requesting game speed value function so it can be read (maybe set?) in scripts

[QuantumApprentice]

I've been working on a few scripted sequences over at MR mod and I've found that trying to adjust the amount of time a float remains on screen for reading is heavily dependent on the speed the game is currently running at.
All my current scripts I've fine tuned to the normal 100% game speed, but I'd like to be able to make them adjustable based directly on the game speed.

Either this, or the ability to modify the game speed from a script, so that sequences that lock the player when using game_ui_disable are able to play floats at a readable rate, since the player can't adjust game speed during the cut-scene.

I think I can write a script that will read the setting from ddraw.ini, but the ability to set the speed during gameplay using the speed keys makes this approach somewhat questionable.
(actually, maybe making an in-game menu for this would be nice to have too, so having both options would be useful :P )

[NovaRain]

I think a simpler solution is to temporarily set the game speed to normal (100%) when the game UI is disabled, just like when playing endgame slideshow. The downside is of course people can't speed through scripted sequences like before.

[QuantumApprentice]

I don't know what it takes to make this stuff work, so I have a lack of knowledge here, and I apologize if this comes across as a bit brash.
But if it's too difficult to make the variable available in a global script or something, maybe a better approach would be to just let the player change speed during the cut-scenes?
bypassing the keyboard lockout for just those keybinds?

Or if forcing 100% speed during game_ui_disable calls is better and easier, we could just have a toggle in an ini file that allows the player to bypass scripted sequence speed settings if they don't want to sit through any of them?

[Lexx2k]

imo you are overthinking this way too much.

ui_disable locks all input, no chance to change that here, I guess. And the 2nd thing with skipping cutscenes if speed is > 100% ... is not good either, imo. If someone increased the speed and doesn't know there are such cutscenes, he would automatically skip them and not really know what happened. Also it needs you to manually write the scripts in a way that this is even possible in the first place. It's complicated and annoying.

I'd say resetting the speed to 100% once ui gets locked is the only sensible way right now. Those speed boosts are not an official addition anyways, and imo people shouldn't play the game like that... but ofc that's just my biased opinion.

[QuantumApprentice]

Oh I didn't mean skip cut-scenes per se,
I meant just disable any hook that would slow down the game when game_ui_disable is on.
In that sense I'm thinking the hook would have a built-in bypass that the player could toggle in ddraw.ini or something.

Really I was mostly hoping there was a quick way for scripts to read the current speed setting from the game memory, and thinking that a proper scripting function call would be in order for it.

I've also been dabbling with the window/button create functions and it occurred to me that there's a lot of potential for creating in-game menus that the player could use to change ini file settings.
But since the biggest ini tweak for me is the speed function, and my understanding is the ddraw.ini is only loaded on game start and not when loading a save, then changing the ddraw.ini from a global script menu probably won't work that well.

All that being said, yes it's mostly me.
I really like turning the speed up when playing the game, especially combat.
Combat is sooooo much more fun when I don't have to wait 15 minutes for a 12 character round to end :P

[burner1024]

I don't think forcing 100% speed in cutscenes is such a good idea. Unless there's a way to skip them completely.
For someone playing with moderate increase like 125% it really won't make much difference. And they are playing with 400%, chances are they don't want your cutscene anyway.
In general I prefer to let the players decide how they should play.

[QuantumApprentice]

Well...that's my point.

I like to have the speed up fast when I'm playing any of these mods or even the main game.
But I also like to be able to watch cut-scenes the first time they play without having to know about them in advance.

That's how I like to play, and I was hoping to come up with a way to facilitate this play-style.

But I'll withdraw my request for now if you don't think it's worth the effort. I'll be back when I have time to go through and figure out the process of making one of these scripting commands myself :)

[NovaRain]

I think you can loop through SpeedMulti# settings to find out which one is equal to 100 (or the closest, if for some strange reason someone never sets a 100% setting), then grab the corresponding combo keys from SpeedModKey and SpeedKey#. So you can simulate key press to set the speed back to 100% before setting up your cutscene.

EDIT: OK, the combo key idea doesn't work as you can't simulate holding down a key.

[QuantumApprentice]

Hah! I never even thought of that!
Thanks I'll totally give that a try :)