Local Real Time vs True Real Time

The issue here is the not everyone's internal computer timer runs at the same speed. We are talking tiny fractions of a second here, but the time adds up to a lot over time (Something like 10 seconds over an hour potentially). If the internal timer runs, say 0.01% faster, then most timing programs will run 0.01% faster too. Similarly, since timing for game speed uses this timer, PC games will run also 0.01% faster too. The timer will run at the relative correct "adjusted" speed to the internal timer, but the game is still running fast.

However LiveSplit 1.6 has recently implemented the use of external atomic clocks, which would not be affected by the computer's internal timer errors. So in the above case, the timer runs at the True Real Time, but the game runs 0.01% faster. So the game will run 0.01% faster compared to the timer if you compared to another runner.

However if we use the Local Real Time, and if you computer's timer runs SLOWER, then your game and timer run slow. Which is similar to playing with a slowdown giving you "unfair" reflex time with no cost to the time.


The question here is which timing method should be preferred. In either case there is an unfair advantage/disadvantage.


Consoles Games have a similar issue, but in this case, the timer is using a different internal timer (the one on your PC) than the one the game uses (the one on the console). In this case, it makes sense to use True Real Time over Local Real Time.