I'm amazed to how developers are able to make 30fps look smooth nowadays

Swift_Gamer · Mar 11, 2020

I get myself marveled at RDR2 and spider man smoothness and they're both 30fps.
The way these guys use tricks to make the game feel and look more fluid than they really are is amazing.
Shout out to both Rockstar and Insomniac you guys deserve it. The level of optimization on consoles those developers can achieve is unparalleled.
I'm dying to see if naughty dog will be able to achieve such level of optimization and frame pacing in the last of us 2. I really hope they can.

Edit: corrected spider man developer.

ciddative · Mar 11, 2020

100% agree and great examples. Those 2 games justt feel better than most other 30 fps games, and not once did I wish for 60 while playing those 2 specifically.

(Insomniac made Spider-Man PS4 btw).

Ganado · Mar 11, 2020

Sucker Punch? You mean Insomniac Games?

Kinthey · Mar 11, 2020

Have also been thinking about this. It's interesting how smooth some 30 fps games are and how others aren't. It's also more than just framepacing. For example, AC Odyssey doesn't have any framepacing issues on the xbox one x but still doesn't feel remotely as smooth as RDR2

Perkin_Warbeck · Mar 11, 2020

I prefer a locked 30 with great frame timing to an unlocked game spiking up and down between 30 and 60.

Flandy · Mar 11, 2020

Ganado said:
Sucker Punch? You mean Insomniac Games?

iirc infamous second son ran at an unlocked frame rate too so that definitely wasn't consistent lol. They did later add a cap option tho I think

ThreepQuest64 · Mar 11, 2020

I noticed that, too, with Uncharted (4 and TLL) and HZD for example. And I usually play with 60fps and higher on a HRT monitor on PC. I wish some PC games would run/render images and motion that smoothly at 30fps.

maximumzero · Mar 11, 2020

I've been playing a lot of Doom on the Switch recently and while I can obviously tell it's not 60fps, it's never really bothered me at 30fps.

for the nguyen · Mar 11, 2020

I believe its because they implement proper frame-pacing and motion blur. I was pleasantly surprised how stable and smooth FFVII:RE demo was.

Deleted member 679 · Mar 11, 2020

I haven't played these two games to say for sure, but people used to say this about Horizon all the time, and it absolutely feels like a 30fps game. No idea what they were talking about.

Mullet2000 · Mar 11, 2020

I can't say either game felt any different to me than other 30 FPS games that have proper framepacing/are stable.

Video Games Are Dumb · Mar 11, 2020

Infamous Second Son is another one.

Still, I would always prefer a higher frame rate if I can get it.

Flandy · Mar 11, 2020

for the nguyen said:
I believe its because they implement proper frame-pacing and motion blur. I was pleasantly surprised how stable and smooth FFVII:RE demo was.

RDR2 doesn't have camera motion blur

pswii60 · Mar 11, 2020

It doesn't look smooth (compared to before), you've just got used to it. Since getting in to PC gaming last year it's really jarring when going back to 30fps on console and takes a lot of adjustment.

Ser_Foxalot said:
I prefer a locked 30 with great frame timing to an unlocked game spiking up and down between 30 and 60.

But I totally agree with this - albeit now with VRR/Gsync this becomes almost unnoticeable as long as it's within the VRR range of your display.

dabri · Mar 11, 2020

Good frame pacing with locked 30fps and decent motion blur truly does compete with 60fps games.

zombiejames · Mar 11, 2020

Motion blur to the rescue 👍

Lant_War · Mar 11, 2020

CTR also has a good feeling 30FPS. Even jumping from it to 60FPS racers, it doesn't feel bad at all.

Doskoi Panda · Mar 11, 2020

In my experience, there have been more games lately that look rather smooth at 30fps and are easy to play that way...
...but that illusion of smoothness stops holding up the very moment I see 60fps footage of the same game for the first time. After that, I can't not notice the gulf.

Firefly · Mar 11, 2020

I think this is largely because most games have frame rate drops occasionally or frame timing inconsistencies, that when we see a stable frame rate with even frame pacing, it looks smoother than what we're used to. Apart from motion blur, which is standard in the industry, there are no tricks going on. In reality, thats how it was always suppose to look and feel like.

behOemoth · Mar 11, 2020

The mentioned games also don't have stark contrasts in brightness, colors and artificially sharpened images like modern photography. The movements aren't distinctly perceivable like a big Square would be in front of an all white background.

Tiago Rodrigues · Mar 11, 2020

I've been playing Control on a PS4 Pro and i was just thinking about that yesterday.

chandoog · Mar 11, 2020

Spider Man PS4 has some of the best motion blur I have ever seen in a game.

Solid 30 FPS + good motion blur makes for a REALLY smooth game play experience.

JoJo'sDentCo · Mar 11, 2020

Crysis was like this back in the day on PC. Some kind of motion smoothing or whatever? I dunno.

Shoichi · Mar 11, 2020

There's no different it's more you get used to seeing it. 30 is still 30. It's just a locked 30 in cases.

When you play at 60+ and play again on console. You definitely see the difference.

HZD is 30 on PS4, I definitely felt the 30 after going back and forth with my games on PC.

J 0 E · Mar 11, 2020

Agree. I played the entire Uncharted games back-to-back recently and U4 felt smoother than the 60fps remasters despite being @ 30fps.

Swift_Gamer · Mar 11, 2020

pswii60 said:
It doesn't look smooth (compared to before), you've just got used to it. Since getting in to PC gaming last year it's really jarring when going back to 30fps on console and takes a lot of adjustment.

But I totally agree with this - albeit now with VRR/Gsync this becomes almost unnoticeable as long as it's within the VRR range of your display.

Nah, it totally does look smooth. I play lots of 60fps games on ps4 and my previous gen PC. So yeah, the 30fps implementation does look smooth.

bell_hooks · Mar 11, 2020

Games like Horizon are amazing even at 30 fps. But when it comes on PC with 60, Ps4 version will probably not feel smooth to me at all.
I finished Last of Us remastered and watched trailer for Last of Us part 2 and I immiedietly noticed low framerate. If I never played remaster of 1, I would probably say Part 2 looks very smooth, but now I wanna wait for PS5 to play it at 60

Kamaros · Mar 11, 2020

pswii60 said:
It doesn't look smooth (compared to before), you've just got used to it. Since getting in to PC gaming last year it's really jarring when going back to 30fps on console and takes a lot of adjustment.

it's this for me, as i played my first PC games at 60fps, going back to consoles (my primary gaming plataforms) it's jarring.

dancingphlower · Mar 11, 2020

Ah yes, the feel of 60 fps lol. But yeah on PS4 Pro, Spider-Man felt really good.

lactatingduck · Mar 11, 2020

Why do people act like 30fps is some choppy mess? Of course 60 fps is better, but is it a thing to pretend 30 is truly bad? Compliment the stable framerate for sure, but "making 30 fps look smooth?" 30fps is smooth.

Swift_Gamer · Mar 11, 2020

Shoichi said:
There's no different it's more you get used to seeing it. 30 is still 30. It's just a locked 30 in cases.

When you play at 60+ and play again on console. You definitely see the difference.

Can't understand why you're assuming I don't play 60fps games. Like I said, I'm used to 60fps and I do see the difference. Thing is, some devs are so good at what they do they can make 30fps look pleasantly smooth.

Dictator · Mar 11, 2020

It is just motion blur. And in general it helps with per object movement, but panning or large arc movement still looks really jank at 30. Not even the tail of motion blur can over up that difference.

Another problem is 30 fps on 60 hz displays, or even 120hz displays causes frame doubling. So if you ever wondered why it looks like there is ghosting in a game at 30, that is why. Not the game's fault, but the display and our eyes.

So any game at 30 fps on a console or pc on a 60hz display has this problem.

Rbk_3 · Mar 11, 2020

I am going to disagree. RDR2 felt unplayable to me on console. On PC it is great.

sponger · Mar 11, 2020

Just don't. Let's leave 30FPS games to history !

Nostremitus · Mar 11, 2020

disagree

I had to play with motion interpolation on to keep from getting migraines.

Swift_Gamer · Mar 11, 2020

Dictator said:
It is just motion blur. And in general it helps with per object movement, but panning or large arc movement still looks really jank at 30. Not even the tail of motion blur can over up that difference.

Another problem is 30 fps on 60 hz displays, or even 120hz displays causes frame doubling. So if you ever wondered why it looks like there is ghosting in a game at 30, that is why. Not the game's fault, but the display and our eyes.

I never experienced ghosting in 30fps games.

Deleted member 21858 · Mar 11, 2020

I guess the main reason people still think some games at 30fps feel "better" is because you are super used to it, or played the game for many, many hours. If you play the majority of games at 60fps and then suddenly go to one of those "good 30fps" games, you will immediately feel the difference aka 30fps is garbage.

Texan365 · Mar 11, 2020

I agree, it seems like in-house Sony studios are masters of 30fps. That said, I will always prefer 60fps.

Dictator · Mar 11, 2020

Swift_Gamer said:
I never experienced ghosting in 30fps games.

You must not notice it then! As it is a phenomenon that happens with the displays we use when they show half refresh rate content. Blur busters is a wonderful site to read about these kind of things if you are interested.

astro · Mar 11, 2020

lactatingduck said:
Why do people act like 30fps is some choppy mess? Of course 60 fps is better, but is it a thing to pretend 30 is truly bad? Compliment the stable framerate for sure, but "making 30 fps look smooth?" 30fps is smooth.

"Smooth".

It's playable, it's fine, it's not smooth.

ekim · Mar 11, 2020

It's the motion smoother from your TV interpolating frames :P

(half joking here)

i agree - especially the Forza Horizon games don't feel like 30 FPS

MrWindUpBird · Mar 11, 2020

The 30 FPS vs 60 FPS debate has always been ridiculous. 30 FPS games play just fine and I've never had a problem adjusting.

Swift_Gamer · Mar 11, 2020

astro said:
"Smooth".

It's playable, it's fine, it's not smooth.

If it feels smooth then it's smooth.

Memento · Mar 11, 2020

Horizon Zero Dawn is pretty incredible

It is one of the best looking games I have ever see and also one of the smoothest

Swift_Gamer · Mar 11, 2020

Hupsel said:
I guess the main reason people still think some games at 30fps feel "better" is because you are super used to it, or played the game for many, many hours. If you play the majority of games at 60fps and then suddenly go to one of those "good 30fps" games, you will immediately feel the difference aka 30fps is garbage.

Last gen I played mainly on PC, so I played in 60fps all the time but I never had problem playing Sony exclusives on PS3. So, no, that's not true at all to me.

astro · Mar 11, 2020

Swift_Gamer said:
If it feels smooth then it's smooth.

I disagree. 30fps always looks choppy, it always feels choppy. I can get used to it, but it's not ever smooth.

zombiejames · Mar 11, 2020

astro said:
"Smooth".

It's playable, it's fine, it's not smooth.

30fps can definitely look and feel smooth. Spider-man is a great recent-ish example, but for me The Order: 1886 is peak 30fps smoothness. Whatever motion blur implementation they used was sublime. Compare that to a 30fps game without any motion blur whatsoever, like Division 2. It's night and day.

Swift_Gamer · Mar 11, 2020

astro said:
I disagree. 30fps always looks choppy, it always feels choppy. I can get used to it, but it's not ever smooth.

Not for me. To me, when properly implemented, 30fps is smooth. Stop saying as if it's a fact because it isn't.

astro · Mar 11, 2020

zombiejames said:
30fps can definitely look and feel smooth. Spider-man is a great recent-ish example, but for me The Order: 1886 is peak 30fps smoothness. Whatever motion blur implementation they used was sublime. Compare that to a 30fps game without any motion blur whatsoever, like Division 2. It's night and day.

I disagree, it never looks or feels smooth to me.

Swift_Gamer said:
Not for me. To me, when properly implemented, 30fps is smooth. Stop saying as if it's a fact because it isn't.

You're "saying it as a fact" too, so stop that nonsense please <3

ShinUltramanJ · Mar 11, 2020

Spider-Man felt okay to me. Red Dead 2 on PS4 Pro felt lousy.
In fact I stopped playing RDR2 on console altogether and double dipped on PC so I could enjoy it.

I'm amazed to how developers are able to make 30fps look smooth nowadays

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