zscript-doc/api/base/Thinker.md

Thinker

A class representing any object in the game that runs logic every game tick, i.e., "thinks." Most classes derive from Thinker, directly or indirectly.

All thinkers are grouped by their "stat" number, or "statnum," which specifies the ordering of which thinkers are run, first to last. There are 127 stat numbers total, 20 of which are not used by the engine and may be used for any purpose.

The user-defined stat numbers begin at Thinker.STAT_USER and end at Thinker.STAT_USER_MAX. Do not attempt to use normal integers as stat numbers except as relative to these two.

Thinkers which do not think and are elided from many checks:

Name	Description
Thinker.STAT_INFO	Info queue (used by SpecialSpot and its descendants.)
Thinker.STAT_DECAL	Decals that cannot be deleted.
Thinker.STAT_AUTODECAL	Decals that can be deleted (were not placed by the map.)
Thinker.STAT_CORPSEPOINTER	An entry in Hexen's corpse queue.
Thinker.STAT_TRAVELLING	Any actor travelling between maps in a hub.
Thinker.STAT_STATIC	Thinkers persistent across maps.

Thinkers which do think and are mandatory to many checks:

Name	Description
Thinker.STAT_SCROLLER	Texture scrollers and carriers.
Thinker.STAT_PLAYER	All PlayerPawn actors.
Thinker.STAT_BOSSTARGET	BossBrain targets.
Thinker.STAT_LIGHTNING	Lightning as used by Hexen.
Thinker.STAT_DECALTHINKER	Decal animators.
Thinker.STAT_INVENTORY	All Inventory items.
Thinker.STAT_LIGHT	Sector lighting thinkers.
Thinker.STAT_LIGHTTRANSFER	Sector lighting transfer thinkers.
Thinker.STAT_EARTHQUAKE	Quake effects.
Thinker.STAT_MAPMARKER	All MapMarker actors.
Thinker.STAT_DLIGHT	Dynamic lights.
Thinker.STAT_DEFAULT	Anything not in any other category. Most actors go here.
Thinker.STAT_SECTOREFFECT	Sector effects that cause floor or ceiling movement.
Thinker.STAT_ACTORMOVER	All ActorMover actors.
Thinker.STAT_SCRIPTS	The ACS VM.
Thinker.STAT_BOT	All bot logic. This is not bound to their actor.

class Thinker : Object play
{
   const TICRATE;

   LevelLocals Level;

   void ChangeStatNum(int stat);

   virtual void PostBeginPlay();
   virtual void Tick();

   static clearscope int Tics2Seconds(int tics);
}

• TICRATE

  The number of game ticks in a second. This value is always int(35).

• Level

  The level this Thinker is in, which may differ from another one's.

• ChangeStatNum

  Changes the statnum of this Thinker.

• PostBeginPlay

  Called at the very end of this Thinker's initialization.

• Tick

  Called every game tick. The order between this thinker's Tick and every other thinker in the same statnum is unspecified.

• Tics2Seconds

  Roughly converts a number of tics to an integral amount of seconds. Equivalent to tics / TICRATE.