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After going through some articles on framerate independent game design, i found that its not an easy task to implement in variable time steps(it is difficult compared to fixed frame rate, and considering my lack of understanding of variable time steps), I came across this answer.

According to this answer "option 1" [ its this if you dont want to open the link - Do nothing. Attempt to update and render at a certain interval, e.g. 60 times per second. If it falls behind, let it and don't worry. The games will slow down into jerky slow motion if the CPU can't keep up with your game. This option won't work at all for real-time multi-user games, but is fine for single player games and has been used successfully in many games.]

encourages me to not go for framerate independent design.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ First thing you'll have to consider: what libraries do you use? Are one of them constrained by one or the other approach? If so, you have your answer. Otherwise, go with what's easier for you now, once you get more experienced, and find the need for it, you might want to use the other. \$\endgroup\$
    – Vaillancourt ♦
    Commented Mar 23, 2015 at 18:41
  • \$\begingroup\$ @AlexandreVaillancourt Nothing i'm using restricts my approach. so i cant decide which way to implement. The game requires that there be no lag. I'm willing to take the risk of implementing the easy fixed framerate design but only if it doesn't lag at all.. almost doesn't lag that is. \$\endgroup\$
    – srikanth
    Commented Mar 23, 2015 at 19:12

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I have an old phone, maybe 5-6 years old. It's not quite as powerful as it needs to be to run the OS I have running on it so everything just lags... it's pretty bad. I honestly don't think my phone could run a game with a fixed time-step particularly well. But I'm on an old android so you might be completely fine if you're targeting newer iPhones (much more homogeneous than androids). If you're thinking cross-platform I honestly wouldn't trust a fixed time-step, but I'm a very distrustful person.

The bulk of the differences between the two are thinking about everything in unknown quantities vs rigid 1/60th of a second kind of thinking. But there's no reason you can't build everything fixed and switch over later if issues arise (and of course variable can become fixed at the drop of a hat). Just be careful how you code so if you need to make changes you know where they should go.

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