I have a single Windows timer in my game - a simple seconds counter... case WM_TIMER: secs -= 1; return 0; break; It works fine, except when I hold down a key. If I hold down, say, the "a" key, the timer stops. When I let go the timer starts again. I handle all my input through a DirectInput keyboard device. There is no WM_KEYDOWN statement in my windowproc function. Why is this happenning!? Might I have to find a different time keeping method than a Windows timer?

Hitting a key generates an interrupt which, as the name implies, interrupts the current program (whatever it is) to let the whole system (including your DI libraries) know that a key has been pressed, and which one.

If you read the specifications for timers, you''ll see that the time you specify for the timer is a minimum time. Which means that the timer will not trigger before, but can potentially wait an arbitrarily long time before triggering (Windows is not a real-time operating system).

Your solution ? Use the various timing functions ( clock(), timeGetTime(), QueryPerformanceCounter() ) instead of trying to implement your own.

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Stolen from Magmai Kai Holmlor, who held it from Oluseyi, who was inspired by Kylotan...

the windows WM_TIMER message is considered a non critical message (like WM_PAINT) and can accumalate with out getting them all so when holding a key yo usend a barage of messges to the window (even if you dont handle them, windows sends them and handles them). WM_TIMER is VERY poor, use timeGetTime() or other timers meant for multimedia apps.