How to use UTC Time Addon?

Hey,

I try to get the exact time of a mobile device in my project. I found an Addon called UTC Time https://www.construct.net/en/make-games/addons/97/utc-time which seems to do exactly what I need.

I've installed it and it's showing up in my Addon Manager but I actually can't find any way to use it. It seems like I can't add it to my project. It doesn't show up in the "Create new object type menu" and I don't know any other way how to access it... I feel like I'm missing something completly obvious. How can I use this Addon?

Hey maXimum7.

I haven't checked this so I might be wrong, but my best guess is that the plugin only supports the C2 runtime. The C3 runtime is now the default, so plugins that only have a C2 runtime implementation won't appear in the plugin list.

Thanks for your reply Nepeo. Unfortunately it seems like you are right. Why is it possible to install an Addon if the runtime isn't supported...?

Do you have any suggestions, how to get the time of a mobile device? I want to check the time difference since the app was last opened.

While it's a little counter intuitive it's possible to use the C2 runtime within Construct 3.

Here's a small snippet of the blog post where we announced the C3 runtime

Rebuilding the Construct 3 editor was a huge project. To ensure it was manageable, we kept the same runtime (game engine) that Construct 2 uses, and transferred it across to Construct 3. This is one of the reasons we were able to successfully launch Construct 3 last year, first in beta, and then the full release in December. However we've always planned to replace the runtime later down the line.

That post was over a year ago, since then we've finished the new runtime and set it as the default for new projects ( it's possible to change runtime in the advanced project settings ). However, for projects using the old runtime it's up to the developer if they wish to switch over. One of the common reasons why people are still using the old runtime is that 3rd party addons required rewriting to work with the new runtime, hence some of them are still only available in the C2 runtime. Most of the popular addons have been ported by the original maintainer, or in some cases picked up by a community member with permission and ported. There's a fairly active discussion on the addon forum about porting plugins and looking for versions that support the new runtime.

If you need time since last run could you not just use the unixtime expression?

The current time represented in milliseconds since Jan 1, 1970. This is the standard way time is represented on many systems, and is commonly known as the UNIX time since it originated on UNIX systems.

System expressions

It's worth noting that Unix uses UTC as its time standard - I'm not sure what you're looking to get, but it's super likely Unix can do it

Thanks for the answers. It's always nice to learn something new about Construct. I guess I'll use unixtime for my game. Nevertheless it's good to know about being able to change the runtime.