Is there a way to run a function every x seconds? (DPS)

Question

My original Solution was from this Comment on a similar question. However, if I do that and implement this into different parts of my code, it stops counting up the in-game Counter of CASH.

CASH = 0
DPS = 5
HPofMonster = 10
starttime=time.time()

def handle_monster():
    global HPofMonster, CASH
    if pygame.mouse.get_focused():
        event = pygame.event.poll()
        mouse_x, mouse_y = pygame.mouse.get_pos()
        if GEN1.collidepoint(mouse_x, mouse_y) and event.type == MOUSEBUTTONDOWN and event.button == 1:
            HPofMonster -= 1
            print('click')
            pass
        else:
            print('Not Pushed OR not on Monster')
            pass
    else:
        print('Mouse not focused')
        pass
    if HPofMonster < 0:
        CASH += 5
        HPofMonster = 10
        print('reset')

def handle_dps():
    global HPofMonster
    HPofMonster -= DPS
    print("tick")
    time.sleep(1.0 - ((time.time() - starttime) % 1.0))


def game_loop():
    while True:
        handle_dps()
        handle_monster()
        update_text()
        handle_events()



def main():
    pygame.display.set_caption('Clicker')
    game_loop()


main()

When I don´t move my Mouse, my console looks like this:

tick

Not Pushed OR not on Monster

tick

Not Pushed OR not on Monster

tick

Not Pushed OR not on Monster

reset

tick

Not Pushed OR not on Monster

tick

Not Pushed OR not on Monster

tick

Not Pushed OR not on Monster

reset

tick

Not Pushed OR not on Monster

tick

Not Pushed OR not on Monster

tick

Not Pushed OR not on Monster

reset

Mouse not focused

Process finished with exit code 0

Here is the entire code:

import pygame, threading, time

from threading import Event, Thread
from pygame.locals import *


pygame.init()

WIDTH = 800
HEIGHT = 600
WINDOW = pygame.display.set_mode((WIDTH, HEIGHT))
CASH = 0
DPS = 5
HPofMonster = 10
BACKGROUND_COLOR = (0, 0, 0)
BUTTON_COLOR = (0, 255, 0)
starttime=time.time()

FONT = pygame.font.SysFont('monospace', 15)

# Main Screen for drawing buttons
DRAW_SCREEN = pygame.Surface((WIDTH, HEIGHT))
DRAW_SCREEN.fill(BACKGROUND_COLOR)

# Buttons
GEN1 = pygame.draw.rect(DRAW_SCREEN, BUTTON_COLOR, pygame.Rect(200, 200, 200, 200), 1)
GEN1_LABEL = FONT.render('Defeat the Monster', 1, (255, 255, 0))


def handle_monster():
    global HPofMonster, CASH
    if pygame.mouse.get_focused():
        event = pygame.event.poll()
        mouse_x, mouse_y = pygame.mouse.get_pos()
        if GEN1.collidepoint(mouse_x, mouse_y) and event.type == MOUSEBUTTONDOWN and event.button == 1:
            HPofMonster -= 1
            print('click')
            pass
        else:
            print('Not Pushed OR not on Monster')
            pass
    else:
        print('Mouse not focused')
        pass
    if HPofMonster < 0:
        CASH += 5
        HPofMonster = 10
        print('reset')


def handle_events():
    event_dict = {
        pygame.QUIT: exit,
    }
    for event in pygame.event.get():
        if event.type in event_dict:
            event_dict[event.type]()


def update_text():
    global CASH_LABEL, DPS_LABEL, GEN1_LABEL, DPS, CASH
    WINDOW.blit(DRAW_SCREEN, (0, 0))
    WINDOW.blit(GEN1_LABEL, (10, 108))
    CASH_LABEL = FONT.render('Total Cash: ${}'.format(CASH), 1, (255, 255, 0))
    DPS_LABEL = FONT.render('Total DPS: ${}'.format(DPS), 1, (255, 65, 0))
    WINDOW.blit(CASH_LABEL, (0, 0))
    WINDOW.blit(DPS_LABEL, (0, 20))
    pygame.display.flip()


def handle_dps():
    global HPofMonster
    HPofMonster -= DPS
    print("tick")


def game_loop():
    while True:
        handle_dps()
        handle_monster()
        update_text()
        handle_events()



def main():
    pygame.display.set_caption('Clicker')
    game_loop()


main()

Answer 1

Do not use time.sleep() in a event-driven program. It blocks the event-loop, and on some systems the window manager or outlying operating system will consider the program to have stopped and/or crashed. The program must continually process incoming events.

An easy way to do this in pygame is to use the real-time system clock function pygame.time.get_ticks() which returns the number of milliseconds since the program started, and it keeps increasing forever. If you want something to trigger in the future, set a timestamp like:

future_timestamp = pygame.time.get_ticks() + 15000   # 15 seconds from now

...

# somewhere else in the code, maybe in the main loop
time_now = pygame.time.get_ticks()
if ( future_timestamp < time_now ):
    # do the thing that had to happen
    do_that_thing()
    # re-set the timer for next time
    future_timestamp = time_now + 15000

Another simple way to implement something that happens periodically is to setup a pygame timer:

pygame.time.set_timer( pygame.USEREVENT + 1, 3500 )   # Cash every 3500 milliseconds

# Main Loop 
while not exiting:
    # Handle user-input
    for event in pygame.event.get():
        if ( event.type == pygame.QUIT ):
           done = True
        elif ( event.type == pygame.USEREVENT + 1 ):
           CASH += 1   
           # reset the event-timer
           pygame.time.set_timer( pygame.USEREVENT + 1, 3500 )

Answer 2

Instead of time.sleep use pygame.time.delay()or pygame.time.wait().

Here is the link of official pygame time events: https://www.pygame.org/docs/ref/time.html