmeir]

Thank you so much! I simply removed the "sf::Time currentTime = clock.getElapsedTime();" from the start of main() and it works now. I didn't even realize that I was declaring it twice.

I have a few other global variables that are used this way too (in my actual program), so I'll think of a way to not have to use them anymore. Perhaps they could cause more problems like this for me in the future.

Thanks again for your help.