Leave it to Time

It’s been a long time, so let’s talk about time.

But first, a quiz: suppose that you create a level in Hera with a start time of 180 (three minutes of simulation before play starts) and add a Time condition “IF game tick time ≥ 7200”. What does “7200” mean?

1. 6 minutes after start of simulation (3 after start of play)
2. 6 minutes after start of play (9 after start of simulation)
3. 2 minutes after start of simulation (1 before start of play)
4. 2 minutes after start of play (5 after start of simulation)
5. None of the above

Answer below.

Ares (and Antares) use what’s known as a fixed-step variable-FPS game loop. The game logic updates 20 times per second (20Hz), but the frame rate isn’t locked to it, and it can draw frames as fast as 60Hz.

Keeping the game logic at a fixed step is important, to make the game feel consistent, but also to keep networked games synchronized. Then, on fast machines, Ares interpolates between game ticks to make movement appear smoother. Or, on slow machines, it skips frames to allow the game logic to keep up.

In the game, these increments are referred to as “minor ticks” (60Hz) and “major ticks” (20Hz). Minor ticks can be skipped, but the game logic always runs at each major tick. This is why it’s unclear what 7200 means: is it 7200 major ticks (360 seconds / 20Hz) or 7200 minor ticks (120 seconds / 60Hz)?

For that matter, why was the level’s start time given in seconds but the condition time given in ticks?

Antares addresses the unit confusion by specifying time durations with strings instead of numbers. A duration might look like 1h15m5s30t (1 hour + 15 minutes + 5 seconds + 30 [minor] ticks). Each of the units (h, m, s, t) is 60× the next. You can also write fractional amounts like 1.5s, but you can’t specify anything shorter than a minor tick, like 0.01s.

So, what is the answer to the quiz at the top? You guessed it: none of the above. The correct answer is: 1 minute after start of play (4 minutes after start of simulation).

How does this happen? See, during simulation, before start of play, Ares doesn’t need to draw to the screen. It executes the game logic each major tick, and doesn’t track minor ticks at all. So, the timer counts down at 20Hz, and at start of play, there are 3600 ticks (7200t - 180s*20Hz) left before the condition activates.

However, once play starts, Ares starts tracking minor ticks, and counting down at 60Hz. 60 seconds (3600t/60Hz) later, the condition activates.

You can preserve this behavior with legacy_start_time, but I wouldn’t recommend it.