Script OnUpdate

Invoked when drawing the user interface (many times per second).

(self, elapsed)

Payload

self

ScriptObject - The updated widget.

elapsed

number - The time in seconds since the last OnUpdate dispatch, but excluding time when the user interface was not being drawn such as while zoning into the game world^{[citation needed]} 

Details

• Preceeded by handlers associated with processing user input.
• Blocked by hiding a frame or its parent.
• OnUpdate is resource intensive because it fires as often as the client can draw new frames -- potentially hundreds of FPS with modern computers.
  • It is usually better to substitute C_Timer.After() or C_Timer.NewTicker() to skip frames, or to apply an Animation for animating a widget.
  • Alternatively, throttle slower parts of an OnUpdate handler by measuring the passage of time and only performing work as often as reasonably necessary.

Examples

Throttles a workload no more than once every 0.05 seconds:

local frame = CreateFrame("FRAME")
local timeElapsed = 0
frame:HookScript("OnUpdate", function(self, elapsed)
	timeElapsed = timeElapsed + elapsed
	if timeElapsed > 0.05 then
		timeElapsed = 0
		-- do something
	end
end)

Executes a workload 20 times per second. If FPS is slower than 20, the workload repeats until caught up.

local frame = CreateFrame("FRAME")
local timeElapsed = 0
frame:HookScript("OnUpdate", function(self, elapsed)
	timeElapsed = timeElapsed + elapsed
	while (timeElapsed > 0.05) do
		timeElapsed = timeElapsed - 0.05
		-- do something
	end
end)