RE: [GD-General] time

[Tom S. <to...@pi...>]

  http://www.dallasigda.org/notes.htm

  You'll see a document called "Time in games" which are notes on a
presentation done by Squirrel Eiserloh.  It covers a lot about time in
Win32 and the different methods he's used to tackle it.  People may find
it helpful.

  Tom


> -----Original Message-----
> From: gam...@li...=20
> [mailto:gam...@li...] On=20
> Behalf Of Brett Bibby
> Sent: Friday, February 20, 2004 8:59 PM
> To: Gam...@li...
> Subject: [GD-General] time
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> Howdy,
> I have been wrestling with time in my engine for some time=20
> now (no pun intended). I wondered how other people are=20
> handling time? Our game engine is specifically designed for=20
> PS2/Gcn, but it runs under Windows too. Specifically...
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> What are the different components that people are using? We=20
> currently have a single 32-bit time variable initialized to=20
> zero at startup and that's it. Each frame we either count=20
> v-blanks, use system ticks/timers or OS facilities custom for=20
> each platform to increment the global time value, usually=20
> stored in microseconds and rounded up to millisecond=20
> resolution for use in the engine. Works well and I have done=20
> this for every game engine I have developed so far.
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> Feels like a change may be warranted though as online gaming=20
> becomes more popular, since if the game was to run for many=20
> days it would overflow and timestamping may be problematic.=20
> So now I'm thinking of adding a time struct (different from=20
> ANSI C though) whereby we store the year, month, day, hour=20
> and minute, and second and also a conversion struct that says=20
> how many mins->hour->day->month->year so we can convert=20
> "real" time into game time. I can pack this into 64-bits, but=20
> then again a simple 64-bit timer using the old way to simply=20
> count ticks would also eliminate the overflow problem anyway=20
> and so I'm questioning the right thing to do. Also, I hoping=20
> to be able to use absolute time for certain things where we=20
> used to use delta times. What are people using for timestamps=20
> for online games? Does each game session reset the server=20
> session time to prevent eventual overflow? Or is a more=20
> robust timing mechanism used? Are  people using microseconds?=20
> milliseconds?
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> Thanks,
> Brett
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