What is this obsession with framerates over 30FPS?

[WindKnight]

Ok, essentially, as I understand it, any frame-rate of about 10-20 or more is enough to provide an illusions of a moving picture. Indeed, movies and television have a framerate of 24 FPS, and no-one seems to find any problem with them being choppy or slow.

So why so much freakout at frame-rates being capped at 30 FPS, or this obsession with getting it up to 60? if you've surpassed the point needed to create the illusion of a fluid, moving picture, do you really need to push it even father? or is this some 'OMG GOTTA SHOW OFF MY HARDWARE POWER!' thing thats ost posing and showing off?

 

[Shadowstar38]

Generally, when it's an action game, more frames means the action moves faster without anything chugging.

 

[Tallim]

Like it or not you can see a big difference between something running at 30FPS and something running at 60FPS. They are both perfectly playable but the 60FPS one just looks much smoother owing to their being more frames between movements.

Same applies if you've ever seen one of those TVs that creates intermediate frames and inserts them into the picture. Much smoother looking.

 

[hazabaza1]

It just looks a whole lot smoother. People can deny it all they want but the leap from 30FPS to 60 FPS makes a massive difference. I usually find myself playing better the higher the FPS, and do most people I would assume. Just ask some of the professional FPS players, those guys could easily run every game on max graphics with smooth framerate, but lots of them will turn the graphics down to get the FPS even higher.

 

[General Twinkletoes]

You can easily feel the difference if you're actually the one moving. And often games have more odd animations that really stand out at 30. And in fighting games, people have to time things down to the exact frame sometimes.
I have playing at 30 now. It's playable, but I have a lot of trouble doing things like presicion platforming or sniping.

 

[The Artificially Prolonged]

It just looks and feels a whole lot smoother. Admittedly I never understood the the difference until I spent awhile playing games at 60 fps on pc and then played a 30 fps game on console, I couldn't believe how the 30 fps looked so slow now compared to how I used to not notice.

 

[cgentero]

Movies aren't interactive but games are, this one of the reasons higher FPS is better; faster pace, faster respnse, faster visuals, etc.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

For me, certain games just need to be 60 FPS to feel precise.


In something like Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3, every frame counts. Devil May Cry is another one, so it seems strange that a game series so obsessed with fluent and over the top combat would drop its FPS in the newest title.

 

[Vault101]

because we are filthy filthy Graphics whores

and as we all know it is the biggest sin

 

[DazZ.]

Ok, essentially, as I understand it, any frame-rate of about 10-20 or more is enough to provide an illusions of a moving picture.

Have you ever played any game at 20 frames? Preferably some form of FPS as I feel those suffer the most.

It's immensely unplayable, and that's not me that's non gaming friends trying to run things on their laptops.

 

[Vegosiux]

Because I seem to have a mild case of OCD. My monitor refresh rate defaults to 60Hz, so 60FPS goes quite well with it.

And I do notice the difference between 30 and 60. Not that it irrirates my eyes, or makes the action slower or anything. Just the numbers look skewed to my wacky mathy mind. And that's terrible.

 

[Da Orky Man]

Ok, essentially, as I understand it, any frame-rate of about 10-20 or more is enough to provide an illusions of a moving picture.

Have you ever played any game at 20 frames? Preferably some form of FPS as I feel those suffer the most.

It's immensely unplayable, and that's not me that's non gaming friends trying to run things on their laptops.

I currently play Republic Commando on my netbook at about 15 fps with no problems. SUre, it looks somewhat choppy, but perfectly playable.

 

[CleverNickname]

I only have the confusion when it's anything higher than 60. In fact, I don't even believe the Fraps counter when it goes into triple digits. That's not technology, that's witchcraft.

But as everyone else has said, the difference between 30 and 60 is huge. And the TV/Movie argument... I occasionally see Daily Show episodes somehow having 60fps and that difference is weird!

 

[DazZ.]

I currently play Republic Commando on my netbook at about 15 fps with no problems. SUre, it looks somewhat choppy, but perfectly playable.

...why? It's just frustrating when it lags at hard bits and things fail that are genuinely not your fault because your processor couldn't load the frames of things killing you.

I suffered through it in my childhood as I had nothing else to play my fancy games on, but even then when I didn't know any better it was just a ballache.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

For me, certain games just need to be 60 FPS to feel precise.


In something like Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3, every frame counts. Devil May Cry is another one, so it seems strange that a game series so obsessed with fluent and over the top combat would drop its FPS in the newest title.

I believe in SF4 there are some moves that you have to hit a button each frame so without the 60 fps you couldn't pull of those moves.

Now I know only the hardcore of the hardcore will ever use them but the fact remains.

Yeah, some of the combos are insanely tight in that game, you'd never pull them off at 30FPS.

A mean, I really don't mind 30FPS for 90% of the stuff I play, but fighting games are just one of those things that needs to be 60FPS.

 

[shrekfan246]

It just looks and feels a whole lot smoother. Admittedly I never understood the the difference until I spent awhile playing games at 60 fps on pc and then played a 30 fps game on console, I couldn't believe how the 30 fps looked so slow now compared to how I used to not notice.

This. I've picked up PC gaming a lot more over the last two years, and comparing the PC version of Batman: Arkham City to the PS3 version is like night and day. On the PC, it's so much faster, responsive, and fluid because it's running at 60 FPS instead of 30. I played the PS3 version again the other day and was shocked at how slow and sluggish everything felt after getting used to the PC version. Granted, I still didn't have any issues and locking at 30 FPS doesn't really bother me that much so long as more games won't start doing it, but there you have it.

Actually, the lower framerate was really noticeable for me in Metal Gear Solid 4 as well, because there's this one section relatively early in the game where if you lay down or crouch in a certain area inside of a building, the FPS will shoot up to 60 and the entire game will suddenly move a lot smoother, but it goes back down once you start actually moving around again.

 

[lapan]

I don't really notice the difference unless i see it side by side, so most of the time i don't care. When it's get so low the game starts chopping is the real problem.