std::chrono::hige_resolution_clock for timer?
Or should I use the platform specific functions like QueryPerformanceCounter ?
Microsoft didn't use their performance counter in implementing C++11's high resolution clock. As a result it's not really high resolution and is probably an order of magnitude or so low for your frame timer. (See the the bug report.)
You can test a clock's resolution by getting a time from it repeatedly until it returns a different time. Then you can decide for yourself if its resolution is sufficient for your purpose.
UPDATE: According to the notes (dated 11/13/2013) on the bug report linked above, this issue is still not fixed as of VC2013.
UPDATE: According to the notes (dated 3/17/2014) on the bug report linked above, this issue is should be fixed in the next major release (after VC2013).
If not, in the meantime, OP can use QuerryPerformanceCounter, or boost::chrono, which uses QPC on Windows, as a work-around.
If not, in the meantime, OP can use QuerryPerformanceCounter, or boost::chrono, which uses QPC on Windows, as a work-around.
Bit of frustrating, when I wanted to see how high-res that clock is and realized that all the clocks have the same resolution. Feels like one of this situation like "marketing wants to check off on that feature, so screw it if it works or not, just put something in there and let people file a bug report about it".
On 12/7/2012 at 10:54 PM, ApEk said:In the event VS2012 actually supports std::chrono, here is a timer class that uses it. http://codepad.org/vVVA7qLC
Just to be clear, VS2012 does provide the full std::chrono library.
However, the standard library is implemented individually on each platform. And VS2012 came with an implementation in which the high resolution clock is not really high resolution (has far less resolution than the performance counter provided by the hardware/OS).
Again, they have expressed the intention to fix this in the "out of band" release before the next version of VS. (see updates in my original post above).