At the start of the current generation, it seemed like 60fps games would become the new normal.
Now,30fps is backon thePS5andXbox Series X.
What’s the Deal With Frames?
Miguel Lagoa/Shutterstock.com
These frames are “rendered” by the game’s machine and sent to the display.
There are two main reasons that higher frame rates can improve the experience and presentation of video games.
First, more frames equate to smoother motion on the screen.
Creative Touches/Shutterstock.com
The lower the frame rate, the greater the gap in visible motion.
How low is too low?
Animation is typically done at 12fps (with higher rates for action scenes).
Stas Knop/Shutterstock.com
Cinematic films are shot at 24fps, and TV content tends to be at 30fps.
Action camera footage is usually captured at 60fps since it’s likely to contain fast motion.
This diagram indicates how often the game world updates at different rates.
Focus Entertainment
Notice how large the intervals are at 30fps compared to 60fps.
At 60fps, the on-screen game state updates twice as often as at 30fps.
It’s helpful to think of frame rate as a “temporal” resolution.
The more frames rendered, the more information you get about what’s happening.
Why 30fps or 60fps in Particular?
So why focus on 30fps and 60fps?
It has to do with the refresh rate of the displays we use and the broadcast standards for television.
In PAL territories, televisions were limited to about 50Hz, which equates to 50fps.
This is still relevant today, since most modern TVs are limited to 60Hz.
You might think, “but what about 24fps films on TV?”
Some console games now offer a 40fps mode for players with a120Hz display.
Since 40 divides evenly into 120, but not 60.
There are two factors at play here.
The first is that a console represents a fixed pool of performance resources.
This means facing an iron triangle of the resolution, game complexity, and frame rate.
Every game must balance these different aspects to produce a satisfactory final experience.
So why not just target 60fps?
This is where the fixed platform nature of consoles comes into play.
The 30fps target offers the largest “frame time” at the lowest frame rate that players will tolerate.
It also gives the CPU more time to do calculations that may not have anything to do with graphics.
After all, screenshots and 30fps trailers don’t show off high frame rates!
The problem here isn’t one of technology but one of people.
30fps will likely remain the lower acceptable bound in perpetuity.
