No, only when an event occurs. In my example a timelapse. thread() is often used for big file loading or long time taking events. It runs independently from draw(), but in draw() you can on a regular basis check if an event occurred, and then, when occurring, add one to the counter. This way you can run your other code in draw() at normal speed. The (frameCount % 30 == 0) is just a choice on what regular basis you check.