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TimeKeeper.md

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Time Keeper

Games are updated in discrete intervals. Knowing that, we can count time pretty easily. Assuming our game runs at 60 fps, we can do something like this...

int timer = 120; // Frames.

...

timer -= 1;
if (timer == 0)
	DoTheThing();

...and get a decent timer.

But there is a big problem: it fully depends on the game's fps. What if we want to have dynamic fps or time scaling? Then we will have to use deltatime. Deltatime is essentially just a variable which tells how much time has passed since the previous frame.

So now our timer will look like this:

int timer = 2; // Seconds.

...

timer -= dt;
if (timer <= 0)
	DoTheThing();

Now let's wrap dt into a nice class, and we got a TimeKeeper!

TimeKeeper has two purposes:

  • Tell you how much time it is.
  • Deceive you.

Time-telling part is pretty straightforward. Let's rewrite the code above once again to use TimeKeeper.

int timer = 2; // Seconds.
TimeKeeper _keeper = new TimeKeeper();

...

timer -= _keeper.Time();
if (timer <= 0)
	DoTheThing();

You can also do speeds with it.

var movementSpeed = 100; // 100 pixels per second.

x += TimeKeeper.Global.Time(movementSpeed); // Speed will be automatically multiplied by the delta time.

// NOTE: Here we've used a static TimeKeeper.Global, which is a regular TimeKeeper instance, just created by the engine for conveniency.

And now, the main reason why you should use TimeKeeper. The deceiving.

TimeKeeper has a property named TimeMultiplier, which can trick your stuff into running faster or slower.

int timer = 2; // Seconds.
TimeKeeper _keeper = new TimeKeeper();
_keeper.TimeMultiplier = 0.5; // Now the timer will run for 4 seconds before firing.

You can have several time keepers to slow down some parts of the game, but keep others at normal speed. Can you feel the power that gives you?! :0

So yeah, I do recommend using TimeKeeper even if you have fixed fps.

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