Tickers in GDScript

In GDScript, we can use the Timer node to achieve similar functionality to tickers. Here’s an example of how to create a ticker that ticks periodically until we stop it.

extends Node

var timer: Timer
var tick_count = 0

func _ready():
    # Create a new Timer node
    timer = Timer.new()
    add_child(timer)
    
    # Set the timer to tick every 500 milliseconds
    timer.set_wait_time(0.5)
    timer.set_one_shot(false)
    
    # Connect the timeout signal to our tick function
    timer.connect("timeout", self, "_on_Timer_timeout")
    
    # Start the timer
    timer.start()
    
    # Stop the timer after 1.6 seconds
    yield(get_tree().create_timer(1.6), "timeout")
    timer.stop()
    print("Timer stopped")

func _on_Timer_timeout():
    tick_count += 1
    print("Tick at ", OS.get_datetime())
    
    # Stop after 3 ticks
    if tick_count >= 3:
        timer.stop()
        print("Timer stopped")

In this GDScript example, we’re using a Timer node to create a ticker-like behavior. Here’s how it works:

1. We create a new Timer node in the _ready() function, which is called when the script is initialized.

2. We set the timer to tick every 500 milliseconds (0.5 seconds) using set_wait_time(0.5).

3. We set the timer to repeat by calling set_one_shot(false).

4. We connect the timer’s “timeout” signal to our _on_Timer_timeout() function, which will be called every time the timer ticks.

5. We start the timer with timer.start().

6. We use yield(get_tree().create_timer(1.6), "timeout") to wait for 1.6 seconds before stopping the timer.

7. In the _on_Timer_timeout() function, we print the current time for each tick and increment a counter.

8. After 3 ticks, we stop the timer.

When we run this program, the timer should tick 3 times before we stop it. The output might look something like this:

Tick at {year:2023, month:6, day:15, weekday:4, hour:10, minute:30, second:0}
Tick at {year:2023, month:6, day:15, weekday:4, hour:10, minute:30, second:0}
Tick at {year:2023, month:6, day:15, weekday:4, hour:10, minute:31, second:1}
Timer stopped

Note that in GDScript, we don’t have built-in concurrency primitives like goroutines or channels. Instead, we typically use signals and the scene tree to manage asynchronous operations. The yield function provides a way to pause execution and resume it later, which can be used for simple coroutine-like behavior.