I have a patch PR#100 which allows the display and physics/movement to run at 60fps, while the behavior update remains at 30 ticks per second. It would be useful if behavior could also run at higher rates:
- Ship rotation is still tied to behavior (not physics)
- Behavior is only updated at 1/4 speed in slow motion (also see Allow dockscreens to pass time faster or slower than six ticks per second)
- AI and ship control are behavior, running at 60 ticks per second would allow faster firing weapons etc.
However, some game internals are still tied to 30 ticks per second, some XML data fields are specified in ticks while others are in (game) seconds. So changing the tick rate will probably break backward compatibility. Would this be worth considering for a v2.0 release?
Refactoring to allow a different tick rate - or basing behavior update on in-game seconds rather than ticks could allow:
Dock screen events to be called at full frame rate (not tick rate), This would allow minigames etc (ticket 3447) to work without changing the time acceleration factor (also see Some minigames (ex, neurohack mission) run too quickly in 60fps
Improved control over time acceleration factor e.g.
- Code includes (unused) SystemCtx.rSecondsPerTick - completing implementation could allow time to pass slower / faster in certain systems
- Location based acceleration e.g. if player approaches black hole then more distant objects could be updated at higher rate to represent time dilation
- High level weapon effects / domina powers could affect time acceleration for particular ships
- Make tempus a usable item