[Update 2] How/why are console gamers satisfied with 30 fps?

[Fox12]

I would love to play Final Fantasy 7 and Chrono Trigger at 60 FPS! I need to see every movement of the polygon!

Honestly, that's the last thing I care about. If they adopt it, fine. I probably won't notice. The Hobbit movie is actually a perfect example. I didn't mind the change in frame rate. I don't get the hate it got. What I did hate was the awful writing, horrible pacing, terrible dialogue, boring cartoon cgi fight scenes, and the occasional smidgen of bad acting. The frame rate didn't save that film, I'm afraid.

 

[mitchell271]

"At Ubisoft for a long time we wanted to push 60 fps. I don't think it was a good idea because you don't gain that much from 60 fps and it doesn't look like the real thing. It's a bit like The Hobbit movie, it looked really weird.
"And in other games it's the same - like the Rachet and Clank series [where it was dropped]. So I think collectively in the video game industry we're dropping that standard because it's hard to achieve, it's twice as hard as 30fps, and its not really that great in terms of rendering quality of the picture and the image."

So even if the hardware is capable of 60fps, they will keep it locked to 30 to make it feel more "cinematic". But really it's because it seems most gamers are very happy with 30fps, which is disappointing as far as progress goes.[/quote]

Whoever said that has probably never played something at 60fps. I will take consistent frame rate over how pretty a game looks any day. Now, I'm perfectly happy with 30fps, it plays just fine most of the time. But if you give me muddier textures, a lower poly count, jagged edges and 60fps, I wold gladly take that instead.

 

[Bombiz]

I can play in 30fps just fine but when I play on PC I usually opt out for 60fps just because it feels smoother if the fps decides to dip for some reason I have some breathing room.

 

[Bad Jim]

With many older games they can run at hundreds of frames per second on decent PCs these days and playing them feels extremely streamlined (the gameplay in Doom feels so fast and dare I say, "aerodynamic"), as if there's no barrier between the game and the player. If there was a 30FPS cap the sluggishness would be felt immediately.

Doom is actually capped at 35fps.

http://doom.wikia.com/wiki/Uncapped_framerate

 

[Amir Kondori]

I felt/do feel still uncomfortable playing games on my PC and newer titles going at 60FPS. The motions feel unnatural, like an uncanny valley effect.

There's also a fact of, never noticed it before, so there's really no comparison. Frankly all this graphics jargon bullshit is so insignificant to the gaming experience overall that I just don't bother caring about this sorta news, also I don't play Assassins Creed. A high fidelity video of a piece of shit is still a piece of shit, it's not like watching Two Girls One Cup makes the experience any better with more frames per second.

These feel like hot button issues because there is absolutely nothing else of value to market. What next, 'the game developers ate all American cheese burgers while making this game, go buy it!' yeurrrh 'Murica.

So this is totally bizarre to me. I have a 120hz refresh rate monitor, so I can actually play games up to 120 fps and over and get the full effect and the difference in smoothness and motion blur is amazing. Literally amazing. The difference is so huge in terms of how smooth the motion is, the lack of motion blur, the lack of hiccups and stutters in my game play, if I had to play at 30 fps, I wouldn't stop playing games, but I would be a pretty sad panda about it.

I understand that 30 fps is playable, and I get that developers like Ubisoft are pushing this whole idea of a "cinematic look" because the current consoles just can't do high end graphics at 60 fps, but there is a reason developers and publishers brag about hitting 60 fps when they are able to manage it, and it isn't because 60 fps is worse or "unnatural".

 

[Dizchu]

Doom is actually capped at 35fps.

http://doom.wikia.com/wiki/Uncapped_framerate

Depends on the source port. I doubt many people play vanilla these days.

 

[Adam Lester]

Due to the lack of reference level and also because playing with a keyboard is a pain in the ass.

 

[Bad Jim]

Doom is actually capped at 35fps.

http://doom.wikia.com/wiki/Uncapped_framerate

Depends on the source port. I doubt many people play vanilla these days.

Quite a lot of people play vanilla, since the Steam version uses DosBox. You can use source ports if you want, but the default is vanilla on DosBox, so it's a fair bet that most people are playing vanilla on DosBox. Even with forward/back bound to up/down on the mouse.

 

[Dizchu]

Quite a lot of people play vanilla, since the Steam version uses DosBox. You can use source ports if you want, but the default is vanilla on DosBox, so it's a fair bet that most people are playing vanilla on DosBox. Even with forward/back bound to up/down on the mouse.

I actually didn't consider that. Thanks.

 

[Dragonbums]

So even if the hardware is capable of 60fps, they will keep it locked to 30 to make it feel more "cinematic". But really it's because it seems most gamers are very happy with 30fps, which is disappointing as far as progress goes.

So basically another "consoles are hindering the progress of videogames argument."

Yeah, no.

Nothing was stopping Ubisoft from optimizing their games for 60 fps. Especially on PC's and consoles. For ever lazy ass dev who doesn't feel like doing it, you got 10 other dev studios who put the time and effort into doing 60 fps because they actually take pride in what they put out.

Don't do that.

 

[Rozalia1]

So basically another "consoles are hindering the progress of videogames argument."

Yeah, no.

Nothing was stopping Ubisoft from optimizing their games for 60 fps. Especially on PC's and consoles. For ever lazy ass dev who doesn't feel like doing it, you got 10 other dev studios who put the time and effort into doing 60 fps because they actually take pride in what they put out.

Don't do that.

Don't you know the Big Three cabal paid them off?

Dragonbums hits it on the head but it was nothing that wasn't obvious already. The update might as well have been "yeah you were totally correct in the purpose of this thread".

 

[Little Gray]

Probably because it really does not matter. I cant tell the difference in all these comparisons that have been linked in this thread so I dont really care if the game runs at 30 or 60 as long as its consistent. I would rather a game that runs at a steady 30fps and looking amazing then one that runs at 60fps and looks much worse.

 

[Eddie the head]

This is not a subjective debate, it's an objective fact that 60fps is superior to 30fps.

And it's completely subjective how much that matters. If you have yet to master moving in a 3d environment the FPS are not going to make a difference.

 

[CaitSeith]

Because I quite simply don't care. Graphics come in dead last when it comes to making a game enjoyable. FPS fall into that category for me. I don't care what the FPS are on a game so long as its fun to play.

What, and virtually doubling your potential reaction time doesn't do that?
For games that rely on fast reflexes, like twitch shooters, DMC style brawlers, fighting games, and high speed racing games, a higher framerate is virtually mandatory.

I imagine that attempting to play Metal Gear Rising at only 30 FPS would be a lot more frustrating than it would be at a smooth 60.

Most gamers don't know how to take advantage of that half-second of extra time to react. Most play just for fun.

 

[Rad Party God]

You should've been there when the N64 and PS1 standards were between 15 to 30 FPS, very rarely did any game saw 60 fps in any of those consoles and personally I didn't care.

Nowadays... I'm a PC gamer and I still don't care. Sure, 60 fps is nice and all, but I honestly don't care if a game runs at 30 fps or lower, I still play some N64 and PS1 games and I'm yet to care at wich speed they're running.

I do notice the difference, however, but honestly, I don't care.

TL; DR - I don't care.

PS - I don't feel like arguing over this, if you want 60 fps all the goddamn time, then great!, more power to you!, keep on enjoying things your way, personally I have THIS [http://i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/159/172/tumblr_lo1qh68nVL1qzgmxb.gif] many fucks to give.

 

[Danny Dowling]

keep the frame rate down, keep the cost making the game down, keep the dev financially sound, dev keeps making games.

the rate video games have been going it's no secret it's becoming unsustainable.

 

[Vigormortis]

Update: Well lookie here, Ubisoft had more to say...
http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/viva-la-resoluci-n-assassin-s-creed-dev-thinks-industry-is-dropping-60-fps-standard-1268241

"At Ubisoft for a long time we wanted to push 60 fps. I don't think it was a good idea because you don't gain that much from 60 fps and it doesn't look like the real thing. It's a bit like The Hobbit movie, it looked really weird.
"And in other games it's the same - like the Rachet and Clank series [where it was dropped]. So I think collectively in the video game industry we're dropping that standard because it's hard to achieve, it's twice as hard as 30fps, and its not really that great in terms of rendering quality of the picture and the image."

Wow. Just.......wow.

Spoken like a true ignoramus. This Alex Amancio clearly has no knowledge whatsoever on frame-rates, their effects on the hardware and the viewer, and how digital image rendering differs from film projection.

Gads, what a mook. I scarcely know where to even begin dissecting his asinine comments.

And before someone decides to hound me with insults of "elitist!", I'm not referencing the whole 30 v 60 debate.[footnote]And for the record, I don't care what frame-rate someone says they prefer.[/footnote] I'm talking about Mr. Amancio's demonstrably ridiculous assertions. His idiocy goes way beyond the 30 v 60 debate.

That or he's a really poor liar who's trying to excuse his companies laziness or the current crop of console's lack of decent hardware.

 

[Kecunk]

Im gonna have to jump on the because I just don't care bandwagon

I've been gaming for is long as I can remember (my first console was a NES)and I can honestly say that "what FPS is this running at?" is a question that has never entered my mind in my entire life

And for the record I game on PC way more than I game on consoles