I’ve seen a few posts lamenting the lack of a TOD pause capability in MSFS so I put together a FSUIPC7 Lua script (MSFS_PauseTOD.lua ) which will pause MSFS at a user specified time (in minutes, 1 to 1000+) after the script is run. So this Poor Man’s script does not detect an actual TOD, but requires the user to estimate the time to TOD (as do the similar Pause Lua scripts for P3Dv4 and P3Dv5).   Note that Lua scripts require a registered (payware) copy of FSUIPC7 to run.

MSFS_PauseTOD.lua

Thanks to a new MSFS SDK 'work around' by John Dowson, the MSFS_PauseTOD.lua script is convenient to use. When the script is run in response to a key or button input, the script simply asks the user to enter the time in minutes (for example, 215 below) until MSFS should pause.

           

                                    

After entering the time you will see something like this            

                              

 Once the sim is paused, you can unpause it using the ‘normal’ MSFS Esc key which works as a pause toggle.  When the sim is paused, it looks the same as if you have pushed the MSFS pause (Esc) key during the flight. You can also cancel a pending (future) pause simply by reactivating (rerunning) the script in which case you will see a brief message that TOD pause is off (the assigned script activation key or button toggles the script on and off).                               

                                                   

The install process just requires you put the MSFS_PauseTOD.lua script file into the same folder as the FSUIPC7.ini file, and then assign a key or button using FSUIPC7 in the standard way. In this example, the F10 key is being assigned to activate the lua script. Note it is important when doing this to just select Lua TOD PauseMSFS from the Contro sent dropdown list. Other Lua options you will see, like LuaKill TOD PauseMSFS , LuaToggle TOD PauseMSFS, LuaClear TOD PauseMSFS, LuaSet  TOD PauseMSFS, etc will not work. I know from sad experience it is easy to make this kind of mistake.

                                   

 

 So if anyone is interested in this, just PM me an email address and I'll send you the script.

Al

Edited December 31, 20205 yr by ark

An updated version of the above pause script, called SetPauseMSFS&P3D, is available under User Contributions on the FSUIPC website at  https://forum.simflight.com/topic/91605-set-future-pause-for-msfs-or-p3d/

Al