Running a smoot and constant frame rate?

Question

Hi,
Can someone please show me a way in which I can maintain a constant fram rate, cause the only use of:
try {
Thread.sleep(snooze);
}catch (InterruptedException ex) {
// do nothing
is a bit bumpy, i.e. the frame rate increases and decreases as it wishes
Is there a better way, perhaps using a different method all together?

Answer 1

A smooth animation has a constant framerate.
Regardless of the FPS, if you are rendering your frames at a constant interval your animation will be smooth.
What you use as your trigger is upto you.
1)Thread.sleep(constantInterval-frameRenderTime);is a simplistic approach, but will work for the most part.
2)System.currentTimeMillis()-prevTime < constantIntervalwill also work fine, but requires a 1/2 decent system clock granuality
3) Time based.
Frames are rendered as fast as possible, and motion is scaled relative to the length of the frame. Higher FPS=Smoother motion.
Time based is best for 3D only though, due to the way the human brain interpolates motion.
4) Vsync. (fullscreen only - PageFlipping BufferStrategy - bs.show())
Not realy a timing mechanism, but it is a trigger that is sent at a constant rate (the actual speed depends on your monitor & gfx card).
If you can ensure each frame takes less time to render than the time between vsyncs. You will never 'miss' a frame, and consequently will have a smooth fps.