i like when shmups slow down because there’s too much shit on screen at once. not only it impacts the presentation of the game, making what’s happening look even more monumental, it feels like an actual part of the mechanics of the game. I think most shmup devs agree, which is why they implement fake slowdown so often in newer releases. Tying it with something predictable that’s happening I think is the key. It sucks when a game slows down in an inconsistent, hard-to-predict way, and then speeds back up in jerky ways.
that being said slowdown is also different than frame-skipping, which tends to feel very bad
my issue in this debate is how games so often go after The Most Graphics instead of a stable, well-playing, well-performing game. this sometimes manifests in framerate issues and frame-skipping, but sometimes it’s just the game design and mechanics themselves going “hey your action is gonna have x frames of startup” or “the character will have to pause and manually turn around for a long time if you start running into one direction but then you start going the other way” for the sake of ~realistic motion~ or whatever. all of that adds up.
while i agree that framerate feels like a low-hanging fruit to obsess over and many games with “bad framerate” are perfectly fine, framing framerate as if it’s a purely aesthetic videophile thing is insane, especially on a medium that is all about input. even when you don’t play competitively, games straight up feel very different. most of the time, games feel better when you get them up to a stable 60.
that being said, there’s something about playing a PS1 game with 60fps and no polygon jittering and cleaner texture warping that makes it feel wrong and cheaper. like it’s an important aesthetic filter.
I suggest you watch the race sections, look down frield, look only at the jet ski and focus on how you perceive the objects during fast turns rather than paying attention to the graphical detail. Both videos can be run at 1080p which is why I chose them.
this is why I maintain the 3DS version of it is the best. that game was just made to be 3D and 60fps. the presentation it’s going for marries with these lacking features perfectly because it IS a game all about using repeated fake-3D environments to give you a hypnotic sense of speed, and the 3D and 60fps only heightens that
Has there ever been a videogame with a fight inside a night club that’d functionally feel like playing at a low framerate with a handicap thanks to strobe lights
What do you think is the responsible way to do this? Grating, extreme sensory conditions are some of my favorite things and I love using strobing lights. These days I’d put warnings upfront but I don’t know if the flashing is severable from the smaller projects.
Build the visual effect in such a way that you can toggle it, like TLOU2’s accessibility graphics settings, but make it an - yes, agreed, Victor - opt-in at the top of the game. I can’t think of another instance of a toggle like this except No Russian in MW2, but unlike e.g. colorblindness, subtitles*, etc. strobes can kill.
* subtitles should be on by default IMO and you must be able to get to the settings page before starting a game but I’m sure you’re up on those points.
Downloaded and tried Slave of God and I think you can’t (responsibly, given the risk) assume that the end user got the files from the original source, so a notice on the launcher would be a good addition. This is what I’ve got from the launcher - looks like an image might go in the top half?
Yeah, those warnings absolutely need to be in-game. I guess the trick is that I can see several categories of risk:
A person has no risk and can experience strobed experiences safely. They will accede to strobe risks and opt for strobing.
A person has an unknown strobe risk and may unknowingly be dangerously exposed. This person will accede to strobe warnings and options. This is the tricky case I’m not sure about.
A person has some strobe risk but can handle lower levels and tries to evaluate experiences by their strobe intensity. They need to know how strobe-y an experience is. I don’t know if this category exists or how well these users would be able to evaluate an experience.
A person knows they are at risk from strobed experiences and will use warnings to avoid a product or disable any strobe options.
I know for unavoidable strobes like visual fire alarms for D/HH people they keep the frequency down but that definitely rules out Slave of God or a simulated club scene.
remember that time a room with a strobe light in the deus ex reboot made me temporarily go blind in one eye and hallucinate a green shade to certain things. that was exciting
Apologies if any of this has already been covered in the thread.
Framerate as an aesthetic decision seems legit in very specific circumstances. Cuphead is a good recent example where a 60fps framerate kinda ruined the game’s aesthetic since characters animate at 24 to meet a defined aesthetic but must ‘move’ at 60 for gameplay precision. This results in character sprites that feel floaty (you can see it in any aerial motion) like someone is dragging it across the screen with a mouse in some cases. If characters are stationary the aesthetic is preserved which I guess is why so many Bosses are stationary.
This Cuphead complaint is extremely minor but then a lot of these edge cases are on a knife edge between aesthetics and accessibility.
Unfortunately, identifying framerates is something that comes with experience and so people who are used to variable or approx 30fps are unlikely to care about 60 because it’s less perceptible unless explicitly pointed out. People who are used to 60 are kinda ‘spoiled’ (I don’t use this pejoratively) because they build a tolerance to a higher standard. If you can’t easily spot the difference (above) it’s not an issue except in specific circumstances (usually competition or mastery). If you can spot the difference you’re welcome to a preference but as long as its stable I don’t see an argument for prescription of 60.
Consistency is almost always more important than high framerates but ideally go for both as long as it doesn’t invalidate an aesthetic goal (stop-motion verisimilitude etc).
Personally I’m at the horrible meta stage where inconsistent framerates are now almost pleasant/nostalgic as long as the drops are ‘smooth’ enough. Deadly Premonition is a good example of this where the poor performance is an aesthetic akin to visible strings or awkward editing in a B-movie. The worst is when I’m unsure if my PC/console has crashed. If the framerate is that bad sort your game out.
