[Emp`]

Hi All,

I have been slowly transitioning a mod from CS 1.6 to CS:GO and I have run into a road block.

The issue I am dealing with is creating an entity that needs to be hooked in changing intervals of time. Also, the entity needs to be able to touch and have a model assigned to it.

I have looked into using entity input/output using OnUser# and FireUser#, but from my understanding, I will not be able to change the interval time for these calls.

While I know that I can use timers to accomplish this, I would rather not clog up the SourceMod timers for the potential of having many of these entities.

Any insight and advice you can provide is much appreciated.

[Impact123]

I don't fully understand what exactly you want to hook, but maybe Sdk Hooks is what you are looking for.
It's included in the 1.5+ Snapshots of sourcemod.

Yours sincerely
Impact

[Bimbo1]

if i got what you asked, you can use 2 onuser, one for working as a timer and the other one for calling the callback. but, i think there is no problem in using thousands of timers. or you could even make your own timer, using some think hook of sdkhooks.
the last 2 methods are quite easy, but if you want the onuser thing, try using this:

new ent = CreateEntityByName("fndsikaf");
HookSingleEntityOutput(ent, "OnUser1", EntThink);
new String:output[64] = "OnUser2 !self:FireUser1::1.0:-1"; //1.0 = 1 second of delay.
SetVariantString(output);
AcceptEntityInput(ent, "AddOutput");
AcceptEntityInput(ent, "FireUser2");

public EntThink(const String:output[], caller, activator, Float:delay){

    AcceptEntityInput(caller, "FireUser2");

}

[Bimbo1]

i sounded arrogant. the last two methods might not be that easy to do.

[Emp`]

@Impact123: I did look into using SDKHook_Think, but I do not know too much about the different entity classes in source. Is there an entity that I can use that "thinks", "touches", and can be assigned a model?

@Bimbo1: I am aware of that method that you provided, but like I said previously, I need to be able to change the interval time. Is there a way to clear an entity's I/O and then I can add the output again? If I add an additional output, I assume it would still call the original output and the new output (based on how I believe entity I/O works).

As for the idea of making my own timer, while that would be possible, it would require looping through the entities to check their times, and at that rate it would most likely be better to just use timers.

Here is a basic example for what I am trying to do:

public EntityThink( iEnt )
{
   //Do some stuff...

   new Float:fThinkTime = GetEntityTime( iEnt );
   //Set next think time for entity to fThinkTime
}

[Bimbo1]

i guess i got it now. you don't want the timer to be a fixed value, you want it to be changed several times. try doing something like this:

new Float:Timer[2048];

new ent = CreateEntityByName("fndsikaf");
HookSingleEntityOutput(ent, "OnUser1", EntThink);
new String:output[64] = "OnUser2 !self:FireUser1::0.0:-1";
SetVariantString(output);
AcceptEntityInput(ent, "AddOutput");
AcceptEntityInput(ent, "FireUser2");
Timer[ent] = GetEngineTime()+10.0;

public EntThink(const String:output[], caller, activator, Float:delay){

    new Float:now = GetEngineTime();
    if(now >= Timer[caller]){

        //Do something
        Timer[caller] = now+GetRandomFloat(0.0, 30.0);

    }    
    AcceptEntityInput(caller, "FireUser2");

}

in this example, "do something" will happen in different intervals.

[Powerlord]

Since I haven't seen it mentioned yet, what kind of entity are you creating?

Most of the time, for an in-world object, you'll want a prop_physics or prop_physics_override; I've never been clear on the difference between these two, I just assumed the latter ignores physics rules.

[Bimbo1]

i dont know if it's related to the thread, but i think ive already read something regarding to that. prop_physics is meant for props compiled with physics data. though, if u have a prop which wasn't made to work physically, like dynamic props, prop_physics won't work, u would have to use the physics_override to make generically physical.

[Emp`]

@Bimbo1: That method will result in way too many unnecessary calls.

@Powerlord: I will probably be using prop_physics_override (I don't really need any physics on the entities, other than gravity on some of them) unless there is a "better" class to use.

I will probably just use timers to accomplish this. Thanks for the help guys.

[Bimbo1]

Originally Posted by Emp` @Bimbo1: That method will result in way too many unnecessary calls. @Powerlord: I will probably be using prop_physics_override (I don't really need any physics on the entities, other than gravity on some of them) unless there is a "better" class to use. I will probably just use timers to accomplish this. Thanks for the help guys.

yes, it's better creating timers. anyway, keep in mind that it's better not because a function being called every frame is wrong, but because sourcemod only check all the timers every 0.1 second, instead of checking them every frame. to do that timer of 0.1 second, sourcemod checks a variable every game frame like i did, which are not unnecessary calls. so, calling something every frame is going to happen either way, but sourcemod's timer is smarter because of that imprecision of 0.1 second, which is not big deal.