Being a discrete event simulation, FlexSim can instantaneously jump to the next event assuming nothing changes to the model in-between events.
However, in the 3D environment we have people objects walking around although a person walking is also defined by an event (or activity).
I guess that the 3D environment somehow must rely on a discrete time step increment in order to animate people walking around. If so, then what is that timestep?
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You don't need a "discrete time step increment in order to animate people walking around." FlexSim animates based on the current time when drawing the screen, regardless of particular events. FlexSim's animations interpolate between keyframes at any point in time. If nothing is drawing, then the animations don't need to update at all. They only update if they are drawn, and they update their values to what they should be based on the time when they are updated.
If you used a step incremental system, then the animation would be jumpy at each step. FlexSim has a smooth animation system.
You said "...Flexsim's animations interpolate between keyframes...", so is there a time-step between each frame, say 16.66 milliseconds, i.e. 60 frames per second in order to achieve fluid motions (at low simulation speed).
No, there's not a time-step between each frame. Key-frames are defined within an animation and can be any arbitrary values. For example, a keyframe at time 0 could be position 0 with a keyframe at time 10 at position 50. Then, if you draw at time 7.45217, it will animate to position 37.26085. You can draw at any arbitrary time, and it can calculate the correct animation position for that time.
What is the purpose of your question?!
What is your actual question?
Your latest comment refers to the refresh rate of the view. The refresh rate of the screen is affected by the complexity of the scene, the refresh rate of the display, the power of your graphics card, and the selected simulation run speed. Again, nothing that requires a "time-step."
Why are you asking about a "time-step"? I don't understand your question.
I once created a traffic simulator where the logic of cars (position, speed and acceleration etc.) was updated 60 times per second, i.e. a "time-step" of 1 second / 60 = 16.66 milliseconds, with the screen being refreshed as fast as the GPU would allow. Therefore I was merely curious how FlexSim operates under the hood compared to the working of my own simulator.
Thank you for your answers, I now have a better grasp of the mechanics.
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