NSTimer in Cocos2d Application

Question

In Cocos2d documents it is written that it is not a good idea to use NSTimer. Why is it not recommended to use NSTimer. I know there is a schedule method of Cocos2d.

Answer 1

Try NOT to use Cocoa’s NSTimer. Instead use cocos2d’s own scheduler. If you use cocos2d scheduler, you will have:

• automatic pause/resume.
• when the CCLayer (CCScene, CCSprite, CCNode) enters the stage the timer will be
  • automatically activated, and when it leaves the stage it will be
  • automatically deactivated. Your target/selector will be called with a delta time

from here (old broken link) http://www.cocos2d-iphone.org/wiki/doku.php/prog_guide:best_practices

updated link http://ec2-50-16-191-191.compute-1.amazonaws.com/wiki/doku.php/prog_guide:best_practices

I would add you are adding some unwanted overhead too. If you have a lot of timers that could be a good bit of overhead.