What is the best way to calculate FPS?

Hello!

I was wondering if there is a better way to calculate the fps. At the moment, I calculate over ten frames and divide this time to give fps like so:

eventloop()
if (tenframes == 0) ticks = TickCount();
tenframes ++;

//draw GL scene

if (tenframes == 10)
{
tenframes = 0;
ticks = TickCount() - ticks;
fps = float(float(600.0) / float(ticks));
}

The only problem is that it changes every 10 frames to (sometimes) a completely different value! I was wondering how others calculate fps to see if there is something better...

thanks!
- patrick.

[Rob The Bloke]

err yeah, for each frame calculate the time it has taken to draw. the fps then equals 1/(time for frame). Do it each frame not every 10, that seems a bit daft to me.

[Zadkiel]

One simple method is to use tick counts to judge how long each frame takes. Divide this into 1000 to get FPS.

Then use a trick like the following to average out the framerate:

a = 1000/TickCount
b = 50
fps = (fps*(b-1)+a)/b)

fps will will hold a nice accurate sort-of average reading of recent framerates.

The higer you choose b the further back it reading extends. Note sadly early framerates will be innacurate until about 2bFrames have rendered. No problem if b ain't huge.