Slashdot Mirror
DOOM III to be capped at 60 fps
StupidKatz writes "The Inquirer reports that DOOM III will be capped at 60fps, primarily to prevent certain exploitations of the game engine (reminiscent of Quakers that could jump higher, etc.). Although the game's graphics challenges most cards to keep up with the 60fps figure, what might this do to ATi and Nvidia sales figures, considering that the next DOOM incarnation is set to be the next heavyweight graphics upgrade reason? More importantly, might this possibly keep the anticipated price drop for the previous vid card generation at bay? The horror... On a more positive note, it is good to see designers anticipating problem exploits - no one likes a mutiplayer cheater." H : Sorry; it's a dupe. My fault.
id Says 60fps Is Enough For Doom III
You guys ran this just four days ago: ID says 60 fps enough... ...
This is a dupe of this story. Different article though... but no new info.
and what about quake4 ?
...
60fps is very slow for any hardcore player, try to make one of them play q3 or cs at 60fps, the difference is VERY noticeable with a fluid 100fps.
But doomIII is supposed to be more a survival horror game than a pure fast action fps. so maybe it'll be ok, but still i don't think its the right solution
And even if it challenge current video card, what bout in 2 years? playing q3 with 60fps now would be ridiculous
Someone will write a patch/crack of some sort to make this not go. Someone else will write mods/total conversions that don't have 60fps caps. Someone else yet again will find some way to benchmark your computer using the game and not have an fps cap. A steady fps and a vertical sync will look better than a dynamic framerate over 100 anyway.
Remember those screenshots that were accidentally on medium quality? Even with the latest cards nobody will be able to turn the graphics all the way up and have a steady 60fps. Well, maybe some freaks with $5000 computers. Maybe people will start going by how many graphic enhancements they can turn on and still get 60. That's what it's really all about to me. How good can I make it look while keeping it playable. Not how many useless extra frames can I render that don't matter 99% of the time.
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
I am sure there will be a benchmark mode of some sort where there is no cap.
For the life of me I can't figure out the connection between a client's FPS and his ability to perform unreasonable jumps in the game world as generated on the server. But what the hell, the devs pro'lly know what they're talking about.
More to the point though (on FPS limiting) - can someone with GPU/DirectX internals knowledge explain why doesn't a game (or a GPU) that realizes its churning more than the 30fps that the human eye can discern dynamically (and automatically) enable FSAA (AntiAliasing) and/or AF and use the spare GPU power to enhance picture quality, then dynamically stop doing so once you need the power to keep up with a playable 30 FPS?
Seems like a MUCH more efficient way to use your GPU. At LP's I'd always switch off FSAA&AF even when most of the time I'm pumping 70fps, just to keep above 30 on those few tight&insane spots.
ATI? nVidia? Microsoft? Anyone?
-
Sweet!!!!! Thank you Hemos!
Seems like a design problem being fixed with a limiter. The objects in the game should be moving at whatever pace the designer wants and the graphics should be showing you where they are at. It should not matter if you have 10fps or 600fps, just that you would have less difference between the pictures.
Might it be that the pictures are more important to these games than the "Physics" behind them? This might also explain why the multi player cheats have been so easy.Seems like a design problem being fixed with a limiter. The objects in the game should be moving at whatever pace the designer wants and the graphics should be showing you where they are at. It should not matter if you have 10fps or 600fps, just that you would have less difference between the pictures.
Might it be that the pictures are more important to these games than the "Physics" behind them? This might also explain why the multi player cheats have been so easy.
The physics are calculated on the client and use the framerate as the timer. So, higher framerate messes with the time for the jump. I think that connecting the two is a bad idea.
I will now have a lot more time between frames to consider the multiple ways in which I will KICK YOUR ASS. Bwahahahaha!
Let me be the first to embarrass myself to future gamers by saying:
640kb primary memory... i mean 60 fps should be enough for everyone!
"First lesson," Jon said. "Stick them with the pointy end."
Can't slashdot cap dupes? ;)
-K
copied and pasted off the original story, mods, mod down, thank you.
Actually, it's pretty easy to tell, that it's copied and pasted, the whole post is a mess.
Didn't realize that not all stories make it to the front page. Hrmf.
Pretty sure he said game tic, not frame rate?
The difference is the ai/physics/game rules will be updated at 60hz, whilst the rest(sound video) could be updated at a different rate.
The benefits for the fixed rate are a few. It is almost very similar to having your elapsed time calculations between frames being fixed.
The biggest advantage of it is in terms of game play. You can be garaunteed that most players will see a very similar game world each time they play. For example imagine there is a slide which the character has to run down. Then there is a big hole in the ground which the character has to jump over onto a platform past this hole. With a fixed tic rate you can place the platform at such a place that the jump must be timed just right. That is the player will not make the jump unless they jump right from the end. But with a variable tic rate you can not be sure that the player will be able to be at that exact position. Time may move too fast and they may miss the perfect jump location.
Another important reason to have a fixed tic rate is so that motion looks smooth. There is no point in having all animations being updated 300 times a second in one room, then pause for a quater of a second. It would look jerky.
It can simplify calculations. Allthough this doesn't really matter too much for someone writing a fairly complex physics simulation like they are. But making sure every thing is done within 1/60th of a second is simplified if you know that rate is fixed. If there is time left over you can do some preprocessing for the next frame if you want.
Having a slower than maximum tic rate can also allow you more time to render a purty scene, calculate nice interactions with the world etc.
Have fun!
http://www.holepit.com/
Slashdot stories to be capped at 2 reposts.
Actually better make it 3, you never know...
The summary actually contains a dupe acknowledgement!
Run for the hills! The end times are upon us!!!
Actio personalis moritur cum persona. (Dead men don't sue)
Looks like they really are doing a sequel, the original Doom FPS was also capped (to 31fps if I remember correctly) Maybe there could be motion blur support to use when cards get fast enough to be able to run it for more than 60fps?
Television based game consoles never run faster than 60 fps, so I'm positive they did this to keep the PC game consistent with the Xbox version.
"On a more positive note, it is good to see designers anticipating problem exploits - no one likes a mutiplayer cheater."
Is it a cheat if the only thing it requires is skill, without any modification to the game?
I would like to know why they picked 60 FPS. 72 or 75 FPS would have been a better. It just seems to me that since flourescent lighting flickers at a 60Hz rate that 60 FPS would have been best avoided.