PB v3 max capability vs pattern bugs

Patterns and Code
15

You can get “millis” like so, but be warned that it is limited to the fixed point math range of ± 32,767, or just over 32 seconds.

var millis
export function beforeRender(delta) {
 millis += delta
}

Early prototypes/experiments with Pixelblaze had a t global that was millis()'s. By itself it wasn’t super useful in animations, so patterns would usually scale it to some interval.

For measuring the passage of time for e.g. a debounce timer or to prevent something from triggering too often, you can use a count-up or count-down timer. I wouldn’t recommend using timestamps and calculating deltas that way.

e.g. with exported vars so you can see it go:

export var upcountingTimer  = 0
export var upcountingTimerDone = false
export var downcountingTimer = 1000
export var downcountingTimerDone = false
export function beforeRender(delta) {
  if (upcountingTimer < 1000) {
    upcountingTimer += delta
    if (upcountingTimer >= 1000) {
      //timer is done!
      upcountingTimerDone = true
    }
  }

  if (downcountingTimer > 0) {
    downcountingTimer -= delta
    if(downcountingTimer <= 0) {
      //time is done!
      downcountingTimerDone = true
    }
  } 

  t1 = time(.1)
}

You can also scale delta if you don’t want to work in milliseconds.

There’s a seconds based version of setTimeout/clearTimeout API similar to JavaScript:

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