just wondering what is considered a smooth frame rate for driving games. it is
for an article I am writing, am I correct in saying that 24 frames per second
is the minimum we should have for film like smoothness?
thanks
rob
thanks
rob
And it's a little apples and oranges to compare any video frame rate to
film. The mechanisms are so different that you can't make a one-to-one
comparison.
The 24 fps for film and 30 fps for video are probably somewhere in the
90% range of where people perceive the images as "smooth." Maybe high
90's.
Mighty
Hate to waste bandwidth, but...
Good answer!!
Regards,
David Mocnay
>thanks
>rob
> > thanks
> > rob
> There is no single answer. Some people are happy with 15 FPS.
> Others find 25 barely adequate. And if you're racing against one
> or more humans, the the person with the highest frame rate
> generally has a distinct advantage.
> And it's a little apples and oranges to compare any video frame
> rate to film. The mechanisms are so different that you can't make
> a one-to-one comparison.
> The 24 fps for film and 30 fps for video are probably somewhere in
> the 90% range of where people perceive the images as "smooth."
> Maybe high 90's.
> Mighty
However, higher frame rates in driving games/sims provide a smoother
view and can make the game/sim easier to drive even though the eye may
not notice any difference? This is because the game is being updated
faster, and control imputs are read more frequently, etc.
Two examples:
Formula 1 Grand Prix 2 (F1GP2) - from Microprose. The max fps
available is 25, and when run on a fast pc (with cpu occupancy mainly
below 100% - this is a whole other area we won't go into here!) it
runs and looks great at 25fps.
Grand Prix Legends (GPL) - From Sierra. The max fps is 36, and again
on a decent pc running at 36 is very smooth and adds to your ability
to control the car.
Thats a difference of 11 fps. Try running GPL at 25fps after running
it at 36 for a while, and there is a noticeable drop in performance.
Then again, I first ran GPL on an old k6 200 and *had* to turn off
most details and run it at around 25 fps and it was still *very*
playable and still looked great. So you could argue its all
subjective?
Some people seem very happy running thier games/sims at 20fps, maybe
cos they haven't had the equipment available to run them any faster?
I'de say the faster the better from a game/sim players point of view,
and an absolute minimum of.........?
Hmmmm tough one, acceptible levels are changing with technology too.
In F1GP2 nothing less than 25 would do? In GPL nothing less than 36
will do? In F1GP3 maybe only 50fps will do?
8-)
*Peter* #:-)
OTOH, if you display fairly small text or thin horizontal lines at 30 fps
interlaced, most people perceive substantial flicker and get a headache
within just a few minutes. A government group in Sweden set standards
for computer video signals that included a minimum of 72 Hz (AKA 72 fps)
refresh rate for just that reason. Even at that refresh rate, some
people perceive flicker.
But more is not necessarily better.
In the late '70s or early '80s some group in Hollywood ran tests of high-
frame-rate film. As they raised the frame rate, people reported that the
experience seemed much more realistic. But, as they passed 70 fps they
found that the incidence of vertigo and nausea increased dramatically.
Especially when showing content with lots of motion, like a roller
coaster.
US Air Force fighter pilots are also experiencing problems with nausea in
their newest high fidelity flight sims. I'd be willing to wager that
several people on this newsgroup have suffered at least one bout of
vertigo while watching a friend play Wolf 3D/Doom/Quake. There's a
fairly new medical term for this: Simulator Sickness.
As the frame rate increases and the visual and aural fidelity gets more
realistic the brain begins to get confused by conflicting signals. The
information coming from the eyes and (in games) the ears are tell the
brain that the person is in motion. But the inertial motion detectors of
the body (mostly the inner ear) tell the brain that the person is at
rest. The brain throws up its psychic hands and says, "I give up." AKA,
vertigo.
The highest fidelity sims in the world will always have this problem.
Inertia is a basic physical property of your inner ear. The only way
around it is if there's some way to stimulate the inner ear to match the
inertial forces it should be feeling. Or to bypass it and feed the brain
the appropriate impulses. Both appear quite a ways off.
Mighty
Sluggish performance tends to make you introduce too much steering input
because the game is always _behind_ you in reaction.
-Larry