Measuring time ingame

I was thinking about adding a timer to my track but somehow the trigger object, which i would think you would need to do that, crashes the game. I have no experience with scripting in torque or anything so there might be other ways that i am not aware of. If you know any please let me know.

In the meantime i came up with an interesting way to at least measure the time manually ingame.

I added this code

Code:

//measure time
$lasttimepressed=0;
function echoTimePassed()
{
   if($lasttimepressed > 0)
   {
      echo((getRealTime()-$lasttimepressed)/1000 @ " seconds");
   }
   else
   {
      echo("0 seconds");
   }
   $lasttimepressed=getRealTime();
}


moveMap.bindCmd(keyboard, o, "echoTimePassed();", "");

to this file

Code:

BeamNG.drive-0.3\scripts\client\inputmaps\keyboard.inputmap.cs

Everytime you press "o" there will be a line written in the console showing you the number of seconds that passed since you last pressed the button. So if you press "o" every time you pass the starting line you can look up your times in the console afterwards

 

I found out that you can also display the measured time on screen so you don't need to look it up in the console.

Add this code instead of the original code:

Code:

//measured time display
$timepassedGuiActive = false;
$timepassedGuiCtrl = new GuiTextCtrl()
{
   text = "0 sec.";
   profile=new GuiControlProfile( testProfile ) {  
      fontColor = "0 0 150 255";  
      fontSize = "20";  
      fontType = "lucida console";  
   };
};

function toggleTimePassedGui()
{
   if($timepassedGuiActive)
   {
      Canvas.popdialog( $timepassedGuiCtrl );
      $timepassedGuiActive=false;
   }
   else
   {
      Canvas.pushdialog( $timepassedGuiCtrl );
      $timepassedGuiActive=true;
   }
}
moveMap.bindCmd(keyboard, u, "toggleTimePassedGui();", "");

//measure time
$lasttimepressed=0;
function echoTimePassed()
{
   if($lasttimepressed > 0)
   {
      echo((getRealTime()-$lasttimepressed)/1000 @ " seconds");
      $timepassedGuiCtrl.setText((getRealTime()-$lasttimepressed)/1000 @ " sec.");
   }
   else
   {
      echo("0 seconds");
      $timepassedGuiCtrl.setText("0 sec.");
   }
   $lasttimepressed=getRealTime();
}

moveMap.bindCmd(keyboard, o, "echoTimePassed();", "");

use "u" to toggle the display and "o" to measure the time. I couldn't find out how to change the position on screen maybe somebody knows how to do that.

There's probably a better place for this logic but i was too lazy to find out...

 

Ah ha! I've been looking for that.
By "trigger object" you mean the floating purple rectangles in the start\finish line in the track?

 

For me it's not purple but yellowish. You can find it under Objects->Level->Trigger and you can add script code to it that triggers when the player enters or leaves the trigger volume (which you can resize). The problem is that instead of executing the script code it just crashes as soon as the player enters the trigger volume... i hope this is a BeamNG bug because i tried a lot and didn't get it to work...

The only workaround that i would see is if there were script code to check for a collision between the player and some of the other level objects (like Zone, PhysicalZone) but i couldn't find any.

 

I don't know how but i overlooked that there is a "BeamNGTrigger" that doesn't crash! But ... it seems that you can't really do much with it because you don't have access to anything it seems ... i'm getting errors like this:

Code:

***FATAL LUA ERROR: [string "line"]:1: attempt to call global 'getRealTime' (a nil value)

So if anyone knows how to access global functions???

 

So this lua error is not a scope problem as i first suspected but related to the fact that trigger use lua and that's not the same script language that we find inside .cs files .

I haven't yet found out how to print text directly on screen but timing inside the console works ...

I put this code inside a beamngtrigger

Code:

local currentTime = os.clock()
if lastTime and lastTime > 0 then
print(currentTime-lastTime.." sec.")
else
print("timing start")
print("......................")
end
lastTime = currentTime

 

Where exactly did you put it? I couldn't find a working callback for the BeamNGTrigger object

 

I used the "enterCommand" callback. Not sure if it's important but i set TriggerMode to "Contains".

Code:

new BeamNGTrigger(TimingTrigger) {
      TriggerType = "Box";
      TriggerMode = "Contains";
      enterCommand = "local currentTime = os.clock()\nif lastTime and lastTime > 0 then\nprint(currentTime-lastTime..\" sec.\")\nelse\nprint(\"timing start\")\nprint(\"......................\")\nend\n\nlastTime = currentTime\n";
      tickPeriod = "100";
      debug = "0";
      triggerColor = "255 192 0 45";
      position = "54.8618 -86.4739 2.43204";
      rotation = "0 0 -1 30.2523";
      scale = "31.1013 1 8.76881";
      canSave = "1";
      canSaveDynamicFields = "1";
   };

 

To display the time on the screen can be used BeamEngine.canvasTexture .
Wrote a simple class to display the time, but I do not know how to link it with the trigger, the game crashes when the trigger fires.
Perhaps one of the developers can help?

Code:

local M = {}

local lastTime = 0

local ct    = nil
local c     = nil
local paint = {}

local function initPaint()
    local fontName = "Roboto-Light.ttf"
    local tf = SkTypeface.CreateFromFile(fontName, kNormal)
    
    paint.fontLeft = SkPaint()
    paint.fontLeft:setAntiAlias(true)
    paint.fontLeft:setColor(SK_ColorWHITE)
    paint.fontLeft:setTextAlign(kLeft_Align)
    paint.fontLeft:setTextSize(20)
    paint.fontLeft:setTypeface(tf)
end

local function printTime()
    if not ct then
        ct = BeamEngine.canvasTexture
    end
    c = ct:getCanvas()
    ct:clear()
    
    if ( paint.fontLeft == nil ) then
        initPaint()
    end    
    
    local currentTime = os.clock()
    local txt = string.format("Time: %f", currentTime - lastTime)
    local x = 0
    local y = 70
    c:drawText(txt, string.len(txt), x, y, paint.fontLeft)
end

local function update()
    lastTime = os.clock()
end

M.update     = update
M.printTime  = printTime

return M

 

This is awesome ! I tried your code and it works for me ... i just made it more "functional" without classes since i have no idea how to even code in lua

Code:

local currentTime = os.clock()
if lastTime and lastTime > 0 then
    if not ct then
        ct = BeamEngine.canvasTexture
    end
    
    c = ct:getCanvas()
    ct:clear()
    
    if paint == nil then
        paint = {}
    end
    
    if paint.fontLeft == nil then
        paint.fontLeft = SkPaint()
        paint.fontLeft:setAntiAlias(true)
        paint.fontLeft:setColor(SK_ColorWHITE)
        paint.fontLeft:setTextAlign(kLeft_Align)
        paint.fontLeft:setTextSize(20)
        paint.fontLeft:setTypeface(SkTypeface.CreateFromFile("Roboto-Light.ttf", kNormal))
    end
    
    local txt = currentTime-lastTime.." sec."
    
    c:drawText(txt, string.len(txt), 0, 70, paint.fontLeft)
    print(txt)
else
    print("timing start")
    print("......................")
end

lastTime = currentTime

It's not refined yet i just had a quick go at it to see if it works...
Your code was probably supposed to be saved in a .lua file right? And inside the trigger you only had a simple function call? Could you explain to me how this system works? Is the engine simply loading all lua files? Where did you look up all the commands and classes you used?

 

No. You need to specify which files to load. There are two separate systems (do not know how it is correct to call): vehicle scripts (lua\vehicle) and systems scripts (lua\system), they work separately from each other. Something like this

I wanted to make a simple call two functions in the trigger. I created the timer.lua (the content posted above), and put it in lua\system . In lua\system\main.lua I added with a new line:

Code:

timer     = require("timer")

after this line:

Code:

json      = require("json")

And if call the function timer.update() and timer.printTime() in the console - all works fine. If try to call them in the trigger - game crashes (I also tried to do as well as you do (just a little more beautiful view), but also get the game crashes).

In scripts game (lua folder) Just opened them and saw how it works. Prior to this experience with lua did not have (but have experience in other programming languages)

 

I think the problem might be that you are using Objects->Level->Trigger (which crashes no matter what code you put in it) and not Objects->BeamNG->BeamNGTrigger (which doesn't crash)

I tried the same thing but there was nothing paint related when i went through them

 

Right. Now, the game does not crash, but when the car crosses the trigger - nothing happens
If you do not have such problems - try to use lua files as I described above. I wonder if it will work

 

If i do it as you explained (with main.lua and timer.printTime ...) it works too, maybe it didn't show up on your screen because you need to activate the trigger 2 times (depending on which version you tried).
We should add laps and sector times too ... now that i understand how it's done i really like the "class" approach.

 

The problem was that the mode "contains", probably means that the cars must be completely in the trigger (or part of the car), but the pick-up a little more than trigger. So, trigger mode "center" works good

 

I just finished a new version, it's based on the source code Incognito provided.


It's now possible to divide the track into sectors and it will also show the best time driven so far (it will also save this best time to a file and load it when you restart the map).
I attached a zip file which includes the laptimer and updated .mis files for my track estering and the stock track Industrial so you can try it without doing much just extract it to the BeamNG folder.

 

just trying this on the industrial map. the clock does not seem to start / be running? (I see it on screen..) Am I missing something? thanks!

 

This might be caused by something i fixed but never uploaded ...
I attached a newer version, the older would only work if you drive through the sectors in the right order.

 

There we go! Great thanks. Amazed this thread has not had more response. Thanks again.

 

is it possible to implement this lua within the map folder? ..to avoid the script being deleted with beam updates?