Chapter 5. Understanding the Game Loop and Frame Rate
The game loop is the operational body of a game, and the frame rate is the consequence. A game cannot be made without a defined game loop, and the performance cannot be judged without measuring the frame rate.
These two aspects of game development are common throughout any game development project. However, the scalability and nature of the game loop vary across different devices, and there might be different scales to measure frame rates across different platforms.
For native development, the game loop is created and maintained by developers only. However, in most game engines, the loop is already defined with all the necessary controls and scope.
We will have a detailed look at these two most important parts of game development through the following topics:
- Introduction to the game loop
- Creating a sample game loop using the Android SDK
- Game life cycle
- Game update and user interface
- Interrupt handling
- General idea of a game state machine...
