Exiting a Game After a Time Out

Demonstrates how to exit a game after a period of time (such as inactivity) has passed.

Complete Sample

The code in this topic shows you the technique. You can download a complete code sample for this topic, including full source code and any additional supporting files required by the sample.

Download GameLoop_Sample.zip.

Adding Time-Out Functionality to a Game

To make a game time out

  1. Create a class that derives from Game.

  2. Determine the desired time-out limit in milliseconds.

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    // Time out limit in ms.
static private int TimeOutLimit = 4000; // 4 seconds

  3. Add a variable for tracking the elapsed time since the most recent user activity.

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    // Amount of time that has passed.
private double timeoutCount = 0;

  4. When user input is checked, set a flag indicating whether any user activity has taken place.

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    GamePadState blankGamePadState = new GamePadState(
    new GamePadThumbSticks(), new GamePadTriggers(), new GamePadButtons(),
    new GamePadDPad());
bool checkActivity(KeyboardState keyboardState, GamePadState gamePadState)
{
    // Check to see if the input states are different from last frame
    GamePadState nonpacketGamePadState = new GamePadState(
        gamePadState.ThumbSticks, gamePadState.Triggers,
        gamePadState.Buttons, gamePadState.DPad);
    bool keybidle = keyboardState.GetPressedKeys().Length == 0;
    bool gamepidle = blankGamePadState == nonpacketGamePadState;
    if (keybidle && gamepidle)
    {
        // no activity;
        return false;
    }
    return true;
}

  5. In Update, if there has not been any user activity, increment the tracking variable by the elapsed time since the last call to Update.

  6. If there has been some user activity, set the tracking variable to zero.

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    // Check to see if there has been any activity
if (checkActivity(keyboardState, gamePadState) == false)
{
    timeoutCount += gameTime.ElapsedGameTime.Milliseconds;
}
else
    timeoutCount = 0;

  7. Check whether the value of the tracking variable is greater than the time-out limit.

  8. If the variable is greater than the limit, perform some time-out logic such as playing an idle animation or, in this case, exit the game.

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    // Timeout if idle long enough
if (timeoutCount > TimeOutLimit)
{
    Exit();
    base.Update(gameTime);
    return;
}

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