Beyond Pygame's time.wait(): How Do You Achieve Time Delays in Your Games?

How to Achieve Time Delays in Pygame Beyond time.wait()

When seeking to introduce time delays in Pygame, time.wait() has historically been a primary choice for developers. However, this approach may leave one curious about potential alternatives and their respective merits.

Pygame provides its own time.wait() function, which differs from Python's standard wait() in the following ways:

• Execution: Python's wait() suspends the entire program, while Pygame's wait() only pauses execution within the Pygame event loop, allowing other code to run concurrently.
• Usage: Python's wait() requires a time value in seconds, whereas Pygame's wait() accepts milliseconds.

Alternative Time Delay Approaches

In addition to Pygame's wait() function, another effective approach for time delays is utilizing the pygame.time.get_ticks() function:

• Mechanism: pygame.time.get_ticks() returns the current time in milliseconds since Pygame initialization. By tracking the elapsed time and comparing it to a predefined threshold, developers can implement their own delay logic.

The code snippet below illustrates the use of get_ticks() for weapon cooldown management, ensuring a gap between consecutive shots:

class Unit():
    def __init__(self):
        self.last = pygame.time.get_ticks()
        self.cooldown = 300    

    def fire(self):
        # fire gun, only if cooldown has been 0.3 seconds since last
        now = pygame.time.get_ticks()
        if now - self.last >= self.cooldown:
            self.last = now
            spawn_bullet()

This technique is advantageous for implementing time-based events that operate alongside other game functionality while still maintaining control over the delay duration.

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