C++ Variable contents being lost between 2 functions [Unreal] - c++

Question

Greetings fellow programmers.
I've been struggeling with learning c++ within the Unreal engine. I thought I understood how to track time properly within a class but alas my variable is chaning it's contents to a vastly different number in the time between two function calls.
For context there are a small number of objects present:
Global Time system
This class is responsible for managing the time and receiving update ticks from the time watcher. This is also a singleton!
TimeWatcher
Super simple, just a Uobject I spawn into the world so it can receive update ticks from the engine and pass them onto the Global Time system
Time class
A class to hold the hours, minutes and seconds. How it is used beyond that is up to the developer using the class. In my case I am simply trying to store it and from that point on remove time off of it to create a countdown timer.
We have our own little logging system to help debugging along, mainly to generate logs without all the unreal stuff and in a format we prefer. This log outputs the following data:
<Log, TimerSystem> [2] 2019.03.17-17.41.42: init attempt, init time should be: 23:6.0
<Log, TimerSystem> [3] 2019.03.17-17.41.42: init attempt succes, 23:6.0
<Log, TimerSystem> [6] 2019.03.17-17.41.42: Timer tick occured, lets see what our timer thinks about the time -225161083:32766:00
So from this we can interpret that the variable in the scope it gets set in(shown below) is set there properly. But the moment we try to read it again in the handleTick function the variable is all wrong.
InitTimer function:
void GlobalTimerSystem::InitTimer(UWorld* world, Time* initialTime)
{
DebugUtility::WriteLog("init attempt, init time should be: " + initialTime->ToString(), DebugUtility::Log, DebugUtility::TimerSystem);
check(world);
//create timeWatcher in the world
FVector location(0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f);
FRotator rotation(0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f);
FActorSpawnParameters SpawnInfo;
world->SpawnActor<ATimeWatcher>(location, rotation, SpawnInfo);
//set current time to init value
Time* trPointer = new Time(initialTime->GetHours(), initialTime->GetMinutes(), initialTime->GetSeconds());
this->timeRemaining = *trPointer;
DebugUtility::WriteLog("init attempt succes, " + timeRemaining.ToString(), DebugUtility::Log, DebugUtility::TimerSystem);
}
There is some stupid pointer crap I am doing here, partly because of desperation at this point though.
The Handle tick function:
void GlobalTimerSystem::HandleTimerTick(float deltaTime)
{
DebugUtility::WriteLog("Timer tick occured, lets see what our timer thinks about the time " + timeRemaining.ToString(), DebugUtility::Log, DebugUtility::TimerSystem);
ticksReceived++;
FString debug2;
debug2.Append("Ticks received: ");
debug2.AppendInt(ticksReceived);
DebugUtility::WriteLog(debug2, DebugUtility::Log, DebugUtility::TimerSystem);
double t = static_cast<double>(deltaTime);
DecreaseTimer(&t);
if (deltaTime != NULL) {
FString debug;
debug.Append(TEXT("current time remaining is "));
debug.Append(*timeRemaining.ToString());
DebugUtility::WriteLog(debug, DebugUtility::Log, DebugUtility::TimerSystem);
}
}
Now we know things are already wrong the moment we enter the above function. For good measure here is the header file for this class.
class PGT_PROJECT_API GlobalTimerSystem
{
friend class ATimeWatcher;
private:
Time timeRemaining;
Time timeElapsedNotPaused;
Time timeElapsedPaused;
UINT ticksReceived = 0;
bool paused = false;
bool initComplete = false;
void HandleTimerTick(float deltaTime);
static GlobalTimerSystem* timerSystem;
public:
static GlobalTimerSystem* GetTimerSystem();
void InitTimer(UWorld* world, Time* initialTime);
void IncreaseTimer(double* additionalSeconds);
void DecreaseTimer(double* removeSeconds);
double GetTimeRemaining();
double GetTimeElapsed();
GlobalTimerSystem();
~GlobalTimerSystem();
};
If any more information is required I will be happy to provide. Thank you for your time!
EDIT:
I am overloading the Time::operator= which appears as follows:
Time & Time::operator=(Time & t)
{
_seconds = t._seconds;
_minutes = t._minutes;
_hours = t._hours;
return *this;
}
And using it as follows:
this->timeRemaining = Time(initialTime->GetHours(), initialTime->GetMinutes(), initialTime->GetSeconds());
However this results in the following compiler error that I do not understand:
Path...\Private\GlobalTimerSystem.cpp(62) : error C4239: nonstandard extension used: 'argument': conversion from 'Time' to 'Time &'

Answer 1

In GlobalTimerSystem::InitTimer(UWorld*, Time*), you do the following:
Time* trPointer = new Time(initialTime->GetHours(),
initialTime->GetMinutes(),
initialTime->GetSeconds());
this->timeRemaining = trPointer;
which means:
Create a new object of type Time on the heap, construct it with the following arguments and, once it's ready, return a pointer to it (Time*) which I'll store in my local variable trPointer;
assign the value of the pointer trPointer (which is the address of the instance of the class Time that we just allocated and initialized on the heap) to my instance variable timeRemaining (which is an instance of the class Time).
So once you reach GlobalTimerSystem::HandleTimerTick, this->timeRemaining contains garbage which stays garbage when translated ToString (hence the -225161083:32766:00 you see). Furthermore, the memory you now have allocated on the heap for that instance of Time you've created is wasted as you will never release it and won't even use it.
The thing is that, in this case, you don't need the heap at all!
Depending on how operator= behaves (you said you overloaded it), you should be able to do:
this->timeRemaining = Time(initialTime->GetHours(),
initialTime->GetMinutes(),
initialTime->GetSeconds());
which will create a temporary Time instance and initialize it with the passed arguments, then "copy" it (=) inside your instance variable timeRemaining. If you do this, you might want to look into Time::operator=(Time&&) as that "temporary Time instance" is an rvalue. Please note that, in this case, we do not leak memory as everything is allocated on the stack and will be released when the function returns.
If this does not work, that means Time::operator= is not behaving as a proper "copy operator" and should be fixed. Another approach would be to manually set the hours, minutes and seconds fields of timeRemaining (if they are public or friend) or (much better), to have a method such as Time::set(/*hours, minutes, seconds*/) allowing you to this->timeRemaining->set(...).
Finally, once again depending on the internals of Time and how Time::operator= has been written, noticing that initialTime is itself a Time*, the "temporary intermediate Time instance" shouldn't even be needed, leading to the much simpler and more readable
this->timeRemaining = *initialTime;
As a conclusion, I believe your issue comes from the implementation of Time::operator=.