In our current project, a large part of the functionality relies on a timer. When it boils down to it, the accuracy of the timer isn’t hugely important so long as it’s consistent, but I figured the most accurate method is likely to also be the most consistent.
There are three basic ways to implement a timer in Unity:
I’ve seen quite a bit of discussion about these different methods, but there appears to be some disagreement about what’s best and why. None of the discussions I’ve found have included the results of any tests to compare them or demonstrate accuracy or efficiency.
I’ve been avoiding Update() where practical – using Coroutines or Invoke instead if something doesn’t need to be checked or done for every frame of an object’s life. But with two other methods available, I didn’t know whether a Coroutine with WaitForSeconds or an Invoke is a better way to create a simple delay. It doesn’t really matter too much for one off events, but for repeating events, or if you have lots of them, delays can add up fairly quickly.