Shows

A sequence is a show: a list of commands, each fired at a precise moment. Add music and an area, and every guest standing there hears the soundtrack while your effects go off in time with it.

Use it for a fireworks show, a pre-show in a queue line, a fountain show, an announcement at closing time…

Create a sequence#

In the administration, open Sequences and click New sequence:

The region doesn't need music of its own. During the show, its music is replaced by the show's; it comes back afterwards.

Build the timeline#

Click Timeline. You see a ruler — with the music drawn as a wave when there is music, so you can spot the beats.

• Press Space to play the music, and M to drop a cue where the playhead is. Tap along with the music to place your cues on the beat.
• Click a cue to fill it in: a label (optional, for you) and its commands, one per line.
• Nudge the selected cue with the ← and → keys (hold Shift for bigger steps), or type its exact time.
• Test on server fires one cue in the game right away, to check it.
• Save with the button or Ctrl+S (⌘+S on a Mac).

Commands are the ones you would type in the console, without the slash. For example, a cue that sets off a firework:

summon firework_rocket 120 80 -45 {LifeTime:30,FireworksItem:{id:"firework_rocket",count:1,components:{"fireworks":{explosions:[{shape:"large_ball",colors:[I;16711680]}]}}}}

You can use any command from any plugin, since they run as the console. A line starting with # is a note, and is ignored.

Start the show#

From the administration: the Start button on the sequence, or Start on server from playhead in the timeline to rehearse from a given moment.

From the game or the console:

/utp sequence start 3          (from the beginning)
/utp sequence start 3 1:30     (from 1 minute 30)
/utp sequence stop 3
/utp sequence stop all
/utp sequence list

The number is the sequence's number, shown in the administration next to its name. These commands need the utp.command.sequence permission.

Start a show from a ride#

Because utp sequence start is a command like any other, a ride can start a show — a pre-show when the train leaves, for instance. Give the ride a Pulse action with utp sequence start 3 as its command: a ride's first pulse fires every time the train is dispatched. See Gates and effects.

Drive a flat ride#

A sequence doesn't need music. Without it, it's a precise timeline of commands — perfect for driving a flat ride's machine: speed it up gently, hold, slow it down, then end the ride. See Flat rides.

Run it on a schedule#

A show can start by itself at fixed times, like in a real park: every weekday at 19:00, and at 21:00 at the weekend.

1. In Sequences, click Schedule on the show.
2. Click Add a time. Pick its days — each letter is a day of the week, Monday first — and its time.
3. Add a time for every other moment the show runs. Two times can share the same days, or not: weekdays at 19:00 is one time, weekends at 21:00 another.
4. Click Save schedule.

The show's card now says when it starts next: Weekdays 19:00 · Weekends 21:00 — next Mon 13 Oct, 19:00.

Your park's time zone#

The times are on your park's clocks, whatever the clock of the machine your server runs on — a VPS is often set to another time zone than yours. The first time you schedule a show, your park takes your browser's time zone: the one you're in. If your players live somewhere else, change it in Settings → Time zone.

Summer time is taken care of. On the night the clocks go forward, a time they skip — 02:30 — runs at 03:00; on the night they go back, a time they show twice runs once.

Only between two dates#

Click Dates on a time to give it a first and a last day: every evening of October for Halloween, or the summer season. For a show on one day only — New Year's Eve at 23:59 — give it the same day in From and Until.

What happens at the time#

• The show only starts if somebody is on your server. With nobody online, nobody would see it — and commands aimed at an empty part of the world can fail, or leave your scenery half changed. That run is skipped; the next one happens as usual.
• A show that is still running is not started again: that run is skipped. The schedule warns you when two times are too close together for the show's length, and when another show plays its music in the same region at the same time.
• If your server or UTP Connect restarts right at the show's time, the show still starts if they're back within a minute — from the beginning. Later than that, that run is missed.
• Under each time, Last run tells what happened: started, skipped, nobody was online, skipped, it was still running…
• Untick On to pause a time without deleting it.

On your guests' page#

Give a scheduled show a Location, and your guests get a Shows tab on their page: the next show, where it takes place and how long until it starts, then the whole day on a timeline — what's over, what's on now, what's coming.

• Only shows with a location are listed. That's how you keep the announcement five minutes before the fireworks, or the sequence that drives a flat ride, off the list: leave their location empty.
• The tab appears once a show has a location and a schedule. A park without shows keeps the page it had.
• Each guest reads the times on their own clock. A player in Montréal sees 15:00 for a show at 21:00 in Paris, and their day runs from their own midnight.
• A run that won't happen isn't listed: a time you've switched off, or one that comes while the show is still running from the previous time.
• A show with no length of its own — no music, all its commands at the start, say to set off a parade another plugin runs — is shown as lasting half an hour.

Good to know#

• Guests who walk into the region during the show join it at the right moment of the music.
• A show that is already running can't be started twice: stop it first. That's true of a scheduled run too.
• If your server lags, no cue is skipped: late cues all fire, in order.
• The show ends at its last cue, or at the end of its music, whichever is later.
• Stopping or restarting the server stops every show.
• Limits: 500 cues and three hours per sequence.