math.Approach Issues

[Jam]

Good day. I have been trying to make my entity's alpha fade out, and the code I currently have is here:

[lua]hook.Add("Think", "ChangeAlpha", function()
for k,v in pairs(ents.GetAll()) do
if v:GetNWBool("Skeleton") == true then
local r,g,b,a = v:GetColor()
if a <= 0 then
v:Remove()
else
Alpha1 = math.Approach(a, 0, 0.6)
v:SetColor(r, g, b, Alpha1)
end
end
end
end)[/lua]

However, the transition is far too fast. To change the rate, I need to change the third number in the math.Approach. For some reason, it does not accept a number lower than 0.6 - otherwise it does not fade out at all. Any idea why? Is there an alternative I can use? Am I doing something wrong?

Thanks in advance.

[_Kilburn]

Color is stored as integers, this means that if you set the alpha of the entity to something like 254.5, it will be rounded to 255. And it will never fade.

math.Approach in this situation is a rather bad idea, I'd suggest using CurTime instead:

[lua]
-- it takes 1 second to fade from 255 to 0
local FadeTime = 1

hook.Add("Think", "ChangeAlpha", function()
for k,v in pairs(ents.GetAll()) do
if v:GetNWBool("Skeleton") then
local r,g,b,a = v:GetColor()
if not v.NextAlphaFade then
v.NextAlphaFade = CurTime() + FadeTime * a / 255
else
a = math.Clamp(255 * (v.NextAlphaFade - CurTime()) / FadeTime, 0, 255)
end

if a <= 0 then
v:Remove()
else
v:SetColor(r, g, b, a)
end
else
v.NextAlphaFade = nil
end
end
end)
[/lua]

Remember that every entity has its own table, so you can feel free to store anything you want in there.

[editline]02:51PM[/editline]

Someone else wanted to do something similar a while ago, if you have trouble understanding how CurTime() works in there, have a look at this post:

[url]http://www.facepunch.com/showpost.php?p=22527363&postcount=9[/url]

[Jam]

Thanks for the reply, very informative! I never knew about the integer being rounded. Thanks.