how do they do it?

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08-04-2002
DavidP

how do they do it?

i was looking at a computer magazine yesterday...and it was advertising some new computer called the Falcon Mach 5...

they were testing Quake 3 frame rates on it, and the thing was getting between 150-250 fps at high resolutions...and im talkin like 1024x768 and stuff...higher than that actually...thats just the only one i can remember...

anyways, how the heck to they get frame rates so high?

my game that i am making is low res and getting 40 fps!!!!

[angry mumbling] dang professional game programmers with there freakin high frame rates...argx...[/angry mumbling]
08-04-2002
ygfperson

they use 3d accelerator graphic cards.
08-04-2002
DavidP

dang 3d accellerator graphic cards...
08-04-2002
lightatdawn

>>and getting 40 fps!!!!

Who the hell cares? After 26 FPS (I think is the number, but its near there if thats not it) the human eye ceases to notice the difference (conciously anyhow). [Most?] movies have 26 FPS. I dont get what all the hype about getting higher FPS is about. After a certain point it makes no difference.
08-04-2002
dirkduck

Isnt it 24FPS for movies? Anywho, I read an article once that was saying something about how a movie may look smooth, but a game at 24FPS would have a slightly noticable slowdown...not sure though.
08-04-2002
no-one

>After 26 FPS (I think is the number, but its near there if thats not it) the human eye ceases to notice the difference (conciously anyhow).

if im not mistake... or confused which i usually am...

this is not true, on a computer monitor the human eye starts failing to notice a difference at 30 fps and ceases to notice a difference and around 60 fps.

on tvs the FPS can be lower because of interlacing, and such.

do a google search, you'll get better info than i can give.

again if im not mistake movies are 24 - 36 fps, and anime is 17 - 24 fps.
08-05-2002
Sayeh

The human eye works at 18 fps. The reason it notices issues with higher frame rates is because the eye is not synchronized to the same clock as the animation being watched. As such, jitter or other perturbations can be seen.

As for high frame rates, GPUs (Graphic Processing Units, which is what an Acclerator Card has) are not the sole answer, and in fact is a kind of a cop-out by lazy/poor programmers. Atleast that's the way it was. Now, CPUs are affordable and really are a commodity now, so it's okay to require you have one.

Professional game developers (I used to be one) don't try to support the hottest, fastest GPU out there and nothing else. They try to support much lower standards as well as the higher standards so that market share is larger (and hence retail sales).

They do this by writing games very close to the hardware. By using code profilers and debuggers. By analyzing not only the code that the compilers generate, but also how data is organized. By talking with O/S makers and GPU makers, etc.

Remember, aside from the game control interface, a game is not much more than a very sophisticated database. The "engine" merely pulls data out of the data base and slams it on screen as fast as possible.

How data is organized is as important as how the engine is written.
08-05-2002
Govtcheez

What games did you do work on, Sayeh?
08-05-2002
Cshot

Quote:

Who the hell cares? After 26 FPS (I think is the number, but its near there if thats not it) the human eye ceases to notice the difference (conciously anyhow). [Most?] movies have 26 FPS. I dont get what all the hype about getting higher FPS is about. After a certain point it makes no difference.

Ummm...motion blur. In video games there is no motion blur.
http://amo.net/NT/02-21-01FPS.html

On movies and tv, it doesn't make a difference. But have you ever played a game with 26 fps? And then compare it to 100+ or even 200+ fps? Believe me, there is a HUGE difference because I play these types of games all the time. It makes the 26 fps look like a slideshow. Anyways if you don't believe me, you should try it out.
08-05-2002
The Dog

>> anyways, how the heck to they get frame rates so high?

Probably the work of nVidia.

More specific : GeForce 4 ti4600

I've never seen anything faster!
08-05-2002
Govtcheez

> I've never seen anything faster!

Try a Radeon 9700
08-05-2002
toaster

yeah, and watch those things BURN!
you tweak those things any further, they'll demand more from your system such as processor speed and, memory. don't forget that the card needs cooling when you do this.
08-05-2002
Fountain

well, nvidia or radeon....? which is the quickest of the new cards...and freely available to buy....