System time in ZScript

[NightFright]

I am looking for a way to show current system time instead of level/hub time. If possible in both 12h and 24h formats (e.g. 08:15 PM vs 20:15).

Is this possible in ZScript, and if so, how is it done?

[Graf Zahl]

Currently there is no access to the system time from ZScript.

[NightFright]

Is this something you'd be considering for a feature request? I am sure this could prove useful, not only for my own project.

[Rachael]

Only way this will happen is if it's UI-scope only. The game world is deterministic by nature and external influences (such as time) would ruin that.

I'm thinking the best way to implement this is to create and expose a UI element that can be accessed that gives a Unix timestamp only, and possibly a local timezone offset. Then, functions can be made to extend that element to internally determine the correct time from that timestamp.

Unfortunately, however, without access to 64-bit ints, such an implementation would be weak to the 32-bit timestamp overflow issue happening in 2038.

This however, sounds like a gateway to a lot of really hacky projects - I am not sure if it's really a good idea to make this information available to mods whatsoever, even in the UI scope. This could be used to detect loading a saved game, which I am really not a fan of.

[NightFright]

I see. Was asking since the feature was/is somewhat available via hud_showtime for the ZDoom alternate HUD. I assume there's no way to tap into that via ZScript, either?

[Void Weaver]

So there is no way to use GetRealTime() from althud's DrawTime for ex.?

[Graf Zahl]

It's deliberately declared private. Guess why...

As a pure UI widget this is fine but as soon as this can be used to alter gameplay, it will become problematic. It cannot be on the 'play' side, because even Unix time stamps depend on the locally set time on each system so they would differ.

@Rachael: This value could be safely stored in a double, we don't need 64 bits ints just for that.
As for the savegame thing, there's already a ZScript and ACS event for that, so this wouldn't add much of a problem for that. The play synchronization issue is the biggest caveat here.

[NightFright]

Well, I would just want to use it just like in the ZDoom HUD, simple display of system time onscreen. If you want to prevent it from doing anything else, that'd work for me.

[Rachael]

Well - I might come up with something then. It doesn't seem to difficult to implement. I'm going to force it to be UI-only though - if an author wants to pass the system time to the game sim, s/he can still use a NetEvent for that.

I'm probably going to put in a debug override for this, too, though - that way it would be possible to test certain dates (ie Christmas) without manipulating the actual system time.

[NightFright]

Excellent. Thanks a lot in advance, guys!

[Matt]

Would the debug override be accessible by the player to circumvent any savegame detection?

[Rachael]

The whole point of the debug override is to be accessible by the player - for any reason, whatsoever, and not strictly to circumvent anything.

[phantombeta]

As Graf said, I wouldn't worry about it being used for savegame detection. It would be extremely janky, and there's a far better way that isn't really fixable at all.

Semi-related:
@Graf What ACS event? I don't remember any such thing, and can't find it anywhere either O_o

[Rip and Tear]

Only way this will happen is if it's UI-scope only. The game world is deterministic by nature and external influences (such as time) would ruin that.

I'm thinking the best way to implement this is to create and expose a UI element that can be accessed that gives a Unix timestamp only, and possibly a local timezone offset. Then, functions can be made to extend that element to internally determine the correct time from that timestamp.

Unfortunately, however, without access to 64-bit ints, such an implementation would be weak to the 32-bit timestamp overflow issue happening in 2038.

This however, sounds like a gateway to a lot of really hacky projects - I am not sure if it's really a good idea to make this information available to mods whatsoever, even in the UI scope. This could be used to detect loading a saved game, which I am really not a fan of.

Isn't it possible to detect savegames from the WorldLoaded event handler?

[Rachael]

Of course you respond to a really old post without looking at the further discussion