Is it ok to use Roblox wait(n) on the client?

[ChainsawRBLX (Chain)]

Hi, I’m making a dialogue system using the new property called MaxVisibleGraphemes, I use a for loop to change the MaxVisibleGraphemes, I also have to use a ```wait`` there. I can’t really use a custom wait since it’ll depend on the frames of the client if we talk about using RunService for it. That’s my question, and I’ve some code:

for ind = 1, #dialogue, 1 do
    dialogueLabel.MaxVisibleGraphemes = ind
    wait(maxDialogueWaitTime)
end

Is it ok to use Roblox wait here?
Help is appreciated

[RFL890 (GeorgeCatherington)]

wait() is never really good practice on any script. Here’s why:

Avoiding wait() and why

This is an adaptation of a Twitter thread I made a while ago. This is simply a better formatted and more fleshed out version. Let’s talk about wait(). Not wait(n) (although if you are using small n values to where it’d be barely distinguishable from wait(), you’re probably going to hit the same issues mentioned in this thread). We probably learned about wait() at first as the solution to “why are my infinite loops crashing me?”. It’s a super easy solution and it works! This starts a bad habit…

(You’re probably gonna be using small n values)
(Also, a typewriter with runservice waits looks extremely fast and ugly.)

[ItsNickBoi110]

Personally, instead of using wait() I use my own custom wait function, wait() has been known to cause performance issues and not perform well, @RFL890 explained.

[ChainsawRBLX (Chain)]

Using a custom wait on the client will depend on the frames of the player

[posatta (pasta)]

So does wait(). The only way to “guarantee” a delay will be for exactly x seconds is a busy-wait, like this:

local function busywait(x)
	local finish = os.clock() + x
	while os.clock() < finish do end
	return
end

… which has major performance concerns. You can use deltaTime, which is passed to all the RunService events, if you want to make more characters show up based on real-time rather than a number of frames. The change will only display on different frames anyways, so there’s no reason to isolate the two.

[ChainsawRBLX (Chain)]

Alright then. I guess a busy wait is a solution here, thank you for responding! I’ll mark that as the solution. Thank you for responding

[RFL890 (GeorgeCatherington)]

Also, sorry for bumping in here, but here’s a better wait function which uses RunService:

local function CWait(n)
       n = n or 0.0001
       if n >= 1000 then n = 1000 end; if n <= 0.0001 then n = 0.0001 end;
       local runService = game:FindService("RunService")       
       local Time = os.clock()
       repeat runService.Heartbeat:Wait() until (os.clock() - Time) >= n
       return true
end

I tested it, and RunService Heartbeat wait had an Avg delay of 1e-07 seconds, and wait() had a delay of 1e-06 seconds. Or 0.000001 compared to 0.0000001 seconds.