How to set framerate in Pygame?

Question

So in response to my question (How to continuously move an image smoothly in Pygame?) I was told to set my framerate in order to do my animation. But no matter where I place it, clock.tick(60) does nothing. I do clock = pygame.time.Clock() BTW. So how do I do this? I have researched and found this (pygame clock.tick() vs framerate in game main loop) but I don't really understand this.

My main game function;

def main_game():
    global var_escape
    global var_start_game
    global var_menu_screen
    global var_camera
    global var_bounce
    global var_x
    global var_x_timer
    global var_door
    global var_light
    global camera_flip
    
    var_start_game = False
    var_escape = False
    var_menu_screen = 0
    var_bounce = 0
    var_x = 0
    var_camera = 1
    var_x_timer = 0
    var_light = 0
    var_door = 0
    var_camera_flip = 0
    
    pygame.mixer.init()
    pygame.mixer.music.load(r'audio\Menu_Music.mp3')
    pygame.mixer.music.play(-1)

    pygame.mixer.music.set_volume(1.0)

    while True:
        if var_menu_screen == 0:
            menu_screen()
        if var_menu_screen == 1:
            options_screen()
        if var_menu_screen == 2:
            new_game_boyz()
        if var_menu_screen == 3:
            pygame.quit()
            sys.quit()
        if var_menu_screen == 4:
            credits_screen()
        if var_start_game == True:
            break
    
    var_start_game = False
    
    start_game()
    image_door_6_off = pygame.image.load(r'textures\door\light off\frame_6_off.png')
    image_door_button_off = pygame.image.load(r'textures\door button\door_button_off.png')
    image_light_button_off = pygame.image.load(r'textures\light button\light_button_off.png')
    image_door_6_off_size = image_door_6_off.get_rect().size
    centered_image_door_6_off = [(display_size[0] - image_door_6_off_size[0])/2, (display_size[1] - image_door_6_off_size[1])/2]
    screen.blit(image_door_6_off, centered_image_door_6_off)
    screen.blit(image_door_button_off, (0, 0))
    screen.blit(image_light_button_off, (1113, 0))
    pygame.display.update()

    while var_escape == False:
#This is my main game loop in the function
#This is where I would like to set the framerate
        mouse_down = False
        for event in pygame.event.get():
            if event.type == pygame.KEYDOWN:
                if event.key == pygame.K_ESCAPE:
                    quit_popup()
            elif event.type == MOUSEBUTTONDOWN:
                mouse_down = True
            
        light(mouse_down)
        door(mouse_down)
        camera_flip()
#Just so I can get a smoother animation for this function below
        cameras() #<--- This function here
#Just so I can get a smoother animation for this function above
        camera_buttons(mouse_down)

This is my main game loop;

while True:     
#Calls the function 
    main_game()

The main game loop will not set the framerate because the main_game function has a loop inside it. This is only in a loop because when I want to restart the function I can. I just added this in to show how the function is run.

After "while var_escape == False:" put clock.tick(FPS). Try using FPS = 60 and then try changing that to FPS = 5. You need to set FPS somewhere near the start. — marienbad, Jun 14 '21 at 01:26
you have to run it in main loop - in every loop - ie. after screen flip. But this tries to set max FPS (Frames Per Seconds) - if you have fast computer which could run 120 FPS then it will reduce to 60 FPS but if you have slow computer which can't get 60 FPS then you may get less FPS. Human eye need at least 24 FPS to see animation. — furas, Jun 14 '21 at 02:51
The main game loop is the `while var_escape == False:` loop. — Rabbid76, Jun 14 '21 at 04:31

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 14 '21 at 04:28

Use pygame.time.Clock to control the frames per second and thus the game speed.

The method tick() of a pygame.time.Clock object, delays the game in that way, that every iteration of the loop consumes the same period of time. See pygame.time.Clock.tick():

This method should be called once per frame.

e.g.:

def main_game():
    # [...]

    FPS = 60
    clock = pygame.time.Clock()
    while var_escape == False:
        clock.tick(60)

        # [...]

How to set framerate in Pygame?

1 Answers1