What did Horizon ZD do to make 30 FPS so smooth?

Uncharted 4 felt great to me too.

Uc 4 seems bad for people that played the multiplayer cause it's 60, but it's a really smooth 30 in the story.

It's responsive and visually fluid. HZD too as you said.


And then you have FFXV which is basically looking like it's running at 20 FPS. With input lag. Jesus. I wish more developers tried to achieve smooth 30.

The worst part is that SO MANY ps2 games did it perfectly. I don't know what happened in the ps3 era.

Need to add UC4/TLL's 30fps too as that's plenty smooth..

Consistent frametimes. Its not smooth, you just get used to it.

Didn't seem any different from any other 30fps game to me.

Hupsel said:

Smooth? I played Horizon recently, you can definitely feel that it´s a 30fps game just by moving the camera around. 30fps and smooth is weird to read in the same sentence. Honestly I would accept ps3 graphics this gem (a la TLOU) if games like Horizon and GoW aimed for smooth 60fps.

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I wouldn't nor would buy it for over $10.

BrunOz said:

I just can't play God of War on resolution mode after trying performance mode, it feels so much better to me.

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I won't even try performance mode. I'm not playing at 1080p if I can avoid it.

I only played the game for all of 30 minutes, but it struck me as feeling exactly like every other 30fps game. I guess you could call it smooth in that I didn't notice it dipping below 30 much (if at all).

Uncharted 4 personally felt way smoother and more fluid than HZD at 30fps. U4 had me asking myself a few times is this game 60fps but then you'd jump on the multiplayer and experience actual 60fps.

Did they incorporate triple buffering? I think ( if I remember correctly) they helped ND add it to UC2.

If they did use it in Horizon, they did a very good job with the controls, because they felt smooth and very responsive.

Frametiming has a major impact on input response time and perception of smooth motion and responsiveness. Obviously higher framerates are best and by measurement of percentage cramming more frames in a second can help diminish the impact of erratic frametiming, but at all framerates, especially lower framerates, stable frametiming can improve the experience dramatically. Helps eradicate stutter, even if it's subtle, and ensures the flow of motion and input is as smooth as possible (framerate aside). Locked 30fps with near perfect frame pacing is never going to blow away the high performance crowd, but it acutally feels pretty damn nice in play.

There's 2 types of 30fps.

30fps
and 30fps with perfect frametiming.

Ratchet and Clank is also super smooth.

I am currently doing another playtrough of Horizon.
Today I was playing horizon for a couple of hours.
Immediately after I went and play uncharted 4.
As soon as I got control of drake just moving the camera around felt sluggish compared to horizon, and nowhere near as smooth.
Uncharted 4 is what I expect from a 30fps game.
But in comparison, horizon feels like a 60fps game.

That is exactly what it felt like, like I was playing horizon at 60 and then jumped to uncharted at 30...

I was pretty baffled to be honest.

KnightimeX said:

There's 2 types of 30fps.

30fps
and 30fps with perfect frametiming.

Ratchet and Clank is also super smooth.

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if by Ratchet and Clank you're referring specifically to the PS4 game, and not the 30FPS games that came out on PS3, which were as far from super-smooth as Ratchet and Clank games have ever been

Big-ass R&C fan here but I didn't play more than an hour of Into The Nexus because that framerate was downright noticeable.

Gdourado said:

I am currently doing another playtrough of Horizon.
Today I was playing horizon for a couple of hours.
Immediately after I went and play uncharted 4.
As soon as I got control of drake just moving the camera around felt sluggish compared to horizon, and nowhere near as smooth.
Uncharted 4 is what I expect from a 30fps game.
But in comparison, horizon feels like a 60fps game.

That is exactly what it felt like, like I was playing horizon at 60 and then jumped to uncharted at 30...

I was pretty baffled to be honest.

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Horizon Zero Dawn really is smooth.

It is pretty scary actually. It is one of the best looking games out there AND it is open world AND it has great performance.

I'll be honest. I didnt find HZD that smooth. If anything i found the motion blur to be way too aggressive when i moved the camera about.

Hupsel said:

Smooth? I played Horizon recently, you can definitely feel that it´s a 30fps game just by moving the camera around. 30fps and smooth is weird to read in the same sentence. Honestly I would accept ps3 graphics this gem (a la TLOU) if games like Horizon and GoW aimed for smooth 60fps.

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Thank god you're in the minority. No offense, but I wouldn't give up on Horizon's AWESOME graphics just to have them run at 60 fps

Gdourado said:

I am currently doing another playtrough of Horizon.
Today I was playing horizon for a couple of hours.
Immediately after I went and play uncharted 4.
As soon as I got control of drake just moving the camera around felt sluggish compared to horizon, and nowhere near as smooth.
Uncharted 4 is what I expect from a 30fps game.
But in comparison, horizon feels like a 60fps game.

That is exactly what it felt like, like I was playing horizon at 60 and then jumped to uncharted at 30...

I was pretty baffled to be honest.

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Yes I totally agree and it's because of several things IMO:

- Uncharted 4 has one of the worst motion blur ever (or no motion blur if you wish), a sluggish camera with bad acceleration and a rather unstable framerate.
- Horizon has an excellent and quite subtle motion blur implementation, a responsive camera and a virtually locked framerate (at least on Pro).

But it's still not real 60fps like for instance in Metal Gear Solid 5.

Yeah, Horizon is the smoothest 30 fps game I've ever played. GG are geniuses.

Not sure what you mean to be honest. It's a 30 fps that feels like 30.

Don't get me wrong, I loved the game despite this major shortcoming. But I'd have traded literally any graphics settings to play that (or any) game at 60.

Honestly, this whole "30 is ok" thing among devs is a damn shame because it's truly not. I'd rather tone *every single thing* down.

Ocean said:

Not sure what you mean to be honest. It's a 30 fps that feels like 30.

Don't get me wrong, I loved the game despite this major shortcoming. But I'd have traded literally any graphics settings to play that (or any) game at 60.

Honestly, this whole "30 is ok" thing among devs is a damn shame because it's truly not. I'd rather tone *every single thing* down.

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Yeah honestly 60FPs needs to be the only acceptable standard next gen. It should happen before we start pushing for 4K and HDR, but that's easier to push than 60FPS because it's immediately apparent in screenshots and quick video shots.

Ocean said:

Not sure what you mean to be honest. It's a 30 fps that feels like 30.

Don't get me wrong, I loved the game despite this major shortcoming. But I'd have traded literally any graphics settings to play that (or any) game at 60.

Honestly, this whole "30 is ok" thing among devs is a damn shame because it's truly not. I'd rather tone *every single thing* down.

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Try Bloodborne and then Horizon Zero Dawn and you will know what he meant

Slaythe said:

Uncharted 4 felt great to me too.

Uc 4 seems bad for people that played the multiplayer cause it's 60, but it's a really smooth 30 in the story.

It's responsive and visually fluid. HZD too as you said.


And then you have FFXV which is basically looking like it's running at 20 FPS. With input lag. Jesus. I wish more developers tried to achieve smooth 30.

The worst part is that SO MANY ps2 games did it perfectly. I don't know what happened in the ps3 era.

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Ehh IDK Uncharted was a little janky and blurry to me anyway. I think maybe motion blur or just something about it got to me at times. Horizon does too but not quite as much. 30FPS sucks though for sure.

Bloodborne I just blank out of my mind when I play it. It runs a little better on Pro but dear god the game would look amazing in 1440p+ with better image quality and 60FPS. It's crazy going to my PC to play 1440p 60FPS DS3. It just looks and plays so much better. It's really sad they decided not to patch it. One of those instances where I would recommend people be called lazy or just indifferent beyond a reasonable scope. BB should have gotten a Pro patch.

Propper framepacing + good latency + good use of camera/object blur.

The feel of 60 fps.

I know both are 30fps, and they both are third person action adventure games but playing, they don't feel the same.

I was doing a hunting trial in Horizon, the one where you have to tie down the glinthawks.
I was being attacked by 3 tramplers while targeting 3 glinthawks.
It was mayhem but the combat felt really good, fluid and responsive.

Then I jumped to uncharted. To chapter 2, right after Vargas takes drake outside the prison and you have to climb up to the tower on the prison.
It is slower paced, but just moving the camera to see the surroundings and where you have to jump and launch the rope felt so sluggish by comparison that I just don't know why.

Dunno it looked like a blurry mess to me

Stable frame pacing and motion blur goes a long way

Ocean said:

Not sure what you mean to be honest. It's a 30 fps that feels like 30.

Don't get me wrong, I loved the game despite this major shortcoming. But I'd have traded literally any graphics settings to play that (or any) game at 60.

Honestly, this whole "30 is ok" thing among devs is a damn shame because it's truly not. I'd rather tone *every single thing* down.

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If you're not sure, go play Far Cry 5 on PS4. Then horizon.

Far Cry feels like ass just attempting to move the crosshair. Horizon is smooth as fuck and aiming is easy.

It's much better than PC 30fps but nowhere near feeling like 60.

Consistent frame pacing and locked frame rate

Oghuz said:

Yeah, Horizon is the smoothest 30 fps game I've ever played. GG are geniuses.

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This. They really nailed it :)

I thought it was just real steady, not necessarily smooth. Spider-Man... With that motion blur... That actually turned out looking really smooth.

I also loved how well the game controlled. Remember KZ2 with its input lag? ;)

30FPS is always butter smooth to me.

Few things:

• Solid 30fps
• Correct frame time
• Smart use of motion blur
• Excellent texture streaming and frustum culling
• Low input lag

Nothing really magical about it, but not every game developer gets all those things right... FromSoftware for example doesn't seem to get or even care about frame pacing and that's a shame.

Marvel's Spider-Man also feels incredibly smooth at 30fps. Digital Foundry noted that is also because of its very high quality motion blur, which is apparently among the best in any game so far.

Gdourado said:

I am currently doing another playtrough of Horizon.
Today I was playing horizon for a couple of hours.
Immediately after I went and play uncharted 4.
As soon as I got control of drake just moving the camera around felt sluggish compared to horizon, and nowhere near as smooth.
Uncharted 4 is what I expect from a 30fps game.
But in comparison, horizon feels like a 60fps game.

That is exactly what it felt like, like I was playing horizon at 60 and then jumped to uncharted at 30...

I was pretty baffled to be honest.

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Visually in terms of motion, HZD looks like most other 30fps games as far as I'm concerned, but keeps its framerate pretty much locked. Where HZD truly excels though is the incredibly low input lag - the lag feels 60fps tier. That's what impressed me most about HZD and it's even more incredible when you consider it's from the developer of Killzone 2.

Games like Uncharted 4 and God of War (in resolution mode) feel super laggy compared to HZD.

impact said:

If you're not sure, go play Far Cry 5 on PS4. Then horizon.

Far Cry feels like ass just attempting to move the crosshair. Horizon is smooth as fuck and aiming is easy.

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Honestly this is the reason I stopped playing FC5. Feels like absolute shit on a DS4. I went to a preview event where the build was even worse. Horizon feels like such a joy to play in comparison.

pswii60 said:

Visually in terms of motion, HZD looks like most other 30fps games as far as I'm concerned, but keeps its framerate pretty much locked. Where HZD truly excels though is the incredibly low input lag - the lag feels 60fps tier. That's what impressed me most about HZD and it's even more incredible when you consider it's from the developer of Killzone 2.

Games like Uncharted 4 and God of War (in resolution mode) feel super laggy compared to HZD.

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I think motion blur in Uncharted also made it really weird looking. Not sure I played it with a Pro at that point. I cannot remember. I think maybe the end parts.

Solid said:

if by Ratchet and Clank you're referring specifically to the PS4 game, and not the 30FPS games that came out on PS3, which were as far from super-smooth as Ratchet and Clank games have ever been

Big-ass R&C fan here but I didn't play more than an hour of Into The Nexus because that framerate was downright noticeable.

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Frame timing can make a night and day difference. Especially in 30fps games.
60fps too but I feel it's more noticeable at 30fps.

I have been having the same thoughts privately.
Horizon > Uncharted > God of War > Bloodborne.

As low latency as possible at 30fps, perfect framepacing, detailed animation and great motion blur. 30fps does not get better than Horizon. I remember Guerrilla saying they always gave the hardware 10% headroom to ensure consistency.

Horizon 2 on PS5 at 60fps will be pure sex.

apeAsnake said:

Dunno it looked like a blurry mess to me

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Did you watch a Youtube video at 144p?

I think "smooth" is the wrong word to use here. 30 FPS is never smooth. "Consistent" is a more accurate term. 30 FPS with consistent frame pacing is definitely better than 30 FPS with inconsistent frame pacing but either way, 30 FPS will never feel smooth when you're used to playing games at 60+ FPS.

leng jai said:

It's much better than PC 30fps but nowhere near feeling like 60.

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This claim never makes any sense. 30 FPS is 30 FPS regardless of platform. It "feels" worse on PC because 60 FPS is standard, whereas 30 FPS is standard on consoles. Things feel bad when they don't meet your expectations.

Perfect or near perfect frame-pacing, pretty much all the big Sony releases I've played have not only looked amazing but had damn near perfect framepacing, Uncharted, Horizon, GOW, Spider-Man, all on the base PS4 as well.
It's one of the main things I struggle with a lot on PC, no matter how much I try I always find it hard to get as good framepacing at 30, I lock most my games to 30, would much rather lock it at 30 than average 40fps for instance, and although Riva Tuner does give me decent results sometimes I don't think I've played a game on PC where it was as good, at least not consistently throughout a playthrough.

Proper frame pacing and intelligent use of motion blue go a long way

It really is pretty amazing. My brother - who only games on PC - was genuinely confused by the framerate when he tried the game out at my house. He was super surprised it was 30fps, which is usually a framerate he makes fun of. Me, I'm used to 30fps and don't game much on my PC, but for him to be fooled by it shows how impressive it is.

The answer is they had a super smart son of a bitch from new Zealand that optimized the shit outta it like a champ.

Flexible camera and character movement help too with the perception.

The same what Spider-Man did: use an excellent motion blur to mask the jolts that may happen.

So, sorry if its a stupid question, i'm not very experienced in this kind of stuff: Are there any software-tools for PC to make games run that smooth in lower framerates like 30fps or is that not possible technically?