Scheduling

Scheduling is a very powerful feature that Cocos offers. Allows you to abstract code and call it when you need to and as often you need to.

Note: Every scheduled function that is on this page has a variable calleddt (delta time) which is the time between frames. This can be used to achieve framerate-independent gameplay.

Note: The usual standard for where to put all the schedule methods is in the constructor.

Schedule Update - calls the update function every frame

// cannot be renamed
void update( float dt );

// call the update function every frame
scheduleUpdate( );

void ClassName::update( float dt )
{
    // code to run every frame
}

// call the update function every frame
this.scheduleUpdate( );

update: function( dt )
{
    // code to run every frame
}

Scheduling Functions - there are several different methods for scheduling functions

Schedule a function a set number of times with a set time gap between calls

Example format:

schedule( functionToCall, timeBetweenFunctionCalls, numberOfTimesToCallFunction, firstFunctionCallDelay );

Note: numberOfTimesToCallFunction is the number time to repeat the function call so a value of 5 would call the function a total of 6 times, once then repeat it 5 times.

// function can be renamed
void UpdateFunction( float dt );

schedule( schedule_selector( ClassName::UpdateFunction ), 3.0, 5, 1.0 );

void ClassName::UpdateFunction( float dt )
{
    // code to run
}

this.schedule( this.UpdateFunction, 3.0, 5, 1.0 );

UpdateFunction: function( dt )
{
		// code to run
},

Schedule a function forever with a set time gap between calls

Example format:

schedule( functionToCall, timeBetweenFunctionCalls );

// function can be renamed
void UpdateFunction( float dt );

schedule( schedule_selector( ClassName::UpdateFunction ), 1.0 );

void ClassName::UpdateFunction( float dt )
{
    // code to run
}

this.schedule( this.UpdateFunction, 1.0 );

UpdateFunction: function( dt )
{
		// code to run
},

Schedule a custom function to run every frame

Example format:

schedule( functionToCall );

// function can be renamed
void UpdateFunction( float dt );

schedule( schedule_selector( ClassName::UpdateFunction ) );

void ClassName::UpdateFunction( float dt )
{
    // code to run
}

this.schedule( this.UpdateFunction );

UpdateFunction: function( dt )
{
		// code to run
},

Schedule a function once

Example format:

scheduleOnce( functionToCall, delayBeforeFunctionCall );

// function can be renamed
void UpdateFunction( float dt );

scheduleOnce( schedule_selector( ClassName::UpdateFunction ), 1.0 );

void ClassName::UpdateFunction( float dt )
{
    // code to run
}

this.scheduleOnce( this.UpdateFunction, 1.0 );

UpdateFunction: function( dt )
{
		// code to run
},

Unscheduling - scheduled functions can be stopped very easily

Unschedule a custom function

unschedule( schedule_selector( ClassName::CustomFunctionName ) );

this.unschedule( this.UpdateFunction );

Unschedule all functions

unscheduleAllCallbacks( );

this.unscheduleAllCallbacks( );

Unschedule the update function

unscheduleUpdate( );

this.unscheduleUpdate( );