Frame rate preference

If you had the choice for any game coming out, would you rather the game had a solid 30 FPS for the sake of consistent play at the cost of occasionally stunning visuals, or would you rather have a framerate that is the best the system can handle, with the occasional sputter that changes the framerate with a minimum of 30FPS.

Certain games play great at a consistent 30 FPS (like Halo on Xbox), but others are really that much more attractive for having a high framerate at crucial times in the game, though they sputter at intense times.

So which is more important, overall visual quality at all times or a consistent framerate?

60FPS fo life yo
(at least until something better comes around)

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Originally Posted by Ammadeau

60FPS fo life yo
(at least until something better comes around)

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You sure the human eye would notice?

Consistent 30 FPS beats an inconsistent 60, no doubt.

30 is fine. Games like Halo or OoT ran at 30 and are damn beautiful. Games like KOTOR run at 60 with the occasional stuttering are nice but irritating after a while. At the beginning of KOTOR, running around Taris is fun, but when my Jedi knight runs in slow mo for a split 60th of a second [its called a frame] i noticed and it bothered me. The only chambers it wouldnt skip would be in the Taris appartments. The only real time it could run at 60 properly. With the fewest instances running on the screen. So yeah, I'm a 30 fan.

How about decreasing visual quality until it runs at a consistent 60? High FPS is much more important to me than graphical quality.

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Originally Posted by Stone

How about decreasing visual quality until it runs at a consistent 60? High FPS is much more important to me than graphical quality.

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That would be ideal, except for a few problems:

01. You cant show a 60fps framerate in screenshots, and screenshots help build hype, and hype sells products.
02. A lot of times you have a game running at an inconsistent 60fps in the final months, and the developers promise they will tune the engine till they get a consistent 60fps, and they want to, but then the deadline comes and they didnt finish.

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Originally Posted by Jeremy

Consistent 30 FPS beats an inconsistent 60, no doubt.

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Not in an FPS or similar game where the speed of your reaction can mean taking damage or not taking damage. Metal Arms runs at an almost solid 60FPS and the gameplay is improved over something like Halo for that alone.

Even in a game where it doesn't matter, the improvement to the animation will make the game look better overall.

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Originally Posted by diffusionx

That would be ideal, except for a few problems:

01. You cant show a 60fps framerate in screenshots, and screenshots help build hype, and hype sells products.

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Heck, you can't even show this in movies of the game since most are captured at 30FPS or less. The only way to exprience it is through a demo or the game itself. It's hard to make it a selling point when the majority probably don't even know what it means.

the only appreciated frames slowdown would be in shmups...inferior hardwares :tu: of it all.

Eh, I rarely play FPSes, so whatever. I seriously doubt by eye can even distinguish between 60 and 30 frames per second anyway.