Timekeeping in BG2 Engine

[Macready]

Hello -

 

I am correcting some small issues with potions in Tutu, and in doing so I am stumbling in my attempts to answer the following question: what is the time value of an in-game hour?

 

If you read the BG2 manual, it is stated that the engine does a 10:1 time compression (e.g., an in-game round is 6 seconds, but corresponds to a "real world" D&D round of 60 seconds). If you use this as the basis of calculation, a "real world" day would consist of 60 x 60 x 24 = 86400 time units, from which we can infer that an in-game day would consist of 86400 / 10 = 8640 time units.

 

Yet, there are a number of in-game hints which suggest that an in-game day consists of 7200 time units (e.g., matching effect durations to item descriptions). But these correlations are inconsistent, so it is hard to say with any degree of finality if an in-game day really is 7200 time units.

 

Can anyone shed any light on this issue? Is the right answer 8640 or 7200? As I edit effect durations whose descriptions are listed in terms of hours, I'd like to make sure I am using the correct value for one hour as a foundation.

[Macready]

Hello -

 

I think I just answered my own question. I set Invisibility to a duration of 8640 and then slept three times in a row (8hrs x 3), and when I woke up I still had the effect. 8640 must be too long for 24 hours.

 

I repeated the experiment with a value of 7200, and the effect was gone when I awoke for the third time. I guess the 10:1 time compression must be approximate when it comes to real days -> game days.

 

I'll go with 7200 / 24 = 300 time units per hour, unless anyone has info to the contrary.

[devSin]

Look at GTIMES.IDS. 5 seconds is equivalent to one minute in-game time.

[Macready]

Hello -

 

Look at GTIMES.IDS. 5 seconds is equivalent to one minute in-game time.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Thanks for the pointer, I never knew that was there. 7200 is the right number.

 

So this means that 1 game round != 1 game minute, right? Because the engine treats 1 round as a time value of 6.

[devSin]

So this means that 1 game round != 1 game minute, right?

As far as I know, that is correct, yes. Game rounds have no bearing on game time.

[igi]

Hopefully this is still somewhat relevant, and has not been proven wrong since it was written: http://mcwrench.com/forum/index.php?act=ST...=7&st=0#entry13