Authors CurseForge

I have a small problem with my OnUpdate timers. When I alt tab out of WoW my timers freeze and when I come back they start ticking again. I made this addon to keep track of the time until a battleground starts with an OnUpdate function but if I alt tab during this time it gets completely out of sync. :(
Is it possible to fix this?

Use time() to gauge elapsed time instead of the second argument from OnUpdate.

What.. how?
elapsedTime = elapsedTime + time() doesn't seem to work

local starttime = time() + <how many seconds you want your timer to run for>

frame:SetScript("OnUpdate", function(frame)
	if time() > starttime then
		frame:SetScript("OnUpdate", nil)
		
		--stuff to run when the timer finishes
	end
end)

Something like that, or you could just use AceTimer.

You'd want to store the value of time() between OnUpdates, so...

elapsedTime = time() - timeFromLastUpdate

and then...

timeFromLastUpdate = time()

I'm sorry but I can't get it to work :(

Here is my test code, if you could show me how to modify it to use time() instead of elapsed then perhaps I would understand it better.

local f = CreateFrame("Frame")
local elapsedTime = 0
local counter = 10
local function countdownTimer(self, elapsed)
   elapsedTime = elapsedTime + elapsed
   if elapsedTime > 1 then
      if counter > 0 then
         print("countdown: " .. counter)
         elapsedTime = 0
         counter = counter - 1
      else
         print("reached 0")
         f:SetScript("OnUpdate", nil)
      end
   end
end
f:SetScript("OnUpdate", countdownTimer)

Windowed fullscreen, the only mode you should *ever* use.

Quote from Tekkub

Windowed fullscreen, the only mode you should *ever* use.

Why? I thought you get an FPS boost when not using windowed mode?

Anyway when alt-tabbed out WoW doesn't run the OnUpdate handlers while in fullscreen mode so instead of telling the time relative to each OnUpdate you would want to get the fixed time using time() or GetTime().
e.g.

	local startTime = GetTime()
	local counter = 10
	CreateFrame("Frame"):SetScript("OnUpdate", function(f)
		local currentTime = GetTime()
		if currentTime - 1 > startTime then
			for i = counter, counter - math.floor((currentTime - 1) - startTime), -1 do
				if i > 0 then
					print("countdown: " .. i)
					startTime = GetTime()
					counter = counter - 1
				else
					print("reached 0")
					f:SetScript("OnUpdate", nil)
				end
			end
		end
	end)

The above code doesn't work, it prints out the numbers from 10 to 0 within 1 sec.

Quote from airscape

The above code doesn't work, it prints out the numbers from 10 to 0 within 1 sec.

Works for me, just tested in WoWLua, if your on about starting the timer then minimising WoW waiting 10 seconds and then having it print numbers 10 to 0 within 1 sec then this is to be expected, as the timer has to catch up.

Ah you are right of course, I forgot to set startTime to GetTime() :)
Thanks a lot for the help!

Quote from Xinhuan

Not necessarily. You have to actually try to see if it actually provides any improvement to FPS, especially if you run dual screen (on Dual screen, you are still rendering both the game and windows on the second screen, and may not get any improvement).

I actually get a better framerate in windowed mode than in fullscreen mode, with a single-monitor setup. This has held true through several combinations of motherboards, processors, and video cards.