Why do Games have FPS (Frames Per Second) Caps?

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You forgot the videos on the description :T

I love this research series your doing its well done. You provide clear and consistent info as well as backing it up with examples of the point. I cant wait for more.

Love the videos! keep up the amazing content :)

wait mafia 3 is caped at 30 fps .-.

Hey Bouse if you want to die, do research and make a video on sensitivity (both console and PC) and how it's calculated. No balls.

Memes

Well to be honest one of the bigger Reasons why there even is a FPS lock on a PC Version is because it is a bad Port and they just kept the Framerate Lock from the Consol Version because its cheaper.

To tie Animations, Gamemechanics and so on to the Frame Rate is ususally also a sign of a bad Port since there is absolutly no Reason to have a FPS Lock on the PC Version. So if a Studi decied to tie their Animations or Physics to the FPS that means they did not build with a PC Version in mind and just build a Consol Version and (as above) did not put much effort into a decent PC Version..

Also because you metioned Mafia 3. After the hugh Shitstorm they quickly added a 60 FPS Lock and an unlimited FPS Option (still not a great Game but that atleast should be mentioned).

link to TBs video is missing :(

And then there is my pc That cant reach that fps lock ..

framerate cap is such a pain.... When you play most of your games at a refreshrate of 144hz, I can tell you that you will see the difference if you change your game options and pick "60Hz" or even less. It become really hard to play on PS4 after a while.
(and I think Mafia 3 is at 60fps now).

I'm not sure if this exists, but what about hardware longevity with respect to fps (gpu doesn't have to work as hard thus increasing longevity) or maybe allowing the gpu to run cooler or render frames correctly instead of quickly.

So, let's say PC master race, best graphics amongst consoles (implying a pc could be considered as one) and locked fps of 6O at all times.

Then we got PS4 & [X]1 which are kiiiiinda the same deal, but differ a lot from PC.
Can we say that we can choice between 6O FPS with a low quality & 3O FPS with a high quality?
Of course, it does not work like that, both consoles try to keep that balanced, but is inevitable to see a little difference between both when compared side by side.

That is why there's no "BEST" console out there (aside exclusive-console-games)?

Yup, Skyrim totally fucked up at 144fps :/

Don like FPS lock? Try Processor lock from earlier generations.

I don't usually comment much, but I just wanted to congratulate you on youe new content that you're making. It's really clear that you're much happier doing this than your previous content, and I'm really enjoying it, especially this research-y stuff. Great job man!

Bruh where'd them views go you make amazing content

As a game programmer myself I feel that tying a game's physics engine to a frame rate is a clear sign of lazy engine development and lack or desire to upgrade the game engine, Looking at you Bethesda. It's not even particularly hard to have the physics engine run at separate update rates than frame rate which all modern engines do. This frame timed physics is a relic of the past that needs to be completely gone. There's really no excuse to have relics like this especially now that 120hz monitors are so much more affordable, and VR content requiring 90+ fps, which gives me little hope for Fallout 4 VR.

On another note, frame times are never even reliable enough for any sort of timing anyway because you can't guarantee a fixed frame rate, delta time is always more reliable.

I tend to lock my FPS to 60, with my monitors refresh rate. Why let the racehorse run as fast as it can, if it'll win the race anyways. At a point, you're just rendering pointless frames. Also helps with screen tearing in my experience

when developers lock pc fps to 30 I lock my wallet. I didn't build a gaming pc so I could play games at console levels. I feel like the devs are treating their pc players as 3rd rate customers when we get late release, shoddy ports locked to 30. thankfully that doesn't happen too often.

Hmm... I understand that problem with fps-unlocked skyrim but i don't have problems with my unlocked nfs rivals. I can still control cars as before when it was 30 fps.

I'm actually an animation student. Interesting bit to add to the above discussion: you're eyes actually have an effect called the persistence of vision, long story short is that generally anything higher than 60 fps is useless because it is more images a second than our eyes can actually see. Film a set of Christmas lights at say 120fps and you actually see the electricity pulsing thru them. That said for anything to exceed an established frame rate that would mean the people who animated it would have to make all those frames, it's not easy trust me. The established rule in industry is that for Animation or film to look correct shoot with 24-60 fps depending on the amount of fast action. sorry if I'm writing a small essay on it here but just anyone wanting a game over like 100fps is absurd

I didnt understand what you were saying :|

I love you Thumbnail-Style. 😀

And then there are people who always want their 1000fps on a game with their high tec pocket-calculator.
Also it should be mentioned, the human eye cant really see more than 60fps, non gamer's wont even see the diffrence between 30 and 60fps, so there litterally is no point in having more. However some people have their 144hz monitors and mean there would be a diffrence but there really isn't, if anything it's a placebo.

You forgot a little detail,some people limit their frame rate so that their GPU stay cooler I mean that's why I use it :P (I need more fans in my case,one is not enough...)

Liked the video, but I feel like you should have mentioned why it is that developers lock frame rates anyway. I've met a few people who seemed to think it would be best to just let the frame rate run at whatever it can handle. But the video was good anyway keep it up!

I think there's another thing, in some games like gears of war 4 some animations are poorly made, like fire is stuck at 30 fps, so maybe developpers capped FPS so that we don't see too much difference

It's kinda cool we are the people experiencing games past visual interpretation for the first time

Don't forget that user input can also be negatively affected by low FPS. This is really more dependent on the type of game. Hearthstone doesn't need to run at 60+, but it really matters for a fighting game like Street Fighter.

Video is only 24 frames per second and is as smooth as real life. Why do games have to be more than that?

Free framerate and PC is better!

I know I'm late with this comment; but when capping ROTTR to 30fps on my gtx 970, I found that the Pure hair has better animations. Even on the benchmarks.

I use an fps cap to stop my laptop throttling

Lazy development xD
Games needs to have a option to unlock the fps, It's annoying to look and try to find a work around it, but I have fixed several games fps cap.