Tired of waiting for the damn mineral counter to go up or down to the value you set with your trigger? It could take several seconds. What if you could set your minerals to any value, and it will instantly jump to that value?

I present to you: The instant resource counter!

Woo! So what is it? Basically, it sets your resources to an absurd amount by using the formula that the game uses for the resource tally animation, and then changes it back to the expected amount on the next trigger cycle, when the resource view is approximately the same number that you want to set it to.

i.e. You set the minerals from 0 to 9000 with a trigger. The system detects the change, and saves the amount you set it to. It then sets your minerals to 51113. The tally counter then tries to match this value by animating your minerals up. When the next trigger cycle happens, the animated counter is at about 9000, and triggers restore the correct mineral amount (9000). Now there is little difference between the animated value and actual value, and thus no animation needs to take place.

Application Overview

Let N be the powers of 2 you're willing to support. Note: Do not use "subtract". The equations are expected to go negative, i.e. use "add -1".

We then have:
BEFORE all triggers

• N triggers to restore saved resource from previous trigger cycle [if dc2 != 0 then ore = dc3]
  
• N triggers for storing the old value [dc1 = ore]
  

DURING your triggers
No special changes needed!

AFTER all triggers

• N triggers for storing new value (dc2, dc3 = ore)
  
• N triggers for subtract (dc2 -= dc1) (Note the result can be negative)
  
• 1 trigger for correction (if -4 <= dc2 <= 4 then dc2 = 0)
  
• N*2 triggers for multiply (if dc2 != 0 then ore += dc2*3375/721) (Note x2 for negative values)
  
• 2 triggers for add/sub conditional (if dc2 < 0 then ore += 16; if dc2 > 0 then ore -= 16)
  

Multiplication Table

This is for calculating 3375/721 for each power of 2, rounded to the nearest whole number.

Sample Map

TODO

Notes

• If you want to support negative resource values, you will need to (almost) double the triggers.
  
• If you want to support both ore AND gas, you will need to double the triggers.
  
• You can make it explicit instead of automatic by introducing another death count.
  

Limitations

• Lag can mess it up.
  
• Non-Fastest speed will mess it up.
  
• You can only support values up to about 200-300 million or so.
  
• Players may not have enough resources if they built something during these frames. In this case you could activate it only when the diff is above some threshold for which they can't possibly get an error.
  
• Players can actually use the resources during the 2 frames that it is activated, and it won't be counted against them.
  
• Players gathering resources or cancelling units/structures will lose them within the 2 frames this is active.
  

TODO: It's possible to fix the triggers so that it accounts for resource changes within the 2 frames that it's been activated (mitigating 2 of the major limitations).

Maths

The animation function's next resource value is defined as:

We will focus on f(n) < target for now, but it's essentially the same process for the other one.

We know that:

• This update is run approximately every 20ms real time. (take my word for it)
  
• The game runs at 42ms/frame on fastest.
  
• Triggers execute on every other frame.
  

Hence we should calculate f(4), since 20ms*4 = 80 is roughly equal to one trigger cycle (84).

Since we can use an approximation instead of the real formula, we can eliminate the floor from the equation. It follows that:


Since we want our next resource value to be our mineral target amount, we set


We can plug it into WolframAlpha, and get the equation:


Note that values in which the difference is at most 4 will be incorrect (and it will iterate all 4 over the 4 view updates anyway). Rearranging the equation, and considering special conditions, we get


Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Oct 2 2017, 9:10 am by Heinermann.