NME: Add a RealTime input

packages/dev/core/src/Engines/thinEngine.ts

@@ -53,6 +53,7 @@ import type { RenderTargetTexture } from "../Materials/Textures/renderTargetText
 import type { WebRequest } from "../Misc/webRequest";
 import type { LoadFileError } from "../Misc/fileTools";
 import type { Texture } from "../Materials/Textures/texture";
+import { PrecisionDate } from "core/Misc/precisionDate";
 
 /**
  * Defines the interface used by objects working like Scene
@@ -350,6 +351,11 @@ export class ThinEngine {
         return this._frameId;
     }
 
+    /**
+     * The time (in milliseconds elapsed since the current page has been loaded) when the engine was initialized
+     */
+    public readonly startTime: number;
+
     /** @internal */
     public _uniformBuffers = new Array<UniformBuffer>();
     /** @internal */
@@ -759,6 +765,8 @@ export class ThinEngine {
         options?: EngineOptions,
         adaptToDeviceRatio?: boolean
     ) {
+        this.startTime = PrecisionDate.Now;
+
         let canvas: Nullable<HTMLCanvasElement> = null;
 
         options = options || {};

packages/dev/core/src/Materials/Node/Blocks/Input/animatedInputBlockTypes.ts

@@ -4,6 +4,8 @@
 export enum AnimatedInputBlockTypes {
     /** No animation */
     None,
-    /** Time based animation. Will only work for floats */
+    /** Time based animation (is incremented by 0.6 each second). Will only work for floats */
     Time,
+    /** Time elapsed (in seconds) since the engine was initialized. Will only work for floats */
+    RealTime,
 }

packages/dev/core/src/Materials/Node/Blocks/Input/inputBlock.ts

@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ import { Color3, Color4, TmpColors } from "../../../../Maths/math";
 import { AnimatedInputBlockTypes } from "./animatedInputBlockTypes";
 import { Observable } from "../../../../Misc/observable";
 import type { NodeMaterial } from "../../nodeMaterial";
+import { PrecisionDate } from "core/Misc/precisionDate";
 
 const remapAttributeName: { [name: string]: string } = {
     position2d: "position",
@@ -377,6 +378,12 @@ export class InputBlock extends NodeMaterialBlock {
                 }
                 break;
             }
+            case AnimatedInputBlockTypes.RealTime: {
+                if (this.type === NodeMaterialBlockConnectionPointTypes.Float) {
+                    this.value = (PrecisionDate.Now - scene.getEngine().startTime) / 1000;
+                }
+                break;
+            }
         }
     }
 

packages/tools/nodeEditor/src/blockTools.ts

@@ -437,6 +437,11 @@ export class BlockTools {
                 timeBlock.animationType = AnimatedInputBlockTypes.Time;
                 return timeBlock;
             }
+            case "RealTimeBlock": {
+                const realTimeBlock = new InputBlock("RealTime", undefined, NodeMaterialBlockConnectionPointTypes.Float);
+                realTimeBlock.animationType = AnimatedInputBlockTypes.RealTime;
+                return realTimeBlock;
+            }
             case "DeltaTimeBlock": {
                 const deltaTimeBlock = new InputBlock("Delta time");
                 deltaTimeBlock.setAsSystemValue(NodeMaterialSystemValues.DeltaTime);

packages/tools/nodeEditor/src/components/nodeList/nodeListComponent.tsx

@@ -50,7 +50,8 @@ export class NodeListComponent extends React.Component<INodeListComponentProps,
         DeltaTimeBlock: "A float representing the time that has passed since the last frame was rendered",
         Float: "A floating point number representing a value with a fractional component",
         TextureBlock: "A node for reading a linked or embedded texture file",
-        TimeBlock: "A float value that represents the time that has passed since the scene was loaded",
+        TimeBlock: "A float value that represents the time that has passed since the scene was loaded (it is incremented by 0.6 each second)",
+        RealTimeBlock: "A float value that represents the number of seconds that have elapsed since the engine was initialized",
         Vector2: "a vector composed of X and Y channels",
         Vector3: "a vector composed of X, Y, and Z channels",
         Vector4: "a vector composed of X, Y, Z, and W channels",
@@ -323,6 +324,7 @@ export class NodeListComponent extends React.Component<INodeListComponentProps,
                 "TextureBlock",
                 "ReflectionTextureBlock",
                 "TimeBlock",
+                "RealTimeBlock",
                 "DeltaTimeBlock",
                 "MaterialAlphaBlock",
                 "FragCoordBlock",

packages/tools/nodeEditor/src/graphSystem/properties/inputNodePropertyComponent.tsx

@@ -197,6 +197,7 @@ export class InputPropertyTabComponent extends React.Component<IPropertyComponen
                 animationOptions = [
                     { label: "None", value: AnimatedInputBlockTypes.None },
                     { label: "Time", value: AnimatedInputBlockTypes.Time },
+                    { label: "RealTime", value: AnimatedInputBlockTypes.RealTime },
                 ];
                 systemValuesOptions = [
                     { label: "Delta time", value: NodeMaterialSystemValues.DeltaTime },