After how long do new ticks appear? - briefly
New ticks emerge roughly every «2–3 weeks», driven by the life cycle of the adult female laying eggs. Environmental temperature and humidity can shorten or extend this interval.
After how long do new ticks appear? - in detail
The generation of new ticks follows a deterministic schedule defined by the system’s timer configuration. In most operating systems, the timer interrupt frequency determines the minimal interval between successive ticks.
- In Windows environments the default timer resolution is 15.625 ms, yielding approximately 64 ticks per second. Adjustments via timeBeginPeriod can reduce the interval to as low as 1 ms, increasing the tick count accordingly.
- Linux kernels commonly use a configurable HZ value. Typical settings are 100 Hz (10 ms interval), 250 Hz (4 ms), 300 Hz (3.33 ms), or 1000 Hz (1 ms). The chosen HZ directly sets the period after which the next tick is produced.
- Real‑time operating systems may employ higher frequencies, for example 10 kHz (0.1 ms) in embedded controllers, to meet stringent latency requirements.
- In game development, a fixed‑step simulation often runs at 30 Hz (33 ms) or 60 Hz (16.67 ms). The tick interval is deliberately chosen to balance computational load and responsiveness.
Several factors influence the actual interval:
- Hardware timer granularity – the smallest measurable duration supported by the processor’s counter.
- Power‑management policies – dynamic frequency scaling can lengthen the interval to conserve energy.
- System load – excessive CPU usage may delay the handling of timer interrupts, effectively increasing the period between ticks.
- Application‑specific configurations – many frameworks expose APIs to modify the tick rate at runtime.
When precise timing is essential, developers should query the operating system for the current timer resolution and, if necessary, request a finer granularity. Monitoring tools can verify that the observed tick frequency matches the configured interval, ensuring reliable temporal behavior.