It doesn't though, it's sluggish in comparison to 60fps+ titles, there's no way getting around it.
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What did Horizon ZD do to make 30 FPS so smooth?
- Thread starter ultima786
- Start date
It still feels so smooth for a 30fps title. And I love it. Incredible work by Guerrilla Games.
It's always been more about the feel and speed of the gameplay to me than it was about how it looked. I always thought 30fps looked fine but it never feels as good for a really fast action game.
As for how it works in Horizon. I think the key to making 30FPS feel great for any game is to make sure the gameplay is geared towards it (ie a little slower) and somehow fit the animation towards the same as well.
Yeah, incredible work. Nothing like having to use photo mode to be able to get a good look at your surroundings.
This reminds me how good the photomode is in HZD. Incredible indeed.
It's noticeably jerkier even in non-combat situations. I still play in high res mode though because of how nice it looks. Maybe on my second playthrough, I'll go with performance mode
Still felt choppy and blurry to me, like 30fps usually does. I think the smoothest 30fps game I've experienced is The Order 1886.
Not worse, but that's still an interesting question.
If it's 60fps with bad frame pacing then you'll get a constant judder, but since it's still a relatively high framerate you'll barely notice it. From Difital Foundrys Mario Kart 8 (WiiU) analysis:
"What this ultimately means is that, during normal gameplay, Mario Kart 8 continually drops down to 59fps. This may not seem like a big deal - most will probably not notice it at all, and it has zero affect on playability - but it has a noticeable impact on image fluidity that mars what would otherwise be a perfectly consistent frame-rate. And for us at least, once it is seen, it can't really be unseen."
But if it's 30fps and has bad frame pacing it'll be noticable by anyone. Digital Foundry on Bloodborne (PS4):
"Though its 30fps average is technically correct, Bloodborne often produces two unique frames followed by two duplicates - rather than one after another - creating a perception of frame-rate drops throughout. It's not smooth in motion at all as a result"
I think with Freesync coming to TVs and already applied on consoles (Xbox One X) we'll eventually get rid of all this, in the end we'll get relatively smooth motion even when the framerate is hovering around 40fps (which today looks like a mess).
I absolutely hate input lag but HZD nails it with very low input lag. On performance mode, it beats some 60 FPS games' input lag.
Another Horizon, Forza Horizon, also had a very smooth frame rate for 30fps. I only played the 360 game so it was years ago but I still remember it.
Another Horizon, Forza Horizon, also had a very smooth frame rate for 30fps. I only played the 360 game so it was years ago but I still remember it.
No, but it's still jarring. I refer you to Mario Kart on Wii U. 60 fps with a small frame pacing issue that was fortunately fixed on the Switch.
It didn't really feel particularly smooth to me (I played in the high resolution mode on the Pro, however). I do a lot of gaming on the PC at 60 fps, so that might explain my experience.
Great game, nevertheless.
Great game, nevertheless.
OP
OP
I play FFXV at 60 FPS with g-sync (with some drops here and there) and it's hard to see any difference between it and HZD. Yet I can see a noticeable difference between it and GoW. So that spurred me to think that perhaps there was more going on. Sounds like FPS, frametiming, and motion blur are all at play.
It's definitely one of the smoothest feeling 30fps games in general, especially in performance mode. God of War feels good too but perhaps slightly worse.
AC Origins doesn't feel that great at 30fps even when it's locked, I think that's in part due to the lack of motion blur. The Witcher 3 feels absolutely terrible at 30 compared to Horizon.
AC Origins doesn't feel that great at 30fps even when it's locked, I think that's in part due to the lack of motion blur. The Witcher 3 feels absolutely terrible at 30 compared to Horizon.
i'm beginning to think outside of framepacing it might have something to do with animations? some games feel bad on pc when I start going into combat when the characters start doing all kinds of shit but yet feels "smooth" while just walking/running around
What? No.
God of War isn't even in the same league as Horizon when it comes to how it feels at 30. Going from performance mode to resolution mode on my Pro was horrifying.
I'll take the hitches of Performance mode any day.
This is a huge factor. If you're presented with the higher framerate option and try it you're immediately going to notice 30fps more when you switch back. For that reason I haven't even bothered to try performance mode. I'm fine with the 4K mode at 30.
Anyone else perfer playing GOW on resolution mode? I tried performance for a bit, but didn't really care for it.
It felt different, not nessicerily better?
It felt different, not nessicerily better?
Regardless, it still feels damn smooth.
Resolution mode all day every day! Looks much better than 1080p mode.
The point of this thread isn't to compare 30 FPS to 60 tho. It's comparing how some games handle 30 FPS better than others with frame pacing and motion blur implementation, like multiple people have stated.
I'm used to gaming on a high end PC at 144Hz so 30fps always feels slow to me, but it definitely varies in intensity from game to game. Personally I stopped playing Horizon because it felt too choppy for me due to the combat being quite fast, I found it very hard aiming with a controller at 30fps. I'd say my best 30fps experiences have been Uncharted 4 (bar the last boss which was choppy AF) and Order 1886 which felt really great due to it being a bit slower paced. I ordered God of War and I'm hoping it'll feel OK, but from what I've seen it's not even 30fps locked so I'm a bit worried, but I love Kratos and GoW so I have to try it out.
Nothing, because 30 FPS is not factually smooth. Only 60 FPS can deliver such an experience.
However, some games, including Horizon, are perfectly playable and enjoyable at a locked 30 FPS.
However, some games, including Horizon, are perfectly playable and enjoyable at a locked 30 FPS.
Feel so smooth? Its literally the issue that stopped me playing. That and the overuse of motion blur.
It's not noticeably any less "smooth" on my OG PS4. Perhaps it has issues on the Pro.
Because Horizon is well made. 30fps has always been smooth. If a 30fps game has ever felt not-smooth to you you can bet the developers did something wrong. Either the framerate isn't locked at 30, it has bad frame-pacing, wasn't properly designed around that frame limit, or all of the above. If a developer builds their game around 30fps and hits all the checkmarks, it's perfect.
Nonsense. It runs objectively smoother than most of Sony's other 30fps games this generation, including Uncharted 4 and God of War. The low input lag does help this a lot, mind.
Perfect frame timing and good motion are not the standard.
There's only four games I have played all the way to Platonum Trophy: Destiny, Destiny 2, Horizon and FFXV. I loved them all, make no mistake. I'm currently playing and loving God of War and will try to 100% it as well, probably GOTY.
But these are all unmistakeable 30 fps games, and they suffer dearly for it. Nothing special, they're 30 and feel 30 and it sucks.
But these are all unmistakeable 30 fps games, and they suffer dearly for it. Nothing special, they're 30 and feel 30 and it sucks.
I play my games on PC at 30 FPS most times when there's the options to cap it at a lower framerate as my PC can't hold at 60 FPS consistently most times at the settings I like and I don't notice the difference either. I do notice framerate drops and framepacing and that's kind of enough to start making me feel nausea. It's why when there's a console game that has uncapped framerates, It better at least provide some capped options because that is horrible.
OP is talking about 30fps in Horizon feeling better than other games running at the same frame rate, not saying it's so smooth it's the same as 60...
Begone with the frame concern trolling. You have no power in this thread!
This. I'm really tired of people who endlessly need to complain about console frame rates just because they have good computers. Its almost as cringy as the pc master race stuff. Plus the pro can do like 50 fps in some sections of GoW so it's not really so bad.
What are you talking about? FOV has nothing to do with FPS.