Time System

Reading Article
Author: Rylie Thomas
Posted on 08/02/2004
print :: back to list

:

: COMPLETE TIME SYSTEM ::

:: tutorial details ::

version :: v1.0
author :: rylie thomas :: fan*c boi
email :: fan-cboi@mbox.com.au
homepages :: http://www.stas.net/6/fancboi [personal]
http://www.stas.net/1/enos [dev.team]
program :: RPG Maker 2000 v1.06
thanks :: see end of file
archiving :: this tutorial is allowed to be used on
your web site so long as it is not changed
in any way. Please email me if you would
like to add this to your site so that i
can check it out and add your site to the
list below:
sites :: These sites have my permission to have
this tut, check these sites first for the
latest version:

http://www.stas.net/1/enos
http://rpgmaker.chat.ru/

:: introduction ::

This tutorial explains how to create a complete time system, which
as well as a basic day/night feature, also cycles through days,
months years. It can easily be modified to count minutes, hours,
weeks... whaever...
this is great if you want the player to have to wait 5 weeks for
an airship to be built,
this system could be great for games where you could travel back in
time (eg tlo Zelda: Majora's Mask) where all the events could be
reset to those at that time in the game.
there are so many possibilities and it's really quite simple.
I have only just found RM2000 a couple of weeks ago, so there may
be some errors in here... my game isn't far enough along to really
guve the system a complete test, especially the time travel bit.

i've got a few more tutorials to write so any feedback on this
one would be very beneficial.

The system can be run in one of 2 basic ways:

game time:
this involves excelerated time, so that it may take 3 minutes of
actual playing time to complete the cycle of one day.
this is most suited to cases where you may want to the game to
last several months... or even years.

real time:
this would involve one minute of time passing in the game for
every one minute of playing time. this is proably best suited to
games tha are set over a small period of say one month, unless
you wish to try something really original.
This ould also be tweaked just to let the player know how long
they have been playing the game, without actually effecting any
in game events.

:: game time ::

first things first, all this day/night stuff is from a great faq
from Gimp Master (gimpinmaster@hotmail.com) which, surprisingly
was on some day/night stuff. his faq is konda what inspired me
to do the complete time system.
it's not hard to find his original faq (theres a copy on my site
at : http://www.stas.net/1/enos/tutorials.html) so i'm only going
tp include the actual 'code'... grad his faq if you're confused.
these are all seperate common events

event name : timeDay
start cond. : parallel process
activated on : switch : timeDay
var : timeDay
switch : timeDay, timeEvening

<>wait 0.1s
<>Variable Op: [0001: timeDay] + , 1
<>Fork Optn: [0001: timeDay]-7000over
<>Set screen tone: (R070, G090, B070, S090),1.0sec(W)
<>Variable Op: [0001: timeDay] Set, 0
<>Change switch [0019: timeDay] off
<>Change switch [0020: timeEvening] on
<>
: Excepting Case
<>
: End Case
<>

event name : timeEvening
start cond. : parallel process
activated on : switch : timeEvening
var : timeEvening
switch : timeEvening, timeNight

<>wait 0.1s
<>Variable Op: [0002: timeEvening] + , 1
<>Fork Optn: [0002: timeEvening]-2466over
<>Set screen tone: (R000, G050, B070, S080),1.0sec(W)
<>Variable Op: [0002: timeEvening] Set, 0
<>Change switch [0020: timeEvening] off
<>Change switch [0021: timeNight] on
<>
: Excepting Case
<>
: End Case
<>

event name : timeNight
start cond. : parallel process
activated on : switch : timeNight
var : timeNight
switch : timeNight, timeMorning

<>wait 0.1s
<>Variable Op: [0003; timeNight] + , 1
<>Fork Optn: [0003: timeNight]-2466over
<>Set screen tone: (R070, G080, B080, S090),1.0sec(W)
<>Variable Op: [0003: timeNight] Set, 0
<>Change switch [0021: timeNight] off
<>Change switch [0022: timeMorning] on
<>
: Excepting Case
<>
: End Case
<>

event name : timeMorning
start cond. : parallel process
activated on : switch : timeMorning
var : timeMorning
switch : timeMorning, timeDay

<>wait 0.1s
<>Variable Op: [0004: timeMorning] + , 1
<>Fork Optn: [0004: timeMorning]-2466over
<>Set screen tone: (R000, G050, B070, S080),1.0sec(W)
<>Variable Op: [0004: timeMorning] Set, 0
<>Change switch [0023: timeMorning] off
<>Change switch [0020: timeDay] on
<>
: Excepting Case
<>
: End Case
<>

of course you can change the var/switch names to suit yourself
and you may want to at least tweak the overlay colours. as
each sectio of code is almost identicle it's easy enough to
just keep copying and pasting... just remember to change the
var/switch names...

now... to make it so that it counts day just add this line to the
spot where you want your days to start (ie in the morning, or to
put it better, when night ends)
all this is doing is adding +1 to the variable dayCounter...
more about that in a mo'

heres my code:

event name : timeNight
start cond. : parallel process
activated on : switch : timeNight
var : timeNight
switch : timeNight, timeMorning

<>wait 0.1s
<>Variable Op: [0003: timeNight] + , 1
<>Fork Optn: [0003: timeNight]-2466over
<>Set screen tone: (R070, G080, B080, S090),1.0sec(W)
<>Variable Op: [0003: timeNight] Set, 0

<>Note:here is the line i added... no need for this comment

<>Variable Op: [0018: dayCounter] + , 1

<>Note:and that's it...

<>Change switch [0021: timeNight] off
<>Change switch [0022: timeMorning] on
<>
: Excepting Case
<>
: End Case
<>

now we have one more (little) event to make which will handle the
months, year and stuff...

event name : timeCounters
start cond. : parallel process
activated on :
var : dayCounter, monthCounter, yearCounter
switch :

<>FORK Optn:Varbl[0018:dayCounter]-31
<>Variable Ch:[0019:monthCounter]+ ,1
<>Variable Ch:[0018:dayCounter]Set,0
<>
:END Case
<>FORK Optn:Varbl[0019:monthCounter]-13
<>Variable Ch:[0020:yearCounter]+ ,1
<>Variable Ch:[0019:monthCounter]Set,0
<>
:END Case
<>

firstly this checks if the var dayCounter equals 31 (i really can't
be bothered to work out making months with different amounts of days.
that you would need to have another var called monthName or something
and would need seperate fork conditions for each seperate month...
that doesn't actually sound to hard does it... maybe i'll update this
tut later...
where was i?
yeah... when the dayCounter equals 31 then it adds +1 to the var
monthCounter. then it resets dayCounter to 0 so that it starts again
from the start.
then we do the same stuff with the month and the years. so if the
number of months equals 13 then add +1 to the years and reset the
months.

if you want to just make an item or custom menu or something that can
show the player the current date... a watch would be good.
just make an item that activates a switch, which in turn activates an
event which would display a message window which shows what ever
variables you want.
my event would look like this:

event name : showDate
start cond. : parallel process
activated on : switch : showDate
var : dayCounter, monthCounter, yearCounter
switch :

<>Messg: day : V[0018]
: :month : V[0019]
: : year : V[0020]
<>Change Switch:[0027:showDate]-OFF Set
<>

now at the start of the game you will probably want to setup a lot
of these variables for example you may want your game to start on the
ninth of june year 2057.
Over the course of your game you will proably want to set up more
variables as well as things like money, items etc. so i'll explain it
now just in case you don't know.

find the map where your game will start and create a new event called
'setup' or whatever... place it out of the way (like up in the top
corner.
Make it a parallel process and you can leave the rest of the stuff alone.
Now all you need to do is insert some change variable commands for
dayCounter, monthCounter, yearCounter and set them to 9, 6, 2057
respectivly (that's only if you are using the above example, feel free
to set them to whatever you want)
at the end have switch called setupDone and have it to ON.
create another page which is activated by this switch (setupDone) and
leave it blank. this way once the evnet is done, it wont be repeated.

:: real time ::

well this is the one i am most proud off because i think it could be
used to do some _original_ stuff. i cant wait to see what people can
do with it.

the day/night system is the only difference between this and the game
time version, so that's what i'll explain here. for anything else see
the section above.
because this system uses real time (ie one minute played equals one
minute in the game) this is mainly done through the the wait function.

anyway... here we go...

event name : timeCounter
start cond. : parallel process
activated on :
var : seconCounter, minuteCounter, hourCounter,
dayCounter, monthCounter, yearCounter
switch :

<>wait 1.0s.
<>Variable Ch:[0021:secondCounter]+ ,1
<>FORK Optn:Varble[0021:secondCounter]-61
<>Variable Ch:[0022:minuteCounter]+ ,1
<>Variable Ch:[0021:secondCounter]Set,0
<>
:END Case
<>FORK Optn:Varble[0022:minuteCounter]-61
<>Variable Ch:[0023:hourCounter]+ ,1
<>Variable Ch:[0022:minuteCounter]Set,0
<>
:END Case
<>FORK Optn:Varble[0023:hourCounter]-25
<>Variable Ch:[0018:dayCounter]+ ,1
<>Variable Ch:[0023:hourCounter]Set,0
<>
:END Case
<>FORK Optn:Varble[0018:dayCounter]-31
<>Variable Ch:[0019:monthCounter]+ ,1
<>Variable Ch:[0018:dayCounter]Set,0
<>
:END Case
<>FORK Optn:Varble[0019:monthCounter]-13
<>Variable Ch:[0020:yearCounter]+ ,1
<>Variable Ch:[0019:monthCounter]Set,0
<>
:END Case
<>

well theres the code... hope you get it...

:: progress ::

3/12/2000
version 1.0 complete. i will update this tut soon as well as
explaining everything more and gramatical errors i still have to add
the following:

-display proper day, month names
-differnet lengths for different months
-explain how to trigger events based on times (you can probably figure
this one out)
-any suggestions? i would like to include examples of how others have
used, or plan to use the system(s) email to: fan-cboi@mbox.com.au
-i'm sure other things will ocur to me.

:: thanks ::

Don Miguel :: for tranlating rm2k and (hopefully) including
this on his site
Gimp Master :: great da/ynight feature whic hinspired this
effort.
ASCII :: tey did make the freakin' 'maker' series after
all

if you are looking for any other stuff to do with creating your own
games then check out enos, my games development site.

http://www.stas.net/1/enos

Active Users (1)[ cima55 ]