Love Timer

When to use this skill

Provides an interface to the user's clock. Use this skill when working with time measurement, frame rate control, performance monitoring, or any time-related operations in LÖVE games.

Common use cases

• Measuring elapsed time and performance
• Controlling game frame rate and timing
• Implementing smooth animations and transitions
• Profiling and optimizing game performance
• Handling time-based game mechanics

Functions

• love.timer.getAverageDelta() -> delta: number: Returns the average delta time (seconds per frame) over the last second.
• love.timer.getDelta() -> dt: number: Returns the time between the last two frames.
• love.timer.getFPS() -> fps: number: Returns the current frames per second.
• love.timer.getTime() -> time: number: Returns the value of a timer with an unspecified starting time. This function should only be used to calculate differences between points in time, as the starting time of the timer is unknown.
• love.timer.sleep(s: number): Pauses the current thread for the specified amount of time.
• love.timer.step() -> dt: number: Measures the time between two frames. Calling this changes the return value of love.timer.getDelta.

Examples

Measuring delta time

-- Use delta time for frame-rate independent movement
function love.update(dt)
  local moveSpeed = 200  -- pixels per second
  local distance = moveSpeed * dt
  player.x = player.x + distance
end

Performance measurement

-- Measure function execution time
local startTime = love.timer.getTime()

-- Perform some operations
complexOperation()

local endTime = love.timer.getTime()
local elapsed = endTime - startTime
print("Operation took: " .. elapsed .. " seconds")

Best practices

• Use delta time (dt) for all time-based calculations
• Consider using love.timer for high-precision timing
• Be mindful of performance when using frequent timing calls
• Test timing behavior on target platforms
• Use appropriate time units for different measurements

Platform compatibility

• Desktop (Windows, macOS, Linux): Full timer support
• Mobile (iOS, Android): Full support
• Web: Full support