This is an example of how to measure frames per second (FPS) in an Android application or game. Measuring FPS in an Android game is very important because it allows you to gauge how smooth the game is. In general, the more FPS the better user experience.
For a better understanding, make sure to check the Android Game Loop example before proceeding.
To measure the FPS you may follow this procedure:
- Create a thread that will simulate the game loop
- Use local variables that will hold the time of each iteration
- Create local variables that will hold the frames count
- Create a variable for the average FPS
- In each iteration increase the counter and set the variable values accordingly
These are demonstrated in the code snippet(s) below:
package net.obviam.droidz;
import java.text.DecimalFormat;
import android.graphics.Canvas;
import android.util.Log;
import android.view.SurfaceHolder;
/**
* @author impaler
*
* The Main thread which contains the game loop. The thread must have access to
* the surface view and holder to trigger events every game tick.
*/
public class MainThread extends Thread {
private static final String TAG = MainThread.class.getSimpleName();
// desired fps
private final static int MAX_FPS = 50;
// maximum number of frames to be skipped
private final static int MAX_FRAME_SKIPS = 5;
// the frame period
private final static int FRAME_PERIOD = 1000 / MAX_FPS;
// Stuff for stats */
private DecimalFormat df = new DecimalFormat("0.##"); // 2 dp
// we'll be reading the stats every second
private final static int STAT_INTERVAL = 1000; //ms
// the average will be calculated by storing
// the last n FPSs
private final static int FPS_HISTORY_NR = 10;
// last time the status was stored
private long lastStatusStore = 0;
// the status time counter
private long statusIntervalTimer = 0l;
// number of frames skipped since the game started
private long totalFramesSkipped = 0l;
// number of frames skipped in a store cycle (1 sec)
private long framesSkippedPerStatCycle = 0l;
// number of rendered frames in an interval
private int frameCountPerStatCycle = 0;
private long totalFrameCount = 0l;
// the last FPS values
private double fpsStore[];
// the number of times the stat has been read
private long statsCount = 0;
// the average FPS since the game started
private double averageFps = 0.0;
// Surface holder that can access the physical surface
private SurfaceHolder surfaceHolder;
// The actual view that handles inputs
// and draws to the surface
private MainGamePanel gamePanel;
// flag to hold game state
private boolean running;
public void setRunning(boolean running) {
this.running = running;
}
public MainThread(SurfaceHolder surfaceHolder, MainGamePanel gamePanel) {
super();
this.surfaceHolder = surfaceHolder;
this.gamePanel = gamePanel;
}
@Override
public void run() {
Canvas canvas;
Log.d(TAG, "Starting game loop");
// initialise timing elements for stat gathering
initTimingElements();
long beginTime; // the time when the cycle begun
long timeDiff; // the time it took for the cycle to execute
int sleepTime; // ms to sleep (<0 if we're behind)
int framesSkipped; // number of frames being skipped
sleepTime = 0;
while (running) {
canvas = null;
// try locking the canvas for exclusive pixel editing
// in the surface
try {
canvas = this.surfaceHolder.lockCanvas();
synchronized (surfaceHolder) {
beginTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
framesSkipped = 0; // resetting the frames skipped
// update game state
this.gamePanel.update();
// render state to the screen
// draws the canvas on the panel
this.gamePanel.render(canvas);
// calculate how long did the cycle take
timeDiff = System.currentTimeMillis() - beginTime;
// calculate sleep time
sleepTime = (int)(FRAME_PERIOD - timeDiff);
if (sleepTime > 0) {
// if sleepTime > 0 we're OK
try {
// send the thread to sleep for a short period
// very useful for battery saving
Thread.sleep(sleepTime);
} catch (InterruptedException e) {}
}
while (sleepTime < 0 && framesSkipped < MAX_FRAME_SKIPS) {
// we need to catch up
this.gamePanel.update(); // update without rendering
sleepTime += FRAME_PERIOD; // add frame period to check if in next frame
framesSkipped++;
}
if (framesSkipped > 0) {
Log.d(TAG, "Skipped:" + framesSkipped);
}
// for statistics
framesSkippedPerStatCycle += framesSkipped;
// calling the routine to store the gathered statistics
storeStats();
}
} finally {
// in case of an exception the surface is not left in
// an inconsistent state
if (canvas != null) {
surfaceHolder.unlockCanvasAndPost(canvas);
}
} // end finally
}
}
/**
* The statistics - it is called every cycle, it checks if time since last
* store is greater than the statistics gathering period (1 sec) and if so
* it calculates the FPS for the last period and stores it.
*
* It tracks the number of frames per period. The number of frames since
* the start of the period are summed up and the calculation takes part
* only if the next period and the frame count is reset to 0.
*/
private void storeStats() {
frameCountPerStatCycle++;
totalFrameCount++;
// check the actual time
statusIntervalTimer += (System.currentTimeMillis() - statusIntervalTimer);
if (statusIntervalTimer >= lastStatusStore + STAT_INTERVAL) {
// calculate the actual frames pers status check interval
double actualFps = (double)(frameCountPerStatCycle / (STAT_INTERVAL / 1000));
//stores the latest fps in the array
fpsStore[(int) statsCount % FPS_HISTORY_NR] = actualFps;
// increase the number of times statistics was calculated
statsCount++;
double totalFps = 0.0;
// sum up the stored fps values
for (int i = 0; i < FPS_HISTORY_NR; i++) {
totalFps += fpsStore[i];
}
// obtain the average
if (statsCount < FPS_HISTORY_NR) {
// in case of the first 10 triggers
averageFps = totalFps / statsCount;
} else {
averageFps = totalFps / FPS_HISTORY_NR;
}
// saving the number of total frames skipped
totalFramesSkipped += framesSkippedPerStatCycle;
// resetting the counters after a status record (1 sec)
framesSkippedPerStatCycle = 0;
statusIntervalTimer = 0;
frameCountPerStatCycle = 0;
statusIntervalTimer = System.currentTimeMillis();
lastStatusStore = statusIntervalTimer;
// Log.d(TAG, "Average FPS:" + df.format(averageFps));
gamePanel.setAvgFps("FPS: " + df.format(averageFps));
}
}
private void initTimingElements() {
// initialise timing elements
fpsStore = new double[FPS_HISTORY_NR];
for (int i = 0; i < FPS_HISTORY_NR; i++) {
fpsStore[i] = 0.0;
}
Log.d(TAG + ".initTimingElements()", "Timing elements for stats initialised");
}
}
This was an example of how to measure frames per second with Android.
Related Article:
Reference: Measuring FPS from our JCG partner Tamas Jano at the “Against The Grain” blog.
