scene.wait_upto

[George-Ogden]

Description of proposed feature

This feature will allow you to wait until the scene has run for a specific duration.
Lots of people overlay audio onto their videos and this will make it easier to sync audio and animation.

How can the new feature be used?

# play animations
self.wait_upto(60)
# scene has run for 1 minute

# play more animations
self.wait_upto(90)
# another 30 seconds have passed

Additional comments

I've been using it in my own projects and would be happy to implement it and submit a PR when if that's fine.
I just want to get a go-ahead and any comments about things I might not have thought of.

[MrDiver]

I find this an interesting idea but where is the benefit over just using your editing software to extend the animations?

And there is also a wait until function. That might be able to do something similar if I'm not completely mistaken.

[George-Ogden]

I find this an interesting idea but where is the benefit over just using your editing software to extend the animations?

And there is also a wait until function. That might be able to do something similar if I'm not completely mistaken.

One of the benefits of this is that you can compile with ffmpeg for example, rather than using additional software that you have to pay for or has a watermark, etc. It also means you don't have to keep track of the runtimes of each individual animation as it runs.

The wait_until function is just a wrapper for the wait function and would not offer the same functionality:

  stop_condition
      A function without positional arguments that evaluates to a boolean.
      The function is evaluated after every new frame has been rendered.
      Playing the animation only stops after the return value is truthy.

[chopan050]

Since the PR #3997 introduced a time property for Scene, this feature would be easier to implement in a PR.

I like the idea, but the name doesn't really convince me. IMO, it's not clear at first sight that it refers to a final time, although .wait_until() also doesn't make it clear that it refers to a condition: it sounds more like a time.

Personally, I would like .wait_until(stop_condition) to be renamed to .wait_until_condition(stop_condition) or even .wait_while(continue_condition) before implementing this change, and I would call this .wait_until_time(final_time).

In the meantime, another option, since Scene.time is now implemented, is to call self.wait_until(lambda: self.time >= 60), although it is more verbose.

[George-Ogden]

What about making it keyword-only?:

.wait_until(time=90) # valid
.wait_until(90) # invalid

[chopan050]

What about making it keyword-only?

It could be an interesting idea, although it would require a complete rewriting on how .wait_until() works.

I'd like to read other people's opinions!