Timers

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Netick provides several ways to work with time in your networked game.

Converting Between Ticks and Time

Sometimes you need to convert between ticks and time (in seconds). Netick provides methods to do this conversion.

Sandbox.TickToTime()

The TickToTime() method converts ticks to time in seconds. This is useful when you need to check if a certain amount of time has passed since an event occurred. For example, if you want to explode a bomb after a delay:

public override void NetworkFixedUpdate()
{
    if (Sandbox.TickToTime(Sandbox.Tick - Object.SpawnTick) >= ExplosionDelay)
        Explode();
}

In this example, Sandbox.Tick is the current tick, Object.SpawnTick is the tick when the object was spawned, and ExplosionDelay is the delay in seconds before the explosion. The tick difference is converted to seconds using TickToTime().

Sandbox.TimeToTick()

TimeToTick() performs the opposite conversion:

Tick tickValue = Sandbox.TimeToTick(timeInSeconds);

Using NetworkTimer

NetworkTimer is a utility struct type for simplifying time-based actions in a networked game. It can be used to implement both countdown timers (timers with a duration that finish) and stopwatch timers (timers that measure time since a start moment).

Network Property Example:

[Networked]
public NetworkTimer Timer { get; set; }

Countdown Timers vs Stopwatch Timers

• A countdown timer is created by starting a timer with a positive duration.
• A stopwatch timer is effectively a countdown timer started with 0 duration --- it never "finishes", so you only care about the elapsed time since it started.

Because of this:

• GetRemainingTime() only makes sense for countdown timers (duration > 0).
• GetElapsedTime() works for both timer types:
  • For countdowns: it returns the time since the timer started. If the timer has finished, it continues increasing, giving you "time since it finished."
  • For stopwatches: it returns the time since the stopwatch started.

Starting a Timer

You can start a timer using Sandbox.StartTimer():

// Start a 5-second countdown timer
CountdownTimer = Sandbox.StartTimer(5.0f);

// Start a stopwatch timer
StopwatchTimer = Sandbox.StartTimer(0.0f);

Checking Timer Status

// Check if the timer is still running (only relevant for countdown timers)
if (CountdownTimer.IsRunning(Sandbox))
{
    // Timer has not yet reached its duration
}

Getting Remaining and Elapsed Time

// Remaining time (countdown timers only)
float remainingTime = CountdownTimer.GetRemainingTime(Sandbox);

// Elapsed time (valid for both countdown and stopwatch timers)
float elapsedTime = StopwatchTimer.GetElapsedTime(Sandbox);

For countdowns:

• GetRemainingTime decreases until it reaches zero.
• GetElapsedTime increases beyond the duration, allowing you to track "time since completion."

For stopwatches (duration = 0):

• GetRemainingTime is always zero.
• GetElapsedTime is the time since the stopwatch started.