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copied!<p>There is a difference between a <a href="http://help.adobe.com/en_US/FlashPlatform/reference/actionscript/3/flash/utils/Timer.html" rel="nofollow"><code>Timer</code></a> and using a <a href="http://help.adobe.com/en_US/FlashPlatform/reference/actionscript/3/flash/display/DisplayObject.html#event%3aenterFrame" rel="nofollow"><code>frame event</code></a> with implications for how the stage is updated, not just on old computers.</p> <p>You can set the suggested frames-per-second settings as part of the <code>.fla</code> file, and the compiled <code>.swf</code> will do its best to keep up with the suggested setting. If it can't, it starts skipping frames to keep up.</p> <p>If you've defined some interactions, such as an animation, to happen on frame events, or via a frame counter, they will execute with the frames, meaning that a higher fps will cause a faster animation. If, instead, the animation relies on a timer, they will execute along with the timer.</p> <p>Executing with a timer will preserve real-time interactions at the cost of some choppiness for animations. A good way to test that you've correctly implemented a timer for an update cycle is to bump the fps down to <code>1</code> or <code>2</code> and see if the animation completes within the same amount of time (±1s).</p> <p>As you've tagged <a href="/questions/tagged/game-development" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'game-development'" rel="tag">game-development</a>, I'd recommend using a combination.</p> <p>A cycle using <code>Timer</code> should be used to check input, load resources and check game state (<code>input</code>, <code>load</code>, <code>update</code>)</p> <p>A cycle using <code>ENTER_FRAME</code> should be used to modify drawable assets (<code>render</code>)</p> <p>A cycle using <code>EXIT_FRAME</code> should be used to unload resources (<code>unload</code>);</p> <p>The reason for the combination is that you'll be able to perform the simple calculations on a regular time interval, but you wont waste time with any rendering-specific logic until rendering is actually necessary. Additionally, it will allow your time-critical assets to stay in sync even on slow machines.</p>

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