Script isnt reading correct time

Help and Feedback Scripting Support
#1

My game utilizes a script that sets the games time to the Pacific Time Zone (the games based in robloxity, so I set it to pacific since roblox HQ is in California) and it doesn’t read the right time, could be almost midnight IRL and the game will show it being 6 AM. I posted the code below, what did I get wrong?

-- dayLength defines how long, in minutes, a day in your game is. Feel free to alter it.
local dayLength = 1440

local cycleTime = dayLength*60
local minutesInADay = 24*60

local lighting = game:GetService("Lighting")

local startTime = 14
local endTime = startTime + cycleTime

local timeRatio = minutesInADay / cycleTime
local httpService = game:GetService("HttpService")
local lighting = game:GetService("Lighting")

local URL = "https://worldtimeapi.org/api/timezone/America/Vancouver"

local response
local data
local done = false

-- make sure nothing breaks if this returns an error.
pcall(function()
	response = httpService:GetAsync(URL)
end)

-- grab "unixtime" from the string and turn it into a number.
function getUnixTime(str)
	local unixtime = tonumber(str:match('"unixtime":(%d+)'))
	return unixtime
end

function unixToTime(unixtime)
	return os.date("%H:%M:%S", unixtime)
end

local unixTime = getUnixTime(response)
local TimeOfDay = unixToTime(unixTime)
print(TimeOfDay)
lighting.TimeOfDay = TimeOfDay
done = true

print(TimeOfDay)
if dayLength == 0 then
	dayLength = 1
end

repeat
	if done == true then
		local currentTime = tick()

		if currentTime > endTime then
			startTime = endTime
			endTime = startTime + cycleTime
		end

		lighting:setMinutesAfterMidnight((currentTime - startTime)*timeRatio)
		wait(1/15)
	end
until false
#2

IT does work in studio but not the player

#3

It is based on the server’s location, which can vary on rejoin. Use os.date maybe?

#4

Is this a server script or a local script?
Server = on game
Local = only on client

#5

Well client cannot call http service

#6

server script, located in the serverscript service, lets see here what else can i say to pad out the character minimum… Oh ya it works in studio but breaks in player if that helps.

#7

the goal is I want it tied to PDT, which is why I am using a webhook.

#8

You can use the os library to find dates easily

You can use os.date("*t", os.time() + secondsInFuture) to get a time some seconds past UTC time in the format of a dictionary like this:

["day"] = 9,
["hour"] = 16,
["isdst"] = true,
["min"] = 17,
["month"] = 10,
["sec"] = 13,
["wday"] = 2,
["yday"] = 282,
["year"] = 2023

Set secondsInFuture to how many seconds PDT is ahead of UTC

#9

Wouldn’t this just return the timezone of whatever computer the script starts with?

Edit: I see what your saying, but how would I implement this? I am not that advanced in programing.

#10

I havent tested this so tell me if it works

secondsInFuture = 3600 * 7 -- pdt is 7 hours ahead of utc

--update the time every minute which is probably enough
while task.wait(60) do

  --get the pdt time in a dictionary
  local PDTTime = os.date("*t", os.time() + secondsInFuture)
  
  --get total minutes and hours
  local hours = PDTTime.hour
  local minutes = PDTTime.min
  
  --get the total minutes past midnight
  local totalMinutesPastMidnight = (hours * 60) + minutes
  
  --change the lighting
  game.Lighting:SetMinutesAfterMidnight(totalMinutesPastMidnight)
end
#11

So how you had it didn’t work, but the moment I took it out of the loop and paired it with my time set which accounts for the updating after the initial setting of the time, it worked.

Here is the finished code if you want to mess around with it. I intentionally am doing seconds instead of every minute so that it keeps up with real-world time. It’s a small map so I can get away with the extra load it puts on the network.

Edit 2: Its not working right, it still grabs the wrong time when in play mode.

-- dayLength defines how long, in minutes, a day in your game is. Feel free to alter it.
local dayLength = 1440

local cycleTime = dayLength*60
local minutesInADay = 24*60

local lighting = game:GetService("Lighting")

local startTime = 14
local endTime = startTime + cycleTime

local timeRatio = minutesInADay / cycleTime
local httpService = game:GetService("HttpService")
local lighting = game:GetService("Lighting")

local URL = "https://worldtimeapi.org/api/timezone/America/Vancouver"

local response
local data
local done = tr

secondsInFuture = 3600 * 7 -- pdt is 7 hours ahead of utc

--update the time every minute which is probably enough
local PDTTime = os.date("*t", os.time() + secondsInFuture)

--get total minutes and hours
local hours = PDTTime.hour
local minutes = PDTTime.min

--get the total minutes past midnight
local totalMinutesPastMidnight = (hours * 60) + minutes

print(totalMinutesPastMidnight)
--change the lighting
game.Lighting:SetMinutesAfterMidnight(totalMinutesPastMidnight)
done = true


if dayLength == 0 then
	dayLength = 1
end

repeat
	if done == true then
		local currentTime = tick()

		if currentTime > endTime then
			startTime = endTime
			endTime = startTime + cycleTime
		end

		lighting:setMinutesAfterMidnight((currentTime - startTime)*timeRatio)
		wait(1/15)
	end
until false
#12

Update: I am adding this for anyone who may be interested in doing this for their own game. The finished code that works looks like this:

local dayLength = 1440

local cycleTime = dayLength*60
local minutesInADay = 24*60

local lighting = game:GetService("Lighting")

local startTime = 14
local endTime = startTime + cycleTime

local timeRatio = minutesInADay / cycleTime
local httpService = game:GetService("HttpService")
local lighting = game:GetService("Lighting")

local response
local data
local done = false

secondsInFuture = 3600 * 11 -- pdt is 7 hours ahead of UTC

--update the time every minute which is probably enough
local PDTTime = os.date("*t", os.time() - secondsInFuture)

--get total minutes and hours
local hours = PDTTime.hour
local minutes = PDTTime.min
local seconds = PDTTime.sec

print(hours,minutes,seconds)
--get the total minutes past midnight
local totalMinutesPastMidnight = (hours * 60) + minutes + seconds / 60

print(totalMinutesPastMidnight)
--change the lighting
game.Lighting:SetMinutesAfterMidnight(totalMinutesPastMidnight)
done = true

while true do
	totalMinutesPastMidnight = (totalMinutesPastMidnight + wait(1/15) / 60) % dayLength
	lighting:setMinutesAfterMidnight(totalMinutesPastMidnight)
end

Why am I going to this length when I could just do a simple OS time? The game is based on an old concept called Robloxia, shout out to any devs here who remember that idea of a robloxian nation. I was trying to base a timezone for it I eventually chose UTC-11 for it as geographically I am basing the game in the Pacific somewhere (I can explain if anyone wants the reason why.). So that is why I went to the trouble, I have found out some stuff for anyone who is gonna try doing this themselves.

1: Expect a difference in what you get in the studio, and what you get in the player, it accounts for different times due to how Roblox structures its server-client communications.

2: If you want a different time zone you change two areas of this system. The first is the “secondsInFuture” variable, which is where the UTC number goes, the other which is crucial for how the system calculates time is the PDTTime local variable, where it says “os. time() - secondsInFuture” you need to change the “-” to a “+” depending on whether your UTC code is ahead of UTC or behind UTC. That’s what the UTC-11 is, it’s 11 hours behind UTC.

This should help if this script ever suits anyone for the same reason I did mine.

#13

Sweet, but one question.
Why have dayLength and minutesInADay as different variables?
They both equal 1440.

#14

That minute in a day thing is vestigial I just forgot to remove it.

1 Like
#15

This topic was automatically closed 14 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.