Game loop and time measurement

[Mulligan911]

There is the function `Sys_Milliseconds`:

int curtime;
int Sys_Milliseconds (void)
{
static int base;
static qboolean initialized = false;

if (!initialized)
{ // let base retain 16 bits of effectively random data
base = timeGetTime() & 0xffff0000;
initialized = true;
}
curtime = timeGetTime() - base;

return curtime;
}

Used in time calculation in the Quake 2 main game loop implementation:

//...
oldtime = Sys_Milliseconds();
//...
while (1) {
//...

while (PeekMessage(&msg, NULL, 0, 0, PM_NOREMOVE)) {
if (!GetMessage(&msg, NULL, 0, 0))
Com_Quit();
sys_msg_time = msg.time;
TranslateMessage(&msg);
DispatchMessage(&msg);
}

do {
newtime = Sys_Milliseconds();
time = newtime - oldtime;
} while (time < 1);
//...
}



I'm wondering about the usage of the `Sys_Milliseconds` at all. What's the point in `base = timeGetTime() & 0xffff0000` line? Why are they applying the 0xffff0000 mask on the retrieved time? Why not just use the `timeGetTime` function directly:

//...
oldtime = timeGetTime();
//...
while (1) {
//...

while (PeekMessage(&msg, NULL, 0, 0, PM_NOREMOVE)) {
if (!GetMessage(&msg, NULL, 0, 0))
Com_Quit();
sys_msg_time = msg.time;
TranslateMessage(&msg);
DispatchMessage(&msg);
}

do {
newtime = timeGetTime();
time = newtime - oldtime;
} while (time < 1);
//...
}

[salem c]

Get that Déjà vu feeling all over again.
https://www.cplusplus.com/forum/windows/272496/

You forgot this this time.
https://www.cplusplus.com/articles/jEywvCM9/