Slashdot Mirror
Measuring Input Latency In Console Games
The Digital Foundry blog has an article about measuring an important but often nebulous aspect of console gameplay: input lag. Using a video camera and a custom input monitor made by console modder Ben Heck, and after calibrating for display lag, they tested a variety of games to an accuracy of one video frame in order to determine the latency between pressing a button and seeing its effect on the screen. Quoting:
"If a proven methodology can be put into place, games reviewers can better inform their readers, but more importantly developers can benefit in helping to eliminate unwanted lag from their code. ... It's fair to say that players today have become conditioned to what the truly hardcore PC gamers would consider to be almost unacceptably high levels of latency to the point where cloud gaming services such as OnLive and Gaikai rely heavily upon it. The average videogame runs at 30fps, and appears to have an average lag in the region of 133ms. On top of that is additional delay from the display itself, bringing the overall latency to around 166ms. Assuming that the most ultra-PC gaming set-up has a latency less than one third of that, this is good news for cloud gaming in that there's a good 80ms or so window for game video to be transmitted from client to server."
that console players are vegetables. Be a man, buy a pc.
Why not measure the same games on both ps3 and xbox360 and compare the results?
I've played the full version of puzzle quest on a rarely used ps3 with wireless controllers at a friend's house on 1080p/60 Samsung TV connected via component cables, and I've played the demo version of puzzle quest on my heavily used xbox360 with wireless controllers connected by 3rd party USB charger on a 1080p/120 Toshiba TV connected with HDMI. Going back and forth between the two, I noticed substantially more lag at my friend's house. It was significant enough that I would actually freak out during the delay between pressing the button and seeing the response on the ps3, because I was used to playing at home on the 360. However, there are too many variables to conclude that the ps3 is laggier than the 360.
We need someone to measure the actual difference. TFA missed a huge opportunity.
[tuxedo.org], to yet another Systems. The Gay during which I