The leads on Visceral Games' Dante's Inferno had to push their staff to get the game running at 60 frames per second, but they felt it was an essential decision in an action game.
"There was a fair amount of angst over that decision. And there was definitely a strong feeling from myself, and my boss, Nick [Earl], the lead engineer, Brad, and the lead designer, Steve," says Visceral's Jonathan Knight, speaking as part of a new Gamasutra feature interview. "Most of the leads understood why we were doing that... But yeah, we had to evangelize that decision."
"I think any artist would be lying if they said that they didn't prefer to have more bandwidth," Knight continues. "Any milliseconds you give them, they're going to use it on just one more effect, or what-have-you."
Creating a game that moves at 60 frames per second is a technical challenge, but it's more about willpower than technology, he adds: "You just have to commit to it, and say, 'Here are your budgets. Here's the box we're gonna play in.'"
It's not easy, he explains: "Thirty frames is a very challenging box to play in as well, and so once you just get everybody bought into that, then what I've found is that the visual effects artists, and the environment artists, and so forth, they just found ways to make stuff look good at 60, and you just have to hold them to it."
Month after month it's a challenge, says Knight, but one he's glad the team undertook. "I'm totally convinced that it was the right thing to do," he says. "And it's not just for gameplay -- in my opinion, it's not as simple as sacrificing visuals for gameplay. I actually think the visuals benefit from the higher framerate."
Knight adds, "If you were to take a screenshot, you might be able to point out, like, 'okay, here's the compromise you made because of your framerate,' but when you sit and play the game, the overall visual experience is enhanced by the fast framerate. So, I can't really decouple graphics from framerate; I don't feel like it's an either/or situation."
And for fast-paced action games, higher framerate is becoming increasingly essential, he believes, at least in certain situations: "I don't think it's essential for Dead Space, for instance, which has a different pacing, and it's a different genre. But for Dante's, it was definitely a must."
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If I was king of the world I would force everybody out of the game industry who doesn't think 60 FPS (a standard from twenty-five years ago) is a must. I am harsh ...but fair.
It's always a tough subject when you're talking about how much better the "controls feel" when running at 60, but at least this opinion and the desire of the team to reach this goal was put out there. Thanks guys for keeping the bar high and knowing that you're being held up to the excellence of the God of War franchise!
Contra: Alien Wars ran with 60 FPS throughout except when you used a smart bomb and with certain weapons when climbing the big wall in the middle of the third level the speed (and framerate) dropped to half for half a minute or so. I think the Mega Drive version didn't even have slowdowns and opted to not draw some sprites when under heavy load instead but I didn't play through that three times a day for a year so I don't remember exactly. Castlevanias -> 60 FPS, Street Fighter 2 -> 60 FPS, Mega Man games -> 60 FPS, Mario -> 60 FPS, Sonic -> 60 FPS, Zelda -> 60 FPS, Gunstar Heroes which must be the game with most sprites on screen from that generation ran with 60 FPS. The only games of that generation that I have played and ran with less than 60 were (fake) 3D games obviously and Metal Slug.
Rodney,
seconded when it comes to Bethesda games. But the first Gears of War had pretty much stable 30 which is what almost all Microsoft games aim for. Halo 3 was much worse. The multiplayer beta already had framerate problems so the moment the full version arrived I started an empty multiplayer map, made a 360 turn on the spot where I spawned and it started tearing significantly. It was a sad month for me. I cried. But I am still very manly.
But that's just me.
I have no intention of playing dante's inferno but I do like 60 fps.
`Yeah, I totally agree with you I see it happen all to often. Really is a shame too but you would think by now they should be able to handle the costs of making a game that would take millions to develop, I mean the huge Corp Behemoths right? EA - I will admit at first I just saw them making crap game after game but all of a sudden you see all these maybe unoriginal but semi great tittles that want to do things diff of course you still see that Market control in these video games but it just seems like they're trying to fight for their own freedom
Its just disappointing to see games that could become something great some times and see it fail either because the company is to afraid that it won't hit the market correctly and it will fail or the game won't fit into society correctly great examples of that is - Ookami - When the game first came out man no one touched it 2~4 years later its discovered and remade for the WII - Ico - - Shadow of the Colossus - games that took that risk and succeed in attracting a great crowd/ I miss those type of ballsy developers who said screw it lets make a game.
Only time will tell though.