CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascriptaframe
PookageHayes
PookageHayes

Reputation: 75

Is there a way to start the tick() loop on a pooled A-Frame entity, or should I manage that manually?

I'm using A-Frame and trying to generate pool multiple 'cloud' entities that will slowly begin moving in a particular direction once activated, but the tick() function doesn't seem to be being called! Is there a way to kickstart it, or do I need to manage it manually?

Here's the setup that I'm using to test with 1 cloud:

HTML

<a-assets>
    <a-mixin id="cloud" cloud></a-mixin>
</a-assets>

<a-entity 
    cloudmanager
    pool="mixin: cloud; size: 1;">
</a-entity>

cloudmanager.js

AFRAME.registerComponent("cloudmanager", {
    init: function(){
        const cloudEl = this.el.components.pool.requestEntity();
        cloudEl.components.cloud.startMoving();
    }
});

cloud.js

AFRAME.registerComponent("cloud", {

    //LIFECYCLE
    //-----------
    init: function(){
        this.startMoving = this.startMoving.bind(this);
        this.moving      = false;
       // ...and then create the cloud geometry etc etc
    },
    tick: function(time, deltaTime){
        console.log("tick"); //never happens!

        if(this.moving) this.move(deltaTime);
    },

    //UTILS
    //-----------
    startMoving: function(){
        console.log("starting to move!"); //logs ok
        this.moving = true;
    },
    move: function(deltaTime){
       // translations etc etc
    }
});

The cloud gets created okay (confirmed with logging and appears in scene), it gets told to start moving okay (confirmed with logging), but the console.log inside tick() just never fires and so I can't get the cloud moving!

Am I not using the pool correctly? Or is this just an optimisation so that pooled entities aren't all ticking even when they're not used? Do I need to activate them in some way?

Any help would be hugely appreciated! Thanks all.

-p

Upvotes: 0

Views: 214

Answers (1)

Piotr Adam Milewski
Piotr Adam Milewski

Reputation: 14655

You can try moving the manager component to initialize after the pool is initialized:

<a-entity 
  pool="mixin: cloud; size: 1;"
  cloudmanager>
</a-entity>

And it should be working. Check it out in this fiddle.

The pool component will call play and pause upon requesting and returning entities. When an element is requested, the tick function should be called on each frame.

Upvotes: 1

Related Questions