Continuous vs. Discrete Event Simulations

Continuous simulations.

Discrete event simulations.

The names are a bit of a misnomer. When speaking in terms of real time software, continuous simulations are yet discrete event simulations, those events being separated by regular intervals in time. To be continuous would require that interval length to be effectively 0; i.e. some number of frames per second that produced no appreciable delta in approximation.

While this is doable in a AFK baked simulations, real-time simulations (games) involving an active face often top out at 20 FPS.

What makes the difference between Continuous and Discrete Event simulations structurally is that Discrete Event simulations operate on asymmetric intervals, and it has to have criteria to measure out an interval other than a constant distance.

An immediate consequence is that discrete event simulations have a more complex structure.

The standard for game engines is a relatively low frequency continuous simulation.

TODO: Why we want a discrete event simulation over continuous simulation.