My Timing System

This is my timing system that uses the Win32 API's GetTickCount for timing. At times, it seems like it isn't counting the seconds correctly. Here is my simple timing system.

Code:

    int iTickCount;
    static int iPrevTick=0;
    while(GetMessage(&msg,NULL,0,0))
     {
                                    TranslateMessage(&msg);
                                    DispatchMessage(&msg);
                                    iTickCount=GetTickCount();
                                    if(iTickCount>=iPrevTick)
                                    {
                                                            iPrevTick=iTickCount+1000;
                                                            cge->AddSecond();
                                    }
      }

cge is my instance of a class I wrote, and the AddSecond member function increments a variable that holds how many seconds has passed. Then I have it display the value of that variable, that holds the elapsed seconds, when you click on the window. This number doesn't look right sometimes, it looks like it isn't catching all the seconds and I was wondering if I am doing something wrong? Thanks.

I think (?) you should probably use PeekMessage(..) here instead of GetMessage(..)

GetTickCount
The GetTickCount function retrieves the number of milliseconds that have elapsed since the system was started. It is limited to the resolution of the system timer. To obtain the system timer resolution, use the GetSystemTimeAdjustment function.

DWORD GetTickCount(VOID);
Parameters
This function has no parameters.

Return Values
The return value is the number of milliseconds that have elapsed since the system was started.

Remarks
The elapsed time is stored as a DWORD value. Therefore, the time will wrap around to zero if the system is run continuously for 49.7 days.

If you need a higher resolution timer, use a multimedia timer or a high-resolution timer.

Windows NT/2000: To obtain the time elapsed since the computer was started, retrieve the System Up Time counter in the performance data in the registry key HKEY_PERFORMANCE_DATA. The value returned is an 8-byte value. For more information, see Performance Monitoring.

Example
The following example demonstrates how to handle timer wrap around.

DWORD dwStart = GetTickCount();

// Stop if this has taken too long
if( GetTickCount() - dwStart >= TIMELIMIT )
Cancel();

Where TIMELIMIT is the time interval of interest to the application.

Requirements
Windows NT/2000: Requires Windows NT 3.1 or later.
Windows 95/98: Requires Windows 95 or later.
Header: Declared in Winbase.h; include Windows.h.
Library: Use Kernel32.lib.

See Also
Time Overview, Time Functions

You may want to check the timer resolution. Adding 1000 to the tick count is probably not going to be accurate at all times.

As Tonto pointed out, you need to use PeekMessage(). Currently, if your application doesn't receive any message for 5 seconds, then your timer code won't get executed for 5 seconds.

Something like this:

Code:

if(PeekMessage(...))
   TranslateMessage(...);
   DispatchMessage(...);
else
   //timer code here
end if

Make sure and pass the PM_REMOVE flag to PeekMessage().

Alright thanks guys. I'll use PeekMessage instead and I'll look into that too Bubba.

EDIT:
Setting up my main message loop like you suggested, bithub, fixed the problem. That was the reason the timer was "lagging" behind because the lack of messages. I now have it set up like this:

Code:

while(cge->IsRunning())
         {    
                                    if(PeekMessage(&msg,NULL,0,0,PM_REMOVE))
                                    {
                                         TranslateMessage(&msg);
                                         DispatchMessage(&msg);
                                    }
                                    cge->RenderAll();
                                    SwapBuffers(cge->GetGEDC());
                                    iTickCount=GetTickCount();
                                    if(iTickCount>=iPrevTick)
                                    {
                                                            iPrevTick=iTickCount+1000;
                                                            cge->AddSecond();
                                    } 
         }

I don't really need to explain my variables and classes because I'm just showing you how it's set-up, but cge is my main game engine class.