For many algorithms you need the clock to be synchronized between the client and the server. Mirror does that automatically for you.
To get the current time use this code:
double now = NetworkTime.time;
It will return the same value in the client and the servers. It starts at 0 when the server starts. Note the time is a double and should never be cast to a float. Casting this down to a float means the clock will lose precision after some time:
- after 1 day, accuracy goes down to 8 ms
- after 10 days, accuracy is 62 ms
- after 30 days , accuracy is 250 ms
- after 60 days, accuracy is 500 ms
Mirror will also calculate the RTT(round trip time) as seen by the application:
double rtt = NetworkTime.rtt;
You can measure accuracy.
double time_standard_deviation = NetworkTime.timeSd;
for example, if this returns 0.2, it means the time measurements swing up and down roughly 0.2 s
Network hiccups are compensated against by smoothing out the values using EMA.
You can configure how often you want the the ping to be sent:
NetworkTime.PingFrequency = 2;
You can also configure how many ping results are used in the calculation:
NetworkTime.PingWindowSize = 10;