Lag Analysis For the PlayStation Move

The $64,000 question about Sony's upcoming motion control system, the PlayStation Move, is how responsive it will be compared to traditional console controllers and its counterparts from Nintendo and Microsoft. Eurogamer slowed down videos of Sony's tech demo software to establish a rough baseline latency that developers will have to work with. Quoting: "While exact latency measurements aren't possible in these conditions, a ballpark idea of the level of response isn't a problem at all. The methodology is remarkably straightforward. Keep your hand as steady as possible, then make fast motions with the controller. Count the frames between your hand moving, and the motion being carried out on-screen. Equally illuminating is to stop your movement suddenly, then count the frames necessary for your on-screen counterpart to catch up. While not 100 per cent accurate, repeat the process enough times and the frame difference becomes fairly evident. Bearing all of that in mind, and recognizing that we don't know how much latency the display itself is adding, I'd say that a ballpark figure of around 133ms of controller lag (give or take a frame) seems reasonable, certainly not the ultra-fast crispness of response we see from games like Burnout Paradise or Modern Warfare, but fine for most of the applications you would want from such a controller."

Comments

Yay 133ms

[Xest]

It'll be like playing Quake on dialup again, oh the nostalgia!

Re:Yay 133ms

[bluesatin]

Don't forget that games have inbuilt lag compensation, so it doesn't feel like 133ms to the person playing; your gun makes the firing noise and animation straight after you click, regardless of your ping.

Input lag is by far worse than network lag for games.

Re:Yay 133ms

[Jaqenn]

I thought that the half life engine (and presumably it's decendants) did something like this. About 10 years ago they updated the engine, and a bunch of people playing counter strike started complaining that they were being shot based on a laggy opponent's client's view of where they were, not where they actually were.

Someone posted a humor article describing how JFK was actually around a corner at the moment his assassin fired, but I couldn't find the link.