System.currentTimeMillis vs System.nanoTime

Question

Accuracy Vs. Precision

What I would like to know is whether I should use System.currentTimeMillis() or System.nanoTime()<

Answer 1

For game graphics & smooth position updates, use System.nanoTime() rather than System.currentTimeMillis(). I switched from currentTimeMillis() to nanoTime() in a game and got a major visual improvement in smoothness of motion.

While one millisecond may seem as though it should already be precise, visually it is not. The factors nanoTime() can improve include:

• accurate pixel positioning below wall-clock resolution
• ability to anti-alias between pixels, if you want
• Windows wall-clock inaccuracy
• clock jitter (inconsistency of when wall-clock actually ticks forward)

As other answers suggest, nanoTime does have a performance cost if called repeatedly -- it would be best to call it just once per frame, and use the same value to calculate the entire frame.