World Control

Before this: Admin Gates, Forking and Merging

Next steps: Teams

A circuit can change the world itself: the time of day, the clouds, the rain. These are the settings in the game’s environment dialog, and every player sees the change at once. This lesson turns night on with a switch and rolls a storm in slowly.

Needs admin to load: writing a setting uses Set Environment Property.

Code
Run
Under the Hood
Use it: a storm
Modify
Make
Good to Know

switch Enabled -> chip night

Code

const DAY = 12.0
const NIGHT = 0.0

@left in night: bool

on night {
  Environment.Sky.TimeOfDay = NIGHT
}

on !night {
  Environment.Sky.TimeOfDay = DAY
}

Environment.Sky.TimeOfDay is one setting: Sky is the section of the environment dialog, TimeOfDay the setting in it. Assigning to it inside a handler writes the world’s time of day. on !night runs when the switch turns off, as in Forking and Merging.

Flip the switch on. It goes dark. Now wait a few minutes. Does it stay dark?

Run

Compile the chip and paste it in-game. Place a Switch.
Wire the Switch’s Enabled to night.
Flip it on: the sky turns to midnight. Flip it off: noon.
Leave it on. If the world’s day cycle is running, the clock carries on from midnight and the sun rises again. The circuit set the time once and does not hold it there.

Under the Hood

Open the chip. There are two Set Environment Property gates, one per handler. Each has the environment (Sky) and the setting (TimeOfDay) in its own settings, and a Value input: 0 in one, 12 in the other. The on !night gate has a NOT in front of its Exec.

Reading a setting is a step too, a Get Environment Property gate, so it only works in a handler. Reading is not admin. This clock sign reads the time once a second, and anyone can paste it:

var hour: float = 0.0
@right out text = "Hour: ${hour.Value}"

on Clock(interval = 1.0) {
  hour = Environment.Sky.TimeOfDay
}

Read it straight into the pin instead, and the compiler refuses:

@right out hour: float = Environment.Sky.TimeOfDay

Error: [WS007] environment read 'Environment.Sky.TimeOfDay' outside an exec context

Every setting and its type is listed in Environment Settings. A write that does not fit the setting’s type is an error, and a name that does not exist is WS110.

Use it: a storm

A setting can be written again and again. A Clock that nudges three weather settings a little each quarter second brings a storm in over five seconds, and takes it away again when the switch goes off:

const STEPS = 20

@left in storm: bool
var level: int = 0
let moving = (storm && level.Value < STEPS) || (!storm && level.Value > 0)

on Clock(interval = 0.25, enabled = moving) {
  if storm {
    level += 1
  } else {
    level -= 1
  }
  let t = (level as float) / (STEPS as float)
  Environment.Sky.CloudCoverage = t
  Environment.Sky.Rain = t
  Environment.Sky.Thunder = t
}

level counts from 0 to STEPS, and t turns it into a fraction from 0.0 to 1.0: as float turns a whole number into a decimal one, and / divides. moving is true while the storm still has somewhere to go: rolling in (storm on and level short of STEPS) or rolling out (storm off and level above 0). || is “or”. It drives the Clock’s enabled, so the Clock runs only while the storm is moving and stops once it arrives.

Modify

Hold the night. Write Environment.Sky.AnimateTimeOfDay = false before the time in on night, and = true after it in on !night.
Add fog to the storm: Environment.Sky.CloudyFogDensity = t.
Make a sunset button. Each press reads Environment.Sky.TimeOfDay, adds one hour, and writes it back.

Make

Make a weather board with three buttons, Clear, Rain and Snow, that each roll their weather in over a few seconds and roll the others out. Show the current weather on a sign.

button1 Held -> chip clear
button2 Held -> chip rain
button3 Held -> chip snow
chip sign -> decal Text

Good to Know

The environment is one for the whole world. Every player sees a change, and two circuits writing the same setting overwrite each other: the last write wins.
The game converts and limits a written value as the environment dialog would, and leaves a setting the dialog has locked alone.
A write happens once. The day cycle, or another circuit, can change the setting again straight after.

See Environment Settings in the reference.

Next: Teams.

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