Shawn Hargreaves Blog

Shawn,

I'm just a little worried about this code line:

elapsedTime += gameTime.ElapsedGameTime;

...because when the framerate is high, it's not going to be very accurate, is it? Personally I'd use sth like:

if (gameTime.TotalGameTime - LastFpsUpdateTime > TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1))

{

   LastFpsUpdateTime = gameTime.TotalGameTime;

   frameRate = frameCounter;

   frameCounter = 0;

}

But there comes the second catch.. Both approaches are a little inaccurate:) Both got the scheme: if (elapsed>1 second) elapsed = 0, and while elapsed>1 second there is that little time above this 1 second we loose. I know I'm getting overzealous, but there are so many cool catches that make coding so much fun:) So... to get rid of this problem, we could replace:

LastFpsUpdateTime = gameTime.TotalGameTime;

with:

LastFpsUpdateTime -= TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1);

if (gameTime.TotalGameTime - LastFpsUpdateTime > TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1))

   LastFpsUpdateTime = gameTime.TotalGameTime;

The last condition should handle cases where we got fps<1.

Now this is super steady framerate counter! Ok.. you got me, there are case when this can get pretty inaccurate too since in the calculation we took for granted that exactly 1 second has passed.. But who cares anyway:)

Shawn Hargreaves has just posted a small code Game Component that will display the Framerate for you

 Your article is so good, thanks again.

About a month ago I was looking for a small project to work on, as I needed something to fill in some

I am just curious about the content loader. I have not been able to load the spritefont with the content manager.

I first just used my spritefont that I was using to display the game score but it kept arguing that the file was not found but it clearly finds it find in my main game file.

I then tried making a seperate sprite font. I'm using the method you mentioned in a newer blog where you add

#if PROFILE

this.IsFixedTimeStep=false;

graphics.SynchronizeWithVerticalRetrace = false;

#endif

I'm not sure if somehow when the

       protected override void LoadContent()

       {

               base.LoadContent();

spriteBatch = new SpriteBatch(GraphicsDevice);

spriteFont  = content.Load<SpriteFont>("Content/SpriteFont2");

       }

gets called that somehow it doesn't know the file structure yet? Is there a trick that I'm missing. I assumed using the same way I load a spritefont in my main game would be the same.

any help is greatly appreciated

Shawn Hargreaves has just posted a small code Game Component that will display the Framerate for you application using the spritefont. One of the good things about this is that Shawn shows you a simple method of reducing the size of the font files by

In my code I just use:

       protected override void Draw(GameTime gameTime)

       {

           // Clear the screen

           m_Graphics.GraphicsDevice.Clear(Color.CornflowerBlue);

           // Other stuff here.....

           // Draw the text

           m_SpriteBatch.Begin(SpriteBlendMode.AlphaBlend, SpriteSortMode.Immediate, SaveStateMode.None);

           // Debug output

           if (m_ShowDebug)

           {

               int fps = (int)Math.Round(1.0 / gameTime.ElapsedGameTime.TotalSeconds);

               m_SpriteBatch.DrawString(m_ArialFont, "FPS: " + fps, new Vector2(500, 50), Color.Yellow);

           }

           m_SpriteBatch.End();

           // Done

           base.Draw(gameTime);

       }

So the real meat is just 2 lines:

To calc the framerate:

int fps = (int)Math.Round(1.0 / gameTime.ElapsedGameTime.TotalSeconds);

And to display it:

m_SpriteBatch.DrawString(m_ArialFont, "FPS: " + fps, new Vector2(500, 50), Color.Yellow);

Thanks

Ben

the warnings mean exactly what they say, LoadGraphicsContent is now obsolete.

replace the two methods with:

 protected override void LoadContent()

       {

           if (loadAllContent)

           {

               spriteBatch = new SpriteBatch(GraphicsDevice);

               //spriteFont = _content.Load<SpriteFont>(@"Fonts\gamefont");

               //spriteFont = content.Load<SpriteFont>(@"\Fonts\gamefont");

               spriteFont = content.Load<SpriteFont>(@"Fonts\gamefont");

           }

       }

       protected override void UnloadContent()

       {

           if (unloadAllContent)

               content.Unload();

       }