SDL_GetTicks() accuracy below the millisecond level

Question

I program currently something with SDL2. All works fine, but I have a problem with the SDL_GetTicks() method. Normally it should return the total application time in milliseconds, but it always returns most of the time the value 0 and sometimes the value 1.

I initialized SDL with SDL_INIT_EVERYTHING flag.

The problem with the following code is the loop is too fast, so the delta time is smaller than 1 ms. Is there a method to achieve a higher precision?

#include "Application.hpp"

void Application::Initialize()
{
    int sdl_initialize_result = SDL_Init(SDL_INIT_EVERYTHING);
    if(sdl_initialize_result < 0)
    {
        std::cerr << "Failed to initialize SDL !" << std::endl << SDL_GetError() << std::endl;
    }

    window = SDL_CreateWindow("Project Unknown", 100, 100, 800, 600, SDL_WINDOW_SHOWN);
    if(window == nullptr)
    {
        std::cerr << "Failed to create  SDL window !" << std::endl << SDL_GetError() << std::endl;
    }

    last_update_time = SDL_GetTicks();
}

void Application::Dispose()
{
    SDL_DestroyWindow(window);
    SDL_Quit();
}

void Application::Render()
{
}

void Application::Update()
{
    Uint32  current_time = SDL_GetTicks();
    Uint32  delta_time = current_time - last_update_time;


    SDL_Event event;
    while(SDL_PollEvent(&event))
    {
        switch(event.type)
        {
            case SDL_QUIT:
            {
                should_close = true;
            }
            break;

            default:
            {

            }
            break;
        }
    }

    // Update game objects with delta_time

    last_update_time = current_time;
}


void Application::Run()
{
    Initialize();

    should_close = false;
    do
    {
        Render();
        Update();
    }
    while(should_close == false);

    Dispose();
}

Solution 1

You cannot use SDL_GetTicks() if you want higher precision but there are many other alternatives. If you want to be platform independant you need to be careful though, but here is a portable C++11 example that will get you started:

#include <iostream>
#include <chrono>
typedef std::chrono::high_resolution_clock Clock;

int main()
{
    auto t1 = Clock::now();
    auto t2 = Clock::now();
    std::cout << "Delta t2-t1: " 
              << std::chrono::duration_cast<std::chrono::nanoseconds>(t2 - t1).count()
              << " nanoseconds" << std::endl;
}

Running this on ideone.com gave me:

Delta t2-t1: 282 nanoseconds

Solution 2

Well, of course, you need to actually wait until >=1ms has passed before updating your last tick count

void Application::Update()
{
    Uint32  current_time = SDL_GetTicks();
    Uint32  delta_time = current_time - last_update_time;

    SDL_Event event;
    while(SDL_PollEvent(&event))
    {
        switch(event.type)
        {
            case SDL_QUIT:
            {
                should_close = true;
            }
            break;

            default:
                break;
        }
    }

    if (delta_time >= 1)
    {
        // Update game objects with delta_time

        last_update_time = current_time;
    }   
}