FREE TOOL · StartScreenEffect & SetTimecycleModifier

FiveM screen effects

Two systems, constantly mistaken for one. 173 animpostfx effects you start with StartScreenEffect, and 1,088 timecycle modifiers you set with SetTimecycleModifier. Both are searchable here, both come with a Lua call you can paste, and the difference between them is explained below — because knowing which one you want is most of the job.

Names from the publicly published GTA V data dumps — animPostFxNamesCompact.json and timecycleModifiers.json — with the native signatures read from the Cfx.re natives repository. Nothing here is invented and nothing is padded.

Signatures: ANIMPOSTFX_PLAY, ANIMPOSTFX_STOP, ANIMPOSTFX_STOP_ALL, ANIMPOSTFX_IS_RUNNING, SET_TIMECYCLE_MODIFIER, SET_TIMECYCLE_MODIFIER_STRENGTH, CLEAR_TIMECYCLE_MODIFIER, SET_EXTRA_TIMECYCLE_MODIFIER and GET_TIMECYCLE_MODIFIER_INDEX. StartScreenEffect and StopScreenEffect are the FiveM aliases for the two animpostfx natives — same function, friendlier name.

1. 01 Work out which system you need

   If you want a flash, a wash, a transition or a timed overlay that plays and finishes, that is an animpostfx effect. If you want the world itself to look different for as long as something is true — a night-vision scope, a drunk state, an interior grade — that is a timecycle modifier.

2. 02 Copy the name from the row, do not retype it

   Both natives take a string and both fail silently on a typo. Use the copy button and the capitalisation comes with it.

3. 03 Start an animpostfx with duration 0 first

   StartScreenEffect(name, 0, false) plays the authored length. That tells you whether the effect exists and what it looks like before you start arguing with durations and loops.

4. 04 Set a timecycle modifier, then its strength

   SetTimecycleModifier(name) followed by SetTimecycleModifierStrength(1.0). Drop the strength towards 0.0 until it stops looking like a filter and starts looking like weather.

5. 05 Write the cleanup before you write the feature

   StopAllScreenEffects(), ClearTimecycleModifier() and ClearExtraTimecycleModifier() in an onResourceStop handler, and the same three on respawn. Do this first and you will never ship the green-screen bug.

local EFFECT = "ChopVision"

RegisterCommand("fx", function(_, args)
    local name = args[1] or EFFECT
    local looped = args[2] == "loop"

    StartScreenEffect(name, 0, looped)
end, false)

RegisterCommand("fxstop", function(_, args)
    if args[1] then
        StopScreenEffect(args[1])
    else
        StopAllScreenEffects()
    end
end, false)

RegisterCommand("fxrunning", function(_, args)
    print(args[1], AnimpostfxIsRunning(args[1]))
end, false)

local MODIFIER = "scanline_cam"

RegisterCommand("tc", function(_, args)
    SetTimecycleModifier(args[1] or MODIFIER)
    SetTimecycleModifierStrength(tonumber(args[2]) or 1.0)
end, false)

RegisterCommand("tcstrength", function(_, args)
    SetTimecycleModifierStrength(tonumber(args[1]) or 1.0)
end, false)

RegisterCommand("tcoff", function()
    ClearTimecycleModifier()
    ClearExtraTimecycleModifier()
end, false)

print("timecycle active:", GetTimecycleModifierIndex() ~= -1)

StartScreenEffect(name, 0, true) holds an effect open until you stop it, and the native’s own documentation adds the caveat that this works on loopable effects only. Of the 173 names in the dump, 40 are themselves stop effects — the ones ending in Out — and 39 have one of those waiting for them: ArenaEMP has ArenaEMPOut, PeyoteIn has PeyoteOut, SwitchHUDIn has SwitchHUDOut. An effect built with its own release is an effect built to be held. The remaining 94 have no partner and are best treated as one-shots.

This is our derivation from the naming in the dump, not the engine’s loop flag, and we are labelling it as such. It is reliable enough to plan with and cheap enough to check: paste the test command above, pass loop, and you will know in ten seconds. Two details worth knowing before you do. The pairing is not always a plain Out on the end: some effects swap an In suffix for Out, so MenuMGHeistIn is released by MenuMGHeistOut, and two use an underscore, so MP_Celeb_Win is released by MP_Celeb_Win_Out. We read all three forms. And StopScreenEffect works on any running effect whether or not a matching Out exists, so it is always the safe way to take an effect down.

local function flash(name, ms)
    StartScreenEffect(name, 0, true)

    SetTimeout(ms, function()
        StopScreenEffect(name)
    end)
end

local function drunk(seconds)
    SetTimecycleModifier("drug_wobbly")
    SetTimecycleModifierStrength(0.6)

    SetTimeout(seconds * 1000, function()
        ClearTimecycleModifier()
        ClearExtraTimecycleModifier()
    end)
end

flash("REDMIST", 2500)
drunk(20)

Every tile below is our approximation, not a screenshot and not a capture. The scene is our own drawing and the effect is a CSS filter we wrote. Each tile says what the approximation is based on: read straight from the effect’s name, taken from a consistent community description, or an outright guess on our part. Treat the guesses as guesses. The only authority on what an effect looks like is the game.

Names from the publicly published GTA V data dumps; native signatures from the Cfx.re natives repository. GTA V, its effects and its art are the property of Take-Two Interactive and Rockstar Games — see our trademark and IP notice.