random marker

[whiskeyzulu]

can any of you brainics tell me why this script doesn't give me the coordinates of a random marker??

    local markers = getElementsByType("marker") 
    local x,y,z = getElementPosition(markers[math.random(#markers)]) 

debug tells me that the argument passed to random is nil. There are definitely 27 markers on the map (created with map editor). Maybe I am calling getElementsByType before the map objects have loaded??

[Walid]

It's a table all what you need is

for i , v in pairs ( markers) do 
     local x,y,z = getElementPosition(v) 
     -- You code here 
end  

[whiskeyzulu]

that would give me the coordinates of each marker. It still doesn't solve how to pick one of those markers to spawn at or whatever.

I solved the problem. I included a minimum random argument along with a maximum argument. I believe my original code above would sometimes randomly throw out a zero and cause the code to break. I replaced the code with this:

    local markers = getElementsByType("marker") 
    local x,y,z = getElementPosition(markers[math.random(1,#markers)]) 

all is fine! I randomly spawn at any one of my 27 markers!

Thanks for trying to help. Big love.

[whiskeyzulu]

spoke too soon! Problem still happens sporadically. #markers is sometimes throwing out nil when I restart my resource.

[Walid]

spoke too soon! Problem still happens sporadically. #markers is sometimes throwing out nil when I restart my resource.

if markers then  
  
end  

[whiskeyzulu]

so I should enter a while loop until "markers" are true then build the table. Why are the markers I have placed on the map in the map editor not showing up when i start my server? I had this working yesterday!! LOL

[whiskeyzulu]

It appears that my problem was due to the fact that I was loading an old version of my map file that did not have any markers placed inside it! I need to work on my version control.

My function now works properly and reliably. It is a bit clunkier than I would like so any tips or comments as to how I may be able to clean it up a little would be most greatly appreciated.

I still couldn't access a table of markers by indexing directly with a math.random call within square brackets

(i.e. randomMarker = marker[math.random(1,#marker)]). I ended up using a for loop to iterate through ipairs as usual.

function warper() 
     
    local player = getPlayerName(source) 
    local vehicleID = 0 
    local x,y,z = 0 
     
    if player == "pilot" then 
        --pilot gets a police maverick helicopter 
        vehicleID = 497 
    elseif player == "patrol1" or player == "patrol2" then 
        --patrolmen get a police car 
        vehicleID = 596 
    else 
        --bandits get a taxi 
        vehicleID = 438 
    end 
     
    local markers = getElementsByType("marker") 
    local randomIndex = math.random(1,#markers) 
    for i, marker in ipairs (markers) do 
        if player == "pilot" and i == 26 then 
            x,y,z = getElementPosition(marker) 
        elseif player ~= "pilot" and i == randomIndex then 
            x,y,z = getElementPosition(marker) 
        end 
        --make all markers invisible 
        setElementVisibleTo(marker,root,false) 
    end 
    z = z + 0.5 --make sure vehicle is created above ground 
    local newVehicle = createVehicle ( vehicleID, x, y, z) 
        --only bandits can be damaged 
    if player ~= "bandit" then 
    setVehicleDamageProof(newVehicle,true) 
    end 
     
    spawnPlayer(source,x,y,z+20) 
    warpPedIntoVehicle(source,newVehicle) 
    fadeCamera(source,true) 
end 
  
addEvent("onWarp",true) 
addEventHandler("onWarp",getRootElement(),warper) 
addEventHandler("onPlayerJoin",getRootElement(),warper) 

[Anubhav]

I guess:

Server files load first, so the markers may not be created at first.

You may want to use loadMapData at starting of the resource.