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Is The Game Industry Dropping The 60 FPS Standard?

By - Source: Techradar | B 212 comments

Nicolas Guérin, World Level Design Director on Assassin's Creed Unity, recently spoke with TechRadar about running the game at 30 frames per second. He said that part of the decision to lock the framerate had to do with giving the game a "cinematic gloss," which was already hard enough to emulate at 30 frames per second.

"At Ubisoft, for a long time we wanted to push 60 fps," Guérin admitted. "I don't think it was a good idea because you don't gain that much from 60 fps and it doesn't look like the real thing. It's a bit like The Hobbit movie, it looked really weird."

He also pointed to the Rachet and Clank series, which supposedly dropped the 60 frames per second standard. That said, he believes that the gaming industry on a whole is dropping the mission to achieve 60 frames per second because it's twice as hard to achieve. And in terms of rendering quality of the picture and image, 60 frames per second isn't all that great, he indicated.

Alex Amancio, the game's Creative Director, also chimed in, saying that 60 frames per second is excellent for first-person shooters, but not all that great for action adventure titles. He added that 30 frames per second "feels better" and allows the developer to "push the limits of everything to the maximum."

"It's like when people start asking about resolution. Is it the number of the quality of the pixels that you want? If the game looks gorgeous, who cares about the number?" Amancio said.

News of the framerate lock arrives after Bethesda revealed a way for PC gamers to alter the framerate in The Evil Within by using debug commands that can alter both the framerate and aspect ratio. However, the game, according to the company, was meant to be played at 30 frames per second and is locked at that rate on the consoles.

Do we really need the game to run at 60 frames per second, or will 30 do just fine? Keeping a game at the 30 frames per second limit supposedly allows developers to cram more into each frame, which means better visuals for gamers.

As for Assassin's Creed Unity, it will be made available on Windows PC, the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 here in the United States on November 11.

Follow Kevin Parrish @exfileme. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

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Top Comments
  • 105 Hide
    Armisael , October 9, 2014 11:32 AM
    I think we absolutely should drop 60fps as the standard.

    C'mon guys, move up to 120fps already.
  • 65 Hide
    red77star , October 9, 2014 11:28 AM
    Obviously two cancers of gaming industry called XBOX One and PS4 can't push a **** as far as games goes beyond 30FPS therefore I understand ******* this guys speaks of. At the same time PC Industry is going toward 4K on 60+ FPS which will not be achievable by ***** consoles in at least 4-5 years. 30FPS is unplayable no matter what type of game we speak of. I think Ubisoft finds themselves in a bigger problem and that is that PC game sale decimates Console sales but since they are committed to companies who made two **** boxes (XBOX, Play Station) they are worried to lose so much money having people not buy port **** running 30FPS. It would be costly for them to develop a game they it should be on PC Gaming and then redevelop same thing for **** cans which cannot push anything beyond 30FPS at 1080p. - message edited by mod, OP please watch the language.
  • 63 Hide
    rawoysters , October 9, 2014 11:36 AM
    "At Ubisoft, for a long time we wanted to push 60 fps," Guérin admitted. "I don't think it was a good idea because you don't gain that much from 60 fps and it doesn't look like the real thing" .
    Give me a break. You are catering to the console market, plain and simple. It's much easier to develop for and that's where the money is. They will try everything they can to spin this another way.
Other Comments
    Add your comment Display all 212 comments.
  • 65 Hide
    red77star , October 9, 2014 11:28 AM
    Obviously two cancers of gaming industry called XBOX One and PS4 can't push a **** as far as games goes beyond 30FPS therefore I understand ******* this guys speaks of. At the same time PC Industry is going toward 4K on 60+ FPS which will not be achievable by ***** consoles in at least 4-5 years. 30FPS is unplayable no matter what type of game we speak of. I think Ubisoft finds themselves in a bigger problem and that is that PC game sale decimates Console sales but since they are committed to companies who made two **** boxes (XBOX, Play Station) they are worried to lose so much money having people not buy port **** running 30FPS. It would be costly for them to develop a game they it should be on PC Gaming and then redevelop same thing for **** cans which cannot push anything beyond 30FPS at 1080p. - message edited by mod, OP please watch the language.
  • 105 Hide
    Armisael , October 9, 2014 11:32 AM
    I think we absolutely should drop 60fps as the standard.

    C'mon guys, move up to 120fps already.
  • 37 Hide
    Silent Ricochet , October 9, 2014 11:33 AM
    So basically, developers want to stop trying to achieve 60fps because of consoles. Am I getting this right? Because 30 fps in pretty much every game I play is the bare minimum of smooth gameplay. Battlefield at 30 fps? Horrible. Company of Heroes at 30 fps? Horrible. Films have motion blur, video games have stupid fake motion blur that detracts from the game. When I play a video game I want to feel like I'm a part of it, not like I'm watching a movie. Why have monitors and televisions that refresh at 60, 120, 144 and 240hz when these idiots want to limit their AAA titles to 30 fps? This just seems like an excuse so they can have an even, albeit worse, image quality and frame rate across all platforms.
  • 16 Hide
    icemunk , October 9, 2014 11:34 AM
    They're trying to set the bar lower, because 4K displays are becoming more and more common; but we don't quite have the horsepower needed with current mid-range GPUs, so if you can cut the frames in half and set that as a new standard, voila! Problem solved? (not really)
  • 63 Hide
    rawoysters , October 9, 2014 11:36 AM
    "At Ubisoft, for a long time we wanted to push 60 fps," Guérin admitted. "I don't think it was a good idea because you don't gain that much from 60 fps and it doesn't look like the real thing" .
    Give me a break. You are catering to the console market, plain and simple. It's much easier to develop for and that's where the money is. They will try everything they can to spin this another way.
  • 6 Hide
    vmem , October 9, 2014 11:37 AM
    if they drop back to 30fps because they want to have more detailed textures and push for 4K as a standard, then I don't mind (too much)

    but this is obviously to save the Xbox One and PS4 from getting dumped to the roadside so yeah... curse you consoles!!! worse part is these consoles supposedly won't be refreshed for like 10 years
  • 14 Hide
    usertests , October 9, 2014 11:38 AM
    I'm sorry but 30 FPS is too much. All video games should be framerate locked at 24 FPS to provide a cinematic quality experience.
  • 32 Hide
    anneoneamouse , October 9, 2014 11:38 AM
    Game performance comments from a level design director and a creative director? I'll bet Enzo Ferrari never once asked his paint-maker how fast a car needed to go.

    AoN
  • 20 Hide
    dwatterworth , October 9, 2014 11:40 AM
    Someone better get over to AMD and Nvidia super quick and tell them to not waste any more money on GPU development...

    So games that 30 fps is acceptable on a supposed 'premium machine'; strategy, turn based games, solitaire.

    I take that back on solitaire, those cards and pixel fireworks shoot out faster than 30 fps and sure do look nice and smooth at high framerates.

    What a crock. Now that the new consoles are essentially PC's, shouldn't it be incredibly easy to develop the game to as high a quality as possible and then adjust the frame rates to match the hardware (in case of fixed hardware consoles).

    Saying 30 fps lets you get the most detail in as possible doesn't make sense. It clearly would allow for more detail and effects on lower power hardware but it's not like the texture files, light maps etc will change other than being refreshed/rerendered more often when the frame rate goes up.

    People don't want to game on a zoetrope.
  • 17 Hide
    zanny , October 9, 2014 11:42 AM
    Quote:
    because 4K displays are becoming more and more common


    4k is not even on developers radar. They are targeting toaster machines under a TV that cannot handle 2006 visuals at 1080/60. The reason for this propaganda barrage involving false claims about 30 fps being anything probably because MS and Sony are bribing them to. They built low end computers and sold them as next gen and wondered why in order to make graphics look even comparable to modern PC titles the devs had to ruin the framerates and resolutions.

    But 4k won't even be a thing next console gen in all likelihood. In the same way 1080p displays were out during the PS2 era, and then the 360 / PS3 were incapable of targeting that resolution, I expect the Xbox Zero and PS5 to be incapable of rendering to 4k as well, because even in four years it will be expensive to supply graphics hardware that will be able to handle it.
  • 15 Hide
    Sassysaurus , October 9, 2014 11:49 AM
    Not regarding the few exceptions, current consoles can't even push 1080P at 30 FPS, so I can't imagine them getting to 4K by the time they get refreshed. And I don't even understand Amancio's comment about pixel density. Sure having detailed textures is nice, but you can only go so far with that without increasing your pixel density to allow for more detail. They're back pedaling on every single hot topic that the consoles are failing at and trying to justify them as the new standard for the industry while my computer that is 4 years old is running Shadow of Mordor on high at over 60 FPS just fine. Way to set the bar high for yourselves there Ubi.
  • 33 Hide
    rad666 , October 9, 2014 11:49 AM
    I wonder if the people at Ubisoft can hear the Internet shouting "BULLSH*T!"
  • 14 Hide
    TechyInAZ , October 9, 2014 11:56 AM
    I highly disagree, 60fps in games should always be the standard. It's way more immersive than 30fps.

  • 14 Hide
    apertotes , October 9, 2014 11:57 AM
    If they had a competent Public Relations manager, this stupid comment would have never gone out of their toilets.
  • 3 Hide
    skit75 , October 9, 2014 12:00 PM
    Are you saying you are bringing back game-play & replay-ability at the expense of eyecandy/graphics because that is not what I heard.

    That spin was so hard, I feel like the guy in Spaceballs.... " how come nobody told me my ass was so big?"
  • 1 Hide
    InvalidError , October 9, 2014 12:03 PM
    Has there ever been such a thing as a "60Hz standard?" AFAIK, most games have two basic options as far as "frame standard" goes: whatever vsync for the attached output monitor(s) is or no sync where the game simply renders as many frames per second as the CPU/GPU will allow.

    The closest thing to a new standard is freesync/g-sync which are the best of both worlds and have no specific update rate aside from the monitor's absolute maximum.
  • -4 Hide
    qlum , October 9, 2014 12:05 PM
    I think the whole vsync standards may just go away next generation on console as the adaptive syncing amd pushed to a standard is probably also going into hdmi which in turn will mean consoles will get it. When that happens you may be seeing a standard of 45fps average our something along those lines. Personally on pc I never had too much trouble with screen tearing. and think 45fps is a nice sweetspot for less precise games.
  • 7 Hide
    Lmah , October 9, 2014 12:07 PM
    Ubisoft is digging their own grave once again. I really wish PC gamers would stop supporting them one of these days since all they care about is console game sales.
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