OpenEuphoria

Re: Timing

• Posted by Jiri Babor <J.Babor at GNS.CRI.NZ> Jan 11, 1999
• 441 views

My previous note on the subject was totally negative. Since today is
just another pleasant ripper of a day in a long succession of
beautiful summer days down here at the arse end of the world (sorry,
not my words - a former Australian prime minister is credited with the
expression), I suppose I can also afford to be a little bit more
positive.

First of all I'll show you what I usually do (warning: this is
unlikely to benefit anybody who is not at least as stupid as I am):

    constant dt=0.04    -- desired time interval per frame (25 fps)
    atom t1,t2
    tick_rate(100)
    while 1 do          -- frame loop
        t1=time()

        ...code to generate a frame...

        t2=time()
        while t2-t1 < dt do t2=time() end while -- waste time
    end while           -- end of frame loop

Which is admittedly not terribly bright... The code below is how I
*now* think it should be done:

    t1=time()
    while 1 do
        t2=t1+dt

        ...code to generate a frame...

        t1=time()
        while t1<t2 do t1=time() end while
    end while

The whole point of it is, that only *one* time() call is made when the
things are tight... jiri