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Posted by Nick Thissen

on 06/06/2019 20:10:24

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Starting with version 1.20, several new data bindings will become available that deal with the live session time of day. Data includes the start date/time of the session, as well as the live date/time currently. Note that the live time of day will not "rewind" when you rewind the session to watch a replay.

The date and time of day reflect the in-game session time of day, shown as "Sim Time" in the sim.


The data is available in two ways:

• As a pre-formatted string.
• As a DateTime object (.NET) which you can use in scripts, or format yourself using the Text property.
  

Data bindings
Look for these data bindings in the sessionstate data set:

• date: shows the current date in the session, pre-formatted in format "year-month-day" (for example: "2019-05-15"). The date will correctly update to the next day if the session passes midnight.
• timeofday: shows the current time of day in the session, in pre-formatted "hours:minutes:seconds" format (for example: 14:04:32).
• startdate: shows the start date of the session in pre-formatted format, but will not update to reflect the current day.
• starttimeofday: shows the time of day in which the session started, in pre-formatted format, but will not update to reflect the current time.
• livedatetime_object: returns a .NET DateTime object containing the current (live) date and time in the session. Requires scripting or manual formatting to use, see below.
• startdatetime_object: returns a .NET DateTime object containing the starting date and time for the session. Requires scripting or manual formatting to use, see below.

Date and time formatting
If the pre-formatted date and time strings do not match your preference, you can use your own formatting in two ways.

Formatting via the Text property
If you bind to the "livedatetime_object" or "startdatetime_object" bindings, you can then use the Text property to apply your own custom date and time formatting. The format is applied via the usual {0:'format'} macro where 'format' is your custom date/time format string.

For example, if the date/time you are formatting is Monday November 18th, 2019, at 17:08:35:

• {0:dddd d MMM yyyy} - returns "Monday 18 Nov 2019"
• {0:h\:mm tt} - returns "5:08 pm"
• {0:hh\:mm tt} - returns "05:08 pm"
• {0:HH\:mm} - returns "17:08"

Note the use of the "\:" to escape the colon character so it is not interpreted as a formatting but will appear directly in the output.

Date/time formatting is extensively described in the .NET documentation, see especially the table of possible formats and examples:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/base-types/custom-date-and-time-format-strings


Scripting
Alternatively, you can use any converter script to cast the value to a DateTime object and apply your own formatting in any way you want:

using System;
using ATVO.ThemesSDK;
using ATVO.ThemeEditor.ThemeModels;
using ATVO.ThemeEditor.Scripting.DotNET;

namespace Scripts
{
	public class TimeOfDayConverter : IScript
	{
		public object Execute(ThemeContentItem item, object value, string parameter, ISimulation sim)
		{		
			// Bind to "livedatetime_object" and cast to DateTime:
			var now = (DateTime)value;
			
			// Suppose you figured out sunset is at 21:14:18 today:
			var sunset = new TimeSpan(21,14,18);
			
			// Calculate time until sunset
			var timeUntilSunset = sunset - now.TimeOfDay;
			
			if (timeUntilSunset.TotalSeconds > 0)
			{
				return timeUntilSunset.ToString("HH:mm:ss");
			}
			else 
			{
				return "Sunset in progress";
			}
		}
	}
}