Timer at high framerate

SDL Development
1

I have a timer using SDL_GetTicks();

but I find at higher framerates (eg 50-80fps) I get terrible jerking
problems should I be updateing it say once every 2 or 4 frames instead
of each frame or what am I doing wrong ?

2

on Son, 11 Jun 2000 you wrote:

I have a timer using SDL_GetTicks();

but I find at higher framerates (eg 50-80fps) I get terrible jerking
problems should I be updateing it say once every 2 or 4 frames instead
of each frame or what am I doing wrong ?

SDL_GetTicks() is not very “finegrained”, I think on linux it’s resolution is
"only" 10ms. So yes, you should better update your timer more seldomly.
… or reduce your framerate, who needs 50 fps or even more ?

regards,–
Karsten-O. Laux <@Karsten_Laux>

3

SDL_GetTicks() is not very “finegrained”, I think on linux it’s resolution is
"only" 10ms. So yes, you should better update your timer more seldomly.
… or reduce your framerate, who needs 50 fps or even more ?

As has been posted here before, this is not true; in Unix, SDL_GetTicks uses
gettimeofday(2) which has a resolution better than 1 ms on all modern
platforms.

The framerate needed depends on the game; let the designer be the judge of
that. Some games definitely need 50 fps.