Day/Night

[IsmAvatar]

Create event:

_current_hour = 0
hourhit = _current_hour
screen_gamma(-.7,-.7,-.7)
if _current_hour = 7 { screen_gamma(-.6,-.6,-.6) }
if _current_hour = 8 { screen_gamma(-.5,-.5,-.5) }
if _current_hour >= 9 { screen_gamma(0,0,0) }
if _current_hour = 18 { screen_gamma(-.5,-.5,-.5) }
if _current_hour = 19 { screen_gamma(-.6,-.6,-.6) }
if _current_hour >= 20 { screen_gamma(-.7,-.7,-.7) }
Step event:
if hourhit = current_hour { exit }
if current_hour = 18 || current_hour = 19 || current_hour = 20
|| current_hour = 7 || current_hour = 8 || current_hour = 9 {
hourhit = current_hour
}
if _current_hour = 18 { screen_gamma(-.5,-.5,-.5) }
if _current_hour = 19 { screen_gamma(-.6,-.6,-.6) }
if _current_hour = 20 { screen_gamma(-.7,-.7,-.7) }
if _current_hour = 7 { screen_gamma(-.6,-.6,-.6) }
if _current_hour = 8 { screen_gamma(-.5,-.5,-.5) }
if _current_hour = 9 { screen_gamma(0.0,0.0,0.0) }

Don't forget to change the variable "_current_hour" every time the game experiences an hour (alarms work best), and when _current_hour = 24, set _current_hour = 0
Credit is optional. Change at will. Requires 'Exclusive Graphics Mode' to be turned on.
I will help anyone who is having trouble understanding it, or is trying to modify it.
Please note, this code can be used for true time simply be removing the first _ before every _current_hour (making it current_hour), and commenting out (or removing) the line of code that sets _current_hour = 0

Enjoy
The better the graphics card the better the results.

[Noadi]

Very cool Ism, I need one of these in my game I just hadn't written one yet as part of my overall weather system. One modification I can see is that instead of using real values to use timers instead. That way if you want you days in game to be shorter than 24 real hours you can.

Also a global variable for night and day could be useful. For example so that NPCs don't say something like "It's a beautiful day!" at night.

Anyway, I'm just throwing out ideas right now as to how people could use this and in what ways.

[dwmitch]

The only problem I can see with using screen_gamma() is that it will also effect the text display. In other words, at night it will be difficult to read the text.

[IsmAvatar]

Hmm, this is due for an update soon. I have made a better way that doesn't use screen gamma, and doesn't require exclusive graphics mode, and at the same time, it can optionally not affect your text. basically, just have a large black sprite, that uses image_alpha. set it's depth to a high negative (and you can make the text object a higher negative)

[mayhem]

That's all very well and good, but you'd need a 5ghz processor to run it at a bearable rate.

[IsmAvatar]

depends on how big your game screen is and how much else is going on. I have a 1.6 GHz processor, a 112x112 Screen, with dimming effects, massive quantities of particles, and to top that, everything is scaled to 200%. FPS? 29/30

[9h]

What I did when I made my Day/ Night thing for my game, instead of screen_gamma() I just made a foreground that was compleately black and set the alpha value of it. I put about 0.7 as midnight and 0 as noon. Hope that helps! ;D

[2dteam]

[glow=lime,2,300]I'm having difficulty applying the code. Could someone perhaps make an example of this system? Thanks a bunch.[/glow]


IA: please try to make your posts as intelligent as possible, rather than a noobish/desparate comment

[IsmAvatar]

Of course.
I've made an example for GM6. It should be available for unregistered users.
Very well documented as well. I plan to put it on my website eventually.

userweb.nni.com/cmagicj/darkness.gm6

If you would like a GM5 version, just ask. GM5 lacks many of the new alpha functions of GM6, so the method would be considerably different.