Yet another segfault (a.k.a. Darkhog is a total noob)

[Super Vegeta]

Delay(17) is NOT the way to go, since the game will wait the same amount after every frame. On one machine, calculations will take 3ms + 17ms delay = 20ms per frame = 50FPS, but a slower machine will take 8ms + 17ms delay = 25ms per frame = 40FPS, and the game will slow down. To have a steady FPS, what you need to do is:

Function GetMSecs():Comp;
   begin Exit(TimeStampToMSecs(DateTimeToTimeStamp(Now()))) end;

This function uses standard functions from SysUtils and returns current time as 64bit int containing the amount of miliseconds since 30.12.1899.

In the game loop:

Time := getMSecs();
(* Do all the calculations, drawing, et cetera *)
While (getMSecs() - Time < DELAY_BETWEEN_FRAMES) do Delay(1)

This way, unless the machine REALLY slows down, to the point that calculating/rendering a frame takes longer than DELAY_BETWEEN_FRAMES, you're going to have a steady FPS.

Edit:
Oh, and also, SysUtils contains Sleep(), which does the same crt.Delay() does.

[Ñuño Martínez]

What Super Vegeta said.

But since you're using Allegro, you should use al_rest (instead of Sleep or Delay), and al_retrace_count (instead of getMSecs, and note that it doesn't count in milliseconds). Don't forget to initialize the timer (call to al_install_timer on initialization).

[Darkhog]

It's fixed now...

I've adapted tick approach in Nuno's article and my main loop looks like that:

      repeat        while TicksInQueue>0 do
        begin
          if ((CurrentState<>nil) and (not quit)) then CurrentState.Update;
          Dec(TicksInQueue);
        end;
        if not quit then CurrentState.BeforeDraw;
        if not quit then CurrentState.Draw;
        if not quit then CurrentState.Main;
      until quit;

The only thing update function (timer) does now is to increase TicksInQueue.