You already know one of these functions:
SetTime
. It does not return anything but changes a current scene time. Here is
the full list of functions available to change and retrieve a current
scene time:
SetTime
,
GetTime
and
Sleep
. In our first examples it was clear what the current scene time was at
every moment. But in more complex examples it might not be that clear.
And you might want to retrieve a current scene time using
GetTime
. Function
Sleep
changes the current scene time by a given amount of seconds. For
example if you use it as
Sleep ( 1.5 )
it is equal to
SetTime ( GetTime () + 1.5 )
. Here is an example below
void Scene1 ()
{
SetTime ( 1.0 );
Sleep ( 1.5 );
Text TimeInScene (
"Scene Time is: " + GetTime () + " seconds");
TimeInScene.SetVisible (
true );
Sleep ( 1.0 );
}
This example will display a
black screen for 2.5 seconds (1.0 + 1.5) and then the following text:
"Scene Time is: 2.500000 seconds";
There is another function in WCM C++, which is not exactly a "cartoon
time function".
You probably noticed that it is not very convenient to create a text
object every time you want to display a text. This is mostly because we
work with simple programs and outputting test mostly for debugging
purposes. When you are making a real cartoon, you will want to do
different things with your text object, like rotate and move it, and
you will find that having an object is a very convenient thing. But it
is still not convenient for debugging.
Thus, there is a special function which displays a text for debugging in
WCM C++ called
ShowText
. It automatically creates a text object, makes it visible, waits for
one second and then makes it invisible. The last three lines of our
example above could be rewritten with just one sentence using
ShowText
. Please keep in mind, that beside displaying text, this function also
changes a current scene time by one second similar to
Sleep (1)
. Here is another example:
void Scene1 ()
{
SetTime ( 1.5 );
ShowText ( "Scene
Time is: " + GetTime () );
ShowText ( "Scene
Time is: " + GetTime () );
ShowText ( "Scene
Time is: " + GetTime () );
}
This example will display
a black screen for 1.5 seconds and then "Scene Time is: 1.500000
seconds" for one second, then "Scene Time is: 2.500000 seconds" for
another second and "Scene Time is: 3.500000 seconds" for one more
second:
Finally there
is a pair of macros, THIS_TIME and SAME_TIME that are essentially
equivalent to
GetTime
and
SetTime
but were defined aid in synchronizing multiple actions to a particular
cartoon time “tick”. The best way to understand these macros is to
examine and run the “Synchronization of Actions” tutorial script. An
example of their use will also be presented in a later section
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Here is what was updated in version 1.5:
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