alright, guys. i got my ideas, but i''ve found out that asking u guys usually means getting some more succinct coding ideas, so: i''m basing just about everything on time, from animation to events to key presses etc... now, my code for it has too much overhead. all i need is a start time, and end time, and a factor 0 <= t <= 1 that says where in that start time/endtime interval i am. for instance, to draw a scene and spin it around the z axis (in ogl) my code might look like this:

  
	unsigned StartTime = GetTime( );	// in ms

	unsigned EndTime = 10000;			// 10 seconds

	unsigned cTime = 0;
	while( cTime < EndTime ) 
	{
		float t = float(cTime)/EndTime;

		gl.Clear( );

		glPushMatrix( );
		glRotatef( t*360,0,0,1 );
		Scene.Render( );
		glPopMatrix( );

		gl.SwapBuffers( );

		cTime = GetTime( ) - StartTime;
	}
  

what ways are there to make this easier? i don''t like my new way, but it''s better than this. i just wanted to post this cuz i feel its a lowest common denominator, and i didnt want to bias w/ my new code. anyway, if ya find it in your heart to reply, thank you ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I have no name that you may call me. I am merely Succinct. ~Succinct Demos Online~ "Hey, where''d that display list rotate off to now?" -(Drop me a line here)-

As I see it, your code as written will have a huge processor-use overhead, since it doesn''t do anything other than render the scene as often as it can for 10 seconds! Does the Render function wait for the next screen-refresh? If not, it''s likely to be rendering far more often (depending on the scene''s complexity) than necessary.

Do you want to do anything else whilst this is going on?

that was just a quick idea...
i used it in a crappy demo i did that didn''t matter.

but ur right, that it should wait for the refresh.
kewl, i didn''t think ''bout that part.

this stuff would go in it''s own thread, i''d say, just updating Scene in the main thread.