Add function to Timer that returns `time_left` in minutes/hours/etc.

[maksutheam]

Describe the project you are working on

Arcade-y 1v1 fighting game with time limits

Describe the problem or limitation you are having in your project

My game has time limits in rounds and matches (a match is first to 3 round wins). When the round timer hits 0, whoever has most health wins the round, and when the match timer hits 0, same thing, but they win the match. These are important to have, so the players don't stall the game for too long. As these have a big impact on the strategies the players use, they need to be clearly displayed, like with a Label.

Here is the problem: Matches can take around 5-10 minutes, so I'd like to show the minutes and seconds left, as most people understand better how much time 4 minutes & 32 seconds is, compared to 259 seconds, for example. However, Timer can only return time_left in seconds. So now I have to write a function that turns seconds into minutes, and display that.

Considering how often time is used in real life, it's strange how Timer can't return this in a format that we use daily.

Describe the feature / enhancement and how it helps to overcome the problem or limitation

I propose a new function in Timer, that converts the seconds into integers which represent milliseconds, seconds, minutes and maybe hours, puts them in an array, and returns that. Days, months and anything past that is probably overkill?

So for example, if time_left is 1234.5 seconds (20 minutes and 34.5 seconds), it would return an array like [50, 34, 20, 0]

Call it time_left_clock, time_left_converted or time_left_humane or something. Better name suggestions are welcome.

Describe how your proposal will work, with code, pseudo-code, mock-ups, and/or diagrams

Let's say I had a Timer with 64 seconds, and I wanted a label to display that as "1:04". I could do something like this:

var round_time = %RoundTimer.time_left_converted()

if round_time[1] < 10: # padding zero
    round_time[1] = "0" + round_time[1]

%RoundTimeLabel.text = str(round_time[2]) + ":" + str(round_time[1])

If this enhancement will not be used often, can it be worked around with a few lines of script?

It is possible to make a function that converts seconds to minutes, hours and whatnot, here's one I found on Godot Forums archive:

func time_to_minutes_secs_mili(time : float):
	var mins = int(time) / 60
	time -= mins * 60
	var secs = int(time) 
	var mili = int((time - int(time)) * 100)
	return str(mins) + ":" + str(secs) + ":" + str(mili)

Is there a reason why this should be core and not an add-on in the asset library?

Displaying time in hours and minutes is so common that I feel it should be included out-of-the-box. Search for "godot timer minutes" in a search engine and you'll find many posts asking how to make Timers seconds into milliseconds, minutes and even hours.

[Meorge]

I've run into similar issues myself involving converting a seconds counter into hours/minutes/seconds/milliseconds/etc, but not necessarily with the Timer node specifically. As such, I think it could make sense to introduce this as a standalone static function. That way, someone could pass a number of seconds in, and get out the time split into components, similar to the example you found:

# Using function with a timer
var secs_left = %RoundTimer.time_left
var time_comps = Time.secs_to_components(secs_left, ["seconds", "minutes", "hours"])

# I think this formatting would ensure a leading zero? but doing this from memory
%RoundTimeLabel.text = "%02d:%02d:%02d" % [time_comps["hours"], time_comps["minutes"], time_comps["seconds"]]


# Using function with something else
var my_secs = 28262.53
var my_comps = Time.secs_to_components(my_secs, ["seconds", "minutes", "hours"])
print(my_comps)  # {"hours": 7.0, "minutes": 51.0, "seconds": 2.53}

[Calinou]

• Related to Add a String method to format numbers with a delimiter separator and custom decimal separator #9289.

if round_time[1] < 10: # padding zero
   round_time[1] = "0" + round_time[1]

str(round_time[1]).pad_zeros(2) will pad zeroes for you.

[dalexeev]

I think this function should be part of the Time singleton, not the Timer node. Since other classes (like AudioStreamPlayer, AnimationPlayer, etc.) also use time intervals.