PC Frame Rate

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PC Frame Rate
 Pandemonium.Luignata
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By Pandemonium.Luignata 2009-05-11 16:14:04
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Jaerik said:
The original PlayStation II could only run at 29.4 FPS, so they decided to make that the baseline.

The problem is, the original coders were never told the game needed to run on other platforms. So they decided to use that 29.4 figure to hard-code a bunch of other stuff. The core timing mechanism of the entire client platform uses that 29.4 figure to do other stuff, like client-side timing of animations, recast timers, etc.

So, instead of having an animation and making it play at whatever speed they wanted, instead they hard-coded the animations such that they have exactly 29 frames for every second. This means you can't speed up the frame rate without also speeding up all the animations.

Worse, the recast timers on all spells, etc, relies on this 29.4 as the internal timer. That "You can't cast this again yet" check is client-side. If they boosted it, your spells would cool down faster, and make it look like you could cast them again. But when you tried, the server would send back an error saying you were trying to cast too fast, and likely hacking your client to do so. Same with things like movement speed.

In other words, the core system loop of the entire game is based around this 29 FPS, and it now cannot be raised without recoding the entire thing. And given that there are almost no server/client programmers left on the FFXI project in SE (only content folks and scripters), that isn't gunna happen.


Hmmm, when you put it that way...

Recode the whole damn thing!

<.<
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By Fairy.Xxnumbertwoxx 2009-05-11 16:16:18
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On a side note, looking at animations on something like Altanaviewer that doesn't have those limitations, makes them look soooo pretty. Wish the game could look like that lol
 Cerberus.Vaness
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By Cerberus.Vaness 2009-05-11 16:19:10
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oh gawd thx all <3 gonna be fun to enjoy ffxi in a sexy way XD
 Hades.Darkrift
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By Hades.Darkrift 2009-05-11 17:20:52
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its kinda sad knowing im playing a MMO thats extremly outdated. Makes me want to quit lol. When Diablo III, and / or Aion comes out i might have to finally pull the plug on ffxi.
 Hades.Dizzmal
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By Hades.Dizzmal 2009-05-11 17:24:19
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Xxnumbertwoxx said:
Dizzmal said:
Only problem I have noticed is that I get massive lag @ tele-crystals for some reason. I go from 29.5fps to around 11 fps @ teles but jump back up to 29.5fps once I run away... kind of strange


That's just shitty coding or something, I get massive lag there too, and I'm running Radeon. That effect is prolly all processor rendered, similar to weather, which is why it lags the game out so bad...


bad thing was that it didn't do that on my old Geforce 6800GTS
 Garuda.Antipika
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By Garuda.Antipika 2009-05-11 19:57:05
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Dasva said:
Jaerik said:
The original PlayStation II could only run at 29.4 FPS, so they decided to make that the baseline.

The problem is, the original coders were never told the game needed to run on other platforms. So they decided to use that 29.4 figure to hard-code a bunch of other stuff. The core timing mechanism of the entire client platform uses that 29.4 figure to do other stuff, like client-side timing of animations, recast timers, etc.

So, instead of having an animation and making it play at whatever speed they wanted, instead they hard-coded the animations such that they have exactly 29 frames for every second. This means you can't speed up the frame rate without also speeding up all the animations.

Worse, the recast timers on all spells, etc, relies on this 29.4 as the internal timer. That "You can't cast this again yet" check is client-side. If they boosted it, your spells would cool down faster, and make it look like you could cast them again. But when you tried, the server would send back an error saying you were trying to cast too fast, and likely hacking your client to do so. Same with things like movement speed.

In other words, the core system loop of the entire game is based around this 29 FPS, and it now cannot be raised without recoding the entire thing. And given that there are almost no server/client programmers left on the FFXI project in SE (only content folks and scripters), that isn't gunna happen.

How do you know all this stuff!?!


FF XI ain't the only game using that kind of mechanism. It was exactly the same with Phantasy Star Online which is way older, except cap was at 30. When you had slowdowns, everything was slower, from casting time, to movement speed, recovery time after being knocked down, everything.

The best way to notice this on FF XI are /emote when in a crowded area (if you have a low framerate), you'll notice that your emote speed is x% slower (like if you at 15fps, will be roughly 50% slower), the emote itself will last twice longer also. While on a "normal" game, if you had 15fps instead of 30fps, the emote animation duration would just remain the same, it would only be less smoother.
 Fairy.Filielle
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By Fairy.Filielle 2009-05-11 20:01:42
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Pretty much at this rate:

(*O.O*)O.O).)=)

Katamari Damacy!
 Fairy.Filielle
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By Fairy.Filielle 2009-05-11 20:03:42
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Darkrift said:
its kinda sad knowing im playing a MMO thats extremly outdated. Makes me want to quit lol. When Diablo III, and / or Aion comes out i might have to finally pull the plug on ffxi.


Okay Okay Okay! I heard enough of this!

"Let's go Payday!" Marvel Versus Capcom! >> Select!

<dun-dun, dun-dun-dun; dun-dun-dun-duuunnn; dun-dun, dun, dun-dun-dundundun. DunDun>

Yeah! I'm hopped on the Good ol' Rock & Roll!
 Asura.Wtbfood
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By Asura.Wtbfood 2009-05-12 01:27:29
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Put down the crack pipe.
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