creating a timer

[new2programming]

Hi, I have a game that at the moment is a little like mario- a jump and run. I want to add a timer to my main funtion so that after 60 seconds or so the game ends and goes to a highscore table where you can enter your name if your score qualifies. I don't know how to acheive either of these things so any help would be good :)

Thanks

[daviddoria]

This is entirely too generic of a question. Please give it a try and let us know if you have specific questions. If you've already written a game, surely is won't be hard for you! If you're using a library like SDL or something already, they will surely have a timer:

http://www.libsdl.org/intro.en/usingtimers.html

Some other recommended reading:

http://daviddoria.blogspot.com/2010/05/problem-abstraction-helping-others-help.html

Good luck,

Dave

[new2programming]

i have been following a tutorial on http://jnrdev.72dpiarmy.com/
I am using SDL in Visual C++.
i want the timer to start at 60 and count down to 0 when it reaches 0 the program then goes to a high score table which allows you to enter your name if your score is high enough.- how is that too general?

[mrnutty]

You can use sdl's timer or clock, or if your on windows, Queryperformance counter.
For example, here is one that uses clock().

#include <iostream>
#include <ctime>

using namespace std;

class Timer{
public:
	typedef clock_t TimeType;
private:
	TimeType _clockStart; //holds the time of reference
public:
	Timer(): _clockStart(clock()){
	}
	TimeType getTicks()const{ 
		return clock() - _clockStart;  
	}	
	float getSecondsPassed()const{
		return getTicks()* 1.0f/CLOCKS_PER_SEC;
	}
	void startTime(){
		_clockStart = clock();
	}
	void resetTime(){
		_clockStart = clock();
	}

};
int main(){	

	Timer tm;

	tm.startTime();
	int i = 0;
	while(i != 5){
		if(tm.getTicks() > 1000){ //every 1 seconds
			cout << ++i << " seconds" << endl;
			tm.resetTime();
		}
	}

	cout <<"BOOM!!!!!"<<endl;

	return 0;
}

[new2programming]

Thats helpful, i have different classes- would i put this code in the main function or make a new .cpp file for it?

[mrnutty]

Put it in different header and .cpp file.

[new2programming]

thanks, im having some difficulties as i can't figure out what part goes in the header and what part goes in the .cpp.

[mrnutty]

Header should contain the prototype, if possible. So put the Timer class inside
the header, but strip the definition from it. Then implement the definition, in the
.cpp file