PGR2 30fps Like or dislike?

[Max M]

BTW, a good way to tell the difference between 30fps and 60fps is by comparing the Dreamcast and PS2 versions of Rez.

[Chief H]

...or sonic adventure 1 and 2 on the dc.

60fps is an incredibly nice luxury to have - one that I have personally enjoyed at great length recently. There's nothing more satisfying than flicking on JSRF for the first time to be shocked at how the frame rate was so much higher than originally thought and to see how this new world had been lvoingly crafted in a unique way.

No such shock will happen with PGR2, unfortunately.

It's a downer, but I've put in far too many hours into Halo to know that a good game will simply make you forget how many frames have just whizzed by. Even when the fps dips dramatically in 16p lan play, you barely notice it as everything else masks the issue at hand.

Which is why I'm not overly concerned at what's happening here. I can't help but wonder what they have tucked away that needed this drop in framerate. The first thing I think about when I hear talk of locking a frame rate down is to create a complete effect. In PGR the reflection maps only ran at about 10-15 fps. I'm guessing all of this has been brought up to a solid 30 fps now. But what else do we have on offer? 8 car races? sounds like system link up is happening finally, on top of Live!. And what of AI? I'd like to see some sort of adaptive system which remembers how you treat them and acts as ruthlessly as necessaryin order to exact it's revenge, rather than the faceless, anonymous nature of the PGR, RR and GT rivals. Or the "audio system" for that mattter? I'm guessing if they think the audio system has anything to dow ith the frame rate then something's on the low-down. Real time mixing of custom soundtracks? I dunno.

I feel like playing a little more PGR now..

[Burai]

BTW, a good way to tell the difference between 30fps and 60fps is by comparing the Dreamcast and PS2 versions of Rez.

Best way is to use the Ridge Racer Hi-Spec demo that they gave away with Ridge Racer Type 4. You can hot swap between the original 30FPS and the 60FPS version on the same disc.

[GOD?]

...or sonic adventure 1 and 2 on the dc.

both have 30fps and 60fps, depending on the level you're playing. they're both largely 60fps.

racing games benefit massively from 60fps, as such I am not pleased with this announcement. I don't even like playing 50hz/ie 50fps modes in racing games!

for stuff like Halo and SMS, 30fps is absolutely fine. but it becomes annoying for racing games and anything else which moves quickly, the game world never seems smooth or solid.

[Smeghead]

...or sonic adventure 1 and 2 on the dc.

both have 30fps and 60fps, depending on the level you're playing. they're both largely 60fps.

Sonic Adventure 1 is locked at 30fps for all but the lil Bumper Car mini game iirc, Sonic Adventure 2 was 60fps all the way thru apart from multiplayer and a few in game engine cut scenes.

Burnout 1/2 in multiplayer comparing this with single player, omg it's horrible!!!!!!1111 cept for BO2 on Xbox...mmmm60fps

[GOD?]

Sonic Adventure 1 is locked at 30fps for all but the lil Bumper Car mini game iirc, Sonic Adventure 2 was 60fps all the way thru apart from multiplayer and a few in game engine cut scenes.

I've just checked it in PAL-60 and er, yes, SA1 is 30fps.



well at least it's in sync unlike the awful GC port

[Hodge]

If you want to try another prime example of 60 vs 30 in a racing game, dig out your dc and sega rally 2 and put it on Desert SS1 in time attack which runs at a rock solid 60fps. After you sampled the silky smooth game play go back to the main menu (where it says press start). now enter the cheat. Up, A, Down(2), left, right, B(2), Up to change the frame rate to 30fps. Now try that course again and tell me what you think?

[RLench]

Burnout 1/2 in multiplayer comparing this with single player, omg it's horrible!!!!!!1111 cept for BO2 on Xbox...mmmm60fps

That's a painfully obvious example. I played PS2 B2 a few weeks ago with a mate (the first time I played it in 2 player) We were playing pursuit mode and I just couldn't play it properly at all because it was so choppy and slow. My mate (who had little experience of the game) kept saying 'what's the matter?' because he didn't notice a difference.

Going from 60fps to 30fps in a racer is like riding a bike one moment, then somebody suddenly popping the tires

[Rushy]

but they will loose alot of sales cause of it.

Dec 03 - SHOCK NEWS: PGR2 fails to sell well due to its solid 30fps frame rate. It seems the massmarket won't buy into games with frame rates of 30 any more.

What a load of bollox tbh, 30fps didn't stop Halo selling a couple of million did it. And I doubt most casual gamers will even notice.

[GOD?]

If you want to try another prime example of 60 vs 30 in a racing game, dig out your dc and sega rally 2 and put it on Desert SS1 in time attack which runs at a rock solid 60fps. After you sampled the silky smooth game play go back to the main menu (where it says press start). now enter the cheat. Up, A, Down(2), left, right, B(2), Up to change the frame rate to 30fps. Now try that course again and tell me what you think?

just as a side note, I believe those cheats only work on the JAP version (they do on mine, but not on my PAL version)... there's also a 60fps code which locks every course at 60fps but with less backgrounds.

[dc-arena]

It should be 60fps, it NEEDS to be 60fps. Its a nextgen racing game on the "best hardware in the world" so really 60fps shouldnt be a problem for it.

They just need to sacrifice some of the effects that really arent needed. The same thing happened in Moto GP2 on XBox. The framerate was a JOKE. Constantly stuttering as you are riding along, then when you go into a corner.. LOL.. I had the framerate down to about 2.5 a second at one point. Completely unplayable. A DISGRACE.

This is because they were doing too many effects and didnt optimize the rendering code to compensate for the new effects. Xbox has lots of problems with fillrate, so putting loads of FS effects like smoke and heat hazes kills it. This should of been picked up on in QA, and more importantly, when it was in submission with Microsoft. Looking on forums I fear the game the game wasnt tested in 16:9 enough.. Or maybe it was just pushed out the door as MS were desperate to get an online game out there after all their promises.

I never want to play a racing game again where the framerate is unstable, so locking PGR2 to 30fps is a good idea. However its a ****ty way out and I suspect they ran out of time so they couldnt optimize the code and remove effects (not that the latter takes time) so they had to go with locking to 30fps.

As for "British Dev co's not having a clue", its not the developers fault, its the people who make the descions in the company that are to blame.

[replicant]

The fact of the matter is clear....

30 fps is unacceptable for this game.

I don't care what excuses some people will have to attempt to justify the fps. It doesn't matter.

Next we will be reading that Halo 2 is running at 30fps.

[Tom Salter]

Next we will be reading that Halo 2 is running at 30fps.

Still twice as fast as the original :P

[dc-arena]

Over twice as fast. Halo1 runs at 30fps if you're lucky... Half the time its dropping all over the place.

[stiff_one]

the game will be badass, regardless of the framerate. It will be smooth, the detail will be immense, and it will rock SO SO hard. I don't care about the 30fps thing, because my f360 spider will be whupping you on live.