Delta timing
Delta Time or Delta Timing is a concept used amongst programmers in relation to hardware and network responsiveness. In graphics programming, the term is usually used but for variably updating scenery based on the elapsed time since the game last updated, and also calculated separately if graphics are being multi-threaded. [1] A user with a slow internet connection or computer is often prone to experience lag or slowness in the responsiveness of the game environment. The purpose of Delta Timing is to eliminate the effects of lag on computers that try to handle complex graphics or a lot of code, by adding up to the speed of objects so that they will eventually move at the same speed, regardless of lag.
It is done by calling a timer every frame per second that holds the time between now and last call in milliseconds.[2] Thereafter the resulting number (Delta Time) is used to calculate how much faster that, for instance, a game character has to move to make up for the lag spike caused in the first place.[3]