Is there a way i can make it so Dolphin uses a separate clock?

[knocturne]

I'm emulating Animal Crossing:City Folk and i'd like to do some time traveling in game. However, i don't want to have to change the actual date and time on my PC in order to do that. Can i make it so that Dolphin gets its time from a separate clock?

[Shonumi]

Dolphin's pretty much coded to look at your system time, you'd have to somehow fool it by making it see a different system clock. It might be possible to do this from something like a Virtual Machine.

An easy way to change the system clock with minimal user input is to make a batch file in Windows using the time and date commands, then all you have to do is run the batch file by double clicking it. PowerShell might be a better option than the regular cmd.exe if you went this route.

[knocturne]

(11-29-2012, 04:29 PM)Shonumi Wrote: Dolphin's pretty much coded to look at your system time, you'd have to somehow fool it by making it see a different system clock. It might be possible to do this from something like a Virtual Machine.

An easy way to change the system clock with minimal user input is to make a batch file in Windows using the time and date commands, then all you have to do is run the batch file by double clicking it. PowerShell might be a better option than the regular cmd.exe if you went this route.

The problem is changing the system clock back and fourth would screw with the game because it would take it all into account. Let me ask this then, the only reason i have a problem with my system clock being wrong is that some websites won't allow me to access them with my system clock wrong. Is there any way to fool my browser into using a different time so that i can access all of the websites with an incorrect clock?

[Shonumi]

(11-30-2012, 04:27 AM)knocturne Wrote: The problem is changing the system clock back and fourth would screw with the game because it would take it all into account.

Isn't that the behavior you want? You set the system clock to something different (for time traveling), play Dolphin, stop playing Dolphin, reset system clock. Or are you trying to change the clock back while you're playing? The latter probably isn't advisable; I imagine Dolphin reads the system time every time games like Animal Crossing request it via their game code. This might be done once on boot up, or more times. You can try it out to verify it for yourself; if AC reads it only once, it might not even be a problem.

(11-30-2012, 04:27 AM)knocturne Wrote: Let me ask this then, the only reason i have a problem with my system clock being wrong is that some websites won't allow me to access them with my system clock wrong. Is there any way to fool my browser into using a different time so that i can access all of the websites with an incorrect clock?

What kind of websites are you visiting? I've never encountered websites like that. Conceivably, they're using your IP address to determine where you live, and hence what your local time should be, and using JavaScript to see what you have set. The easiest way around that is to use a proxy server in your timezone (assuming the server's system time is correct as well). You could use browser plugins that inject your own JavaScript for every webpage you request, but that involves a lot of hacking :p

[Kolano]

(11-30-2012, 05:37 AM)Shonumi Wrote: What kind of websites are you visiting? I've never encountered websites like that. Conceivably, they're using your IP address to determine where you live, and hence what your local time should be, and using JavaScript to see what you have set. The easiest way around that is to use a proxy server in your timezone (assuming the server's system time is correct as well). You could use browser plugins that inject your own JavaScript for every webpage you request, but that involves a lot of hacking :p

The websites are doing a region check in a cheap way, by comparing the offset of the users local time to the time on their server. Such is easier than a true IP based region lookup.

[knocturne]

(11-30-2012, 05:37 AM)Shonumi Wrote:

(11-30-2012, 04:27 AM)knocturne Wrote: The problem is changing the system clock back and fourth would screw with the game because it would take it all into account.

Isn't that the behavior you want? You set the system clock to something different (for time traveling), play Dolphin, stop playing Dolphin, reset system clock. Or are you trying to change the clock back while you're playing? The latter probably isn't advisable; I imagine Dolphin reads the system time every time games like Animal Crossing request it via their game code. This might be done once on boot up, or more times. You can try it out to verify it for yourself; if AC reads it only once, it might not even be a problem.

(11-30-2012, 04:27 AM)knocturne Wrote: Let me ask this then, the only reason i have a problem with my system clock being wrong is that some websites won't allow me to access them with my system clock wrong. Is there any way to fool my browser into using a different time so that i can access all of the websites with an incorrect clock?

What kind of websites are you visiting? I've never encountered websites like that. Conceivably, they're using your IP address to determine where you live, and hence what your local time should be, and using JavaScript to see what you have set. The easiest way around that is to use a proxy server in your timezone (assuming the server's system time is correct as well). You could use browser plugins that inject your own JavaScript for every webpage you request, but that involves a lot of hacking :p

Facebook. I'll try what you suggested.