Getting a group of lights to turn on and off during the day/night

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#1 
local lighting = game:GetService('Lighting')

minutesAfterMidnight = 3*60

function streetLights()
	for _, v in pairs(workspace:GetChildren()) do
		if v.Name == 'Streetlight' then
			local light = v:FindFirstChild('Light')
			if light then
				return light
			end 
		end
	end
end

while wait(0.1) do
	minutesAfterMidnight = minutesAfterMidnight + 10
	lighting:SetMinutesAfterMidnight(minutesAfterMidnight)
	
	if lighting:GetMinutesAfterMidnight() == 6 * 60 then
		streetLights().Material = 'SmoothPlastic'
		streetLights().SpotLight.Enabled = false
	end
	if lighting:GetMinutesAfterMidnight() == 18 * 60 then
		streetLights().Material = 'Neon'
		streetLights().SpotLight.Enabled = true
	end
end

Not sure if this is the most efficient method, but either way, the lights aren’t being changed

2 Likes
#2

When a value is returned from a function, this exits execution immediately. As such, you are changing the properties of just a single part if it is able to be found.

#3

Yep, as Avigant said, return will end the function immediately, so it will only return 1 light part. You should make the function change the material and light enabled.

function ChangeStreetLights(material, SpotLightEnabled)
	for _, v in pairs(workspace:GetChildren()) do
		if v.Name == 'Streetlight' then
			local light = v:FindFirstChild('Light')
			if light then
				 light.Material = material
                                 light.SpotLight.Enabled = SpotLightEnabled
			end 
		end
	end
end

ChangeStreetLights('SmoothPlastic', false)
ChangeStreetLights('Neon', true)

As there are many other things in workspace, I would suggest you to store all lights in a table first so it need less time to scan the workspace again.

local LightTable = {}
for _, v in pairs(workspace:GetChildren()) do
		if v.Name == 'Streetlight' then
			local light = v:FindFirstChild('Light')
			if light then
				LightTable[#LightTable+1] = light
			end 
		end
	end
3 Likes
#4

Why not try CollectionService to mark your light parts?

4 Likes
#5

That would honestly IMO make it easier. It also might be more optimized I think…

Basically, it just takes a script a puts it into multiple.

#6

I wouldn’t really say it’s more optimised to use CollectionService; all you’re doing is changing the array that you’re fetching from. Even if there is difference in time, it’d be fairly negligible.

CollectionService would surely be an simple way to mark light parts and just go through it when you need to interact with it, especially if they don’t share the exact same ancestry and there are lights to be interacted with elsewhere in your object hierarchy.

1 Like
#7

Try this:

local lighting = game:GetService("Lighting")
local day, night, speed = 6*60, 18*60, 10

function toggleStreetlights(on)
	for _, streetlight in next, workspace:GetChildren() do
		if streetlight.Name == "Streetlight" and streetlight:FindFirstChild("Light") then
			streetlight.Light.Material = on and 'Neon' or 'SmoothPlastic'
			streetlight.Light.SpotLight.Enabled = on
		end
	end
end

while wait(0.1) do
	lighting:SetMinutesAfterMidnight(lighting:GetMinutesAfterMidnight() + speed)
	
	if lighting:GetMinutesAfterMidnight() == day then
		toggleStreetlights(false)
	elseif lighting:GetMinutesAfterMidnight() == night then
		toggleStreetlights(true)
	end
end
2 Likes
#8

If all the streetlights are direct children of the workspace, as the original code implies, just put them all in a Folder or Model, then you don’t have to iterate over all the workspace children at all, just the folder children.

2 Likes
#9

Try This, Day/Night Cycle: Street Light

It’s a video from @Roblox by the way, the video I sent helped me a lot and that’s why I revived this topic to help you guys.

1 Like