30 FPS Games Are Here to Stay. Here’s Why
The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles offered a short list of 60fps games, as did the generation before. At the start of the current generation, it seemed like 60fps games would become the new normal. Now, 30fps is back on the PS5 and Xbox Series X. Why?
To ensure everyone’s on the same page, the frame rate of a video game is the number of unique sequential images displayed on-screen. These frames are “rendered” by the game’s device and sent to the display.
There are two main reasons that higher frame rates can improve the experience and presentation of video games. First, more frames equate to smoother motion on the screen. The lower the frame rate, the greater the gap in visible motion. Go low enough, and things look like a slide show, keep the frame rate high enough, and things look smooth.
How low is too low? Animation is typically done at 12fps (with higher rates for action scenes). Cinematic films are shot at 24fps, and TV content tends to be at 30fps. Action camera footage is usually captured at 60fps since it’s likely to contain fast motion.
This may sound like 12fps or 24fps should be fine for a video game, but it’s only half the story. Since video games are interactive and respond to the player’s control inputs, it’s about more than your eye can see. It’s also about how quickly the feedback from your eyes reflects what you’re telling the game to do using the controls.
This diagram indicates how often the game world updates at different rates. Notice how large the intervals are at 30fps compared to 60fps.
At 60fps, the on-screen game state updates twice as often as at 30fps. This means it should take half as long for your input and events in the game to be communicated to you. It’s helpful to think of frame rate as
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