Question

As I understand it the Game Draw function occurs 60 times a second and update happens as many times as it can between those times. Is that true?

Whats the best way, in the Draw function, or a function called from that function, presuming that in my case Update is very fast, of asking if there is time there is remaining to draw. Alternatively, how does one find out if draw is taking more than 1/60th of a second.

Answer 1

Both Update() and Draw() by default occur at most 60 times a second.

To modify Update() call speed, use

base.IsFixedTimeStep = true;
base.TargetElapsedTime = new TimeSpan((long)(TimeSpan.TicksPerSecond / 600f));

where 600 is the required tick number

Alternatively, how does one find out if draw is taking more than 1/60th of a second.

You can use GameTime.IsRunningSlowly, which changes automatically if it’s slow.

public void Draw(GameTime gameTime) {
    if (gameTime.IsRunningSlowly) {
      // do stuff
    }
}