ZDoom

For me it's partly to do with convenience (as in not looking away from a bright screen, letting my eyes focus in the dim light and then blinding myself again when I look back at the screen... the horror!). But the main reason is immersion. I want to stay immersed in the game world while spying the time in the real world. It would just make the game more enjoyable for me, that's all. :)

[quote="Gez"]Taking your eyes away from the screen to look at a watch or some other appliance requires even more effort than remembering not to keep playing until ungodly hours.[/quote]
If that really were the case, I'm afraid that I would have little sympathy.

Anyway, this is all a bit off-topicy so I apologise for the distraction. Like I said, the feature suggestion doesn't actually bother me. I don't expect to need it or particularly want to use it though.

I think it's mostly a question of focus. Taking your eyes away from the screen to look at a watch or some other appliance requires even more effort than remembering not to keep playing until ungodly hours. Having a display right in front of them the whole time is different.

[quote="Marrub"]But that costs money![/quote]
OK, I know, not an entirely serious answer but...

Dunno about where you live but I can pick up a watch for less than £1 in my local petrol station. My local supermarket also has similarly priced watches and wall clocks for less than £5. OK, that is technically costing money but it doesn't have to be a lot of money. If playing Doom too late is such a problem, surely the investment is worth it? ;)

And people don't already have a 'phone or some other mobile device with a timekeeper of some sort on it? They could even, you know, prop it up on their desk beside their computer.

There's probably even some sort of free personal organiser/alarm software they could download.

I suspect alternatives to the [i]'playing Doom into the night with no way to avoid doing so unless ZDoom has a system clock'[/i] "problem" have not been fully explored. ;)

[quote="Marrub"]The potential of that via SBARINFO could be nice too, maybe give the player a watch? :D[/quote]
That I see no point in having, and It'd be an unnecessary addition to any status bar or HUD, in my opinion.

Fshh.. Ah.. Er.. I..
Yeah that's probably a good idea.
But that costs money!
..And it's much easier to just get a clock up in the HUD anyway. The potential of that via SBARINFO could be nice too, maybe give the player a watch? :D

/looks at wrist
Oh wow! a watch. How did that get there? :P

While I have no objection to the feature itself, if you guys are finding that you are helplessly playing Doom too long at night and that the only way you have to tell the time when you are on your computer is the system clock, and if this all falls apart when you are playing a full screen game, get a watch/clock/phone/anything with the ability to tell you the time. Even better, set an alarm on one of these devices or something. It's really not rocket science. :P

^ I thought I was the only one.

Yes please. I sometimes have trouble sleeping because I play too much doom and having a clock to remind me would be nice.

I think that's a cool idea actually. To me, this would be more useful than displaying the elapsed time per level or episode, even.

Just a wee bump to ask if this request has been considered worthy (automap screen or top right corner). :)

So, technically, it could be added then?

The main reason is that it was never considered. The alternate HUD clock comes from an external contribution.

I notice that on the standard automap there is the option to show the level time elapsed and total time elapsed. Is there a technical reason why the system time option wasn't added too?

[quote="Gez"]There's already one if you use the [wiki]alternate HUD[/wiki]. Go to the [wiki]Alternative HUD[/wiki] options menu and set "Show time" to "System".[/quote]

That's good to know. However, I don't really like the alternate HUD (I find the text two small amongst other things) and I always use the standard HUD. Would it be possible to add the option for the standard HUD too? If the clock was in the same position (top right) it wouldn't cause any problems with the HUD would it? I also still think it would be a great addition to the automap screen.