Frictional Game Wiki

<h1>Sequences</h1> <div class="level1"> <p> Many of the events that happen throughout SOMA are triggered sequences - a sound plays, then the player's FoV changes, then a light starts flashing etc. etc. We control all of those through a set of wrappers we call Sequences, which hide a bunch of timers away and make things easier to read. </p> <p> For each sequence you need a map property to store the state - a <code>cSequenceStatesData<code> cSequenceStatesData mSequenceAlert; </code> <span class='np_break'> </span> Then you create a sequence function. This will be repeatedly called until the whole sequence is over. It looks something like this: <code> void Sequence_Alert(const tString& in asName) { Sequence_Begin(<u>GESHI_QUOT</u>Sequence_Alert<u>GESHI_QUOT</u>, mSequenceAlert); if(Sequence_DoStepAndWait(1.0f)) <em> Do this step and then wait for 1 second { MakeALoudNoise(); } else if (Sequence_DoStepAndWait(2.5f)) </em> Do this and then wait for 2.5 seconds { FlashABrightLight(); } else if (Sequence_DoStepAndPause()) <em> Do this and then pause until told otherwise { SaySomethingAndCallBack(<u>GESHI_QUOT</u>OnSayingSomethingComplete<u>GESHI_QUOT</u>); } else if (Sequence_DoStepAndWait(10.0f)) </em> Do this and then wait for 10s { CrushPlayerLikeAnAnt(); } else if (Sequence_DoStepAndContinue()) <em> Do this and go on to the next step (in this case there isn't one) { ApologiseToPlayer(); } Sequence_End(); } void OnSayingSomethingComplete() { </em> Saying something is now complete - poke the sequence to continue processing SequenceStates_Resume(<u>GESHI_QUOT</u>Sequence_Alert<u>GESHI_QUOT</u>); } </code> <span class='np_break'> </span> As you can see, </code>Sequence_DoStepAndPause()<code> in there actually pauses the whole sequence until some external event - in this case the callback from the voice playing code - calls </code>SequenceStates_Resume()'' and asks it to continue. </p> <p> To start the sequence, you just call the sequence function <b>once</b> with an empty argument when you want it to trigger e.g. </p> <pre class="code">Sequence_Alert(""); </pre><p> </p> <p> no need to call it every frame or anything! Once started, timers will automatically make sure that the sequence steps get followed when they need to be. </p> <p> We use this a lot, all the way through SOMA, sometimes running multiple sequences in parallel, as they're totally independent of each other. (Which is perfectly possible, but can get very confusing - we really wouldn't recommend it, it more grew out of level complexity than anything else!) </p> </div> <h3>Important Functions</h3> <div class="level3"> </div>