60fps cap for 2.0?

[Syris]

Just wondering if anyone knows what SE plan's to do with the current fps cap of 30 and 60 come 2.0. 30 and 60 fps options should and most likely will remain, but I am interested in seeing an option for 60+ with no ceiling for 120hz monitor users.

I currently run the game 60fps constant in many areas with settings an high for the most part (crowded areas of Ul'dah at 30-40 fps)

I was just wondering since the current version is horribly optimized to begin with many users are going to see a noticeable if not drastic increase in performance with more graphical options and superior optimization. So people who are hitting high fps in the current version may very well break into 60+ quite easily.

I know someone is bound to reply and tell me that I can not tell the difference between 60 or 60+, but I have witnessed a noticeable difference while playing BF3 at 90fps vs 60fps on my 120hz monitor. Regardless, I am not posting to argue about what fps we can / can not perceive.

Dev response:

Heya guys!

While the details have not yet been decided, we are planning to make it possible to select from 30fps, 60fps and uncapped settings. ^_^

[Rau]

they weren't specific in details but the new client is intended to be able to have a huuuuuge variety in options to allow low end computers to run it well, and high ends to be able to truly max it out.

[indira]

120hz monitors still only use 60 fps and higher hz monitors/tvs, its special tech inside that adds frames to make it appear smoother.
kinda like my samsung 240hz tv theres a mode called automotion plus. thats how you can watch a 1080p movie in 240hz even though its 24fps

just use v-sync with tripple buffering then the game will run smooth

if the game actually ran at 120 FPS or higher you would need a PC that much stronger. its the little tricks the monitors can do that appear a higher framerate.

[Mirage]

120hz monitors still only use 60 fps and higher hz monitors/tvs, its special tech inside that adds frames to make it appear smoother.
kinda like my samsung 240hz tv theres a mode called automotion plus. thats how you can watch a 1080p movie in 240hz even though its 24fps

just use v-sync with tripple buffering then the game will run smooth

if the game actually ran at 120 FPS or higher you would need a PC that much stronger. its the little tricks the monitors can do that appear a higher framerate.

You're right about TVs that run at more than 60hz, but wrong when it comes to PC monitors that run at more than 60 fps. 120hz PC monitors are actually capable of displaying every single of the 120 frames per second your PC is outputting. Assuming it is actually outputting 120fps, which plenty of PCs are capable of doing in a lot of games, including FF14.

PC gaming monitors typically do not do more signal processing than what's absolutely necessary, because this adds to input lag. Generating additional frames to put in between the actual frames on a 120hz PC monitor would defeat the sole purpose of buying a 120Hz PC monitor in the first place. You wouldn't get a higher framerate, and your input lag would actually increase instead of decrease. Decreased input lag is one of the reasons you'd want 120fps in the first place. No "pro gamer" would ever buy a 120Hz monitor if it cost twice as much and the only difference was adding more input lag rather than decreasing it.

Additionally, 120Hz 3D monitors enable 60 FPS full resolution 3D playback, something that would be impossible if the monitor couldn't actually display every one of the 120 frames the PC (or whatever device you're using) outputted.


Warning: techy tl;dr stuff below this line. You can skip this unless you are really interested.

Things like over 100 Hz on TV are actually beneficial anyway, it's not really "fake" refresh rate. The reason some TVs have for example 300 or 600 Hz is that this refresh rate can perfectly upscale almost any typical framerate without adding any frame jitter to the image.

Example time: 100 Hz TV versus 600Hz TV.
A 100 Hz TV needs to scale a 24FPS bluray movie over 100 display update cycles (this is what Hz basically is), without "motion interpolation" technologies enabled.

If you display each frame for 4 update cycles, we get a total of 96 update cycles in total. This means we're 4 update cycles short of 100 updates per second. Now the TV can do three things: Stop displaying the image for 4 frames, leading to a black screen for 4 millseconds every single second of the video. Let the last of the 24 frames stay on screen for 8 ms instead of the usual 4 (~4.166 really), giving us an extremely jittery image. Or spread the 4 update cycles that you have left over 4 of the 24 frames, making every 6th frame be displayed for 5 ms instead of the usual 4. This leads to every 6th frame being displayed on the screen for 25% longer than the others, giving us a moderate image jitter effect that's mostly noticable when the camera is panning/sweeping across something that's not moving a lot.

Inputting the same 24FPS video to a TV with 600 Hz however, will let the TV display every single frame for *exactly* 25 update cycles. No frame will be displayed longer than the other frame, and we will get 0 jittering. However, it doesn't end there. Not only 24FPS video will be played back perfectly, but also 25 (24 update cycles per frame) FPS, 30 FPS (20), 50 FPS(12) and 60 FPS(10).

A 60Hz TV can only display 30 and 60 FPS material with 0 jitter. For a 100 Hz TV, only 25 and 50 FPS material can be displayed without jitter. 120Hz can perfectly deal with 24, 30 and 60FPS.

Additionally, the higher the refresh rate on a display, the lower is the visual impact of "uneven frames". While 5 cycles per frame instead of 4 is a huge 25% increase in frame time, 51 cycles per frame instead of 50 is just a 2% increase in frame time, and would be extremely hard for humans to notice, at least compared to the 25% increase I mentioned earlier.

Image smoothening technologies come on top of this and further improve smoothness, but they all create a better result if the video has a framerate that the TVs refresh rate is perfectly dividable with.

-edit-
Fixed some typos.

[Galliano]

just use v-sync with tripple buffering then the game will run smooth

This ^^ although you will need to use D3DOverrider to force v-sync, but it makes a huge difference if playing on a 120hz monitor.

[leomax]

Shouldn't be an FPS cap period for a PC game and this is one thing that has bugged me since XI so I hope this new engine isn't restricted and each individual is allowed to run XIV how they would like.

I don't want to get into the argument of lalala you won't notice any difference above 60fps, well for those of you that were lucky enough to experience XIV in the beta at 120fps I noticed a significant improvement.

[Elexia]

Shouldn't be an FPS cap period for a PC game and this is one thing that has bugged me since XI so I hope this new engine isn't restricted and each individual is allowed to run XIV how they would like.

I don't want to get into the argument of lalala you won't notice any difference above 60fps, well for those of you that were lucky enough to experience XIV in the beta at 120fps I noticed a significant improvement.

You do realize developers don't make a FPS cap just to fuck with you, right?

[Molly_Millions]

Shouldn't be an FPS cap period for a PC game and this is one thing that has bugged me since XI so I hope this new engine isn't restricted and each individual is allowed to run XIV how they would like.

I don't want to get into the argument of lalala you won't notice any difference above 60fps, well for those of you that were lucky enough to experience XIV in the beta at 120fps I noticed a significant improvement.

and do you realize how many people complained about optimization during the beta, right? Yet other complaining about how they could fry an egg on their video card? limiting frame-rates is part of optimization.

[leomax]

and do you realize how many people complained about optimization during the beta, right? Yet other complaining about how they could fry an egg on their video card? limiting frame-rates is part of optimization.

Yeah thats because the engine is diabolical, lets see any game I play on my Alienware laptop doesn't heat up so much, yet when I play XIV I honestly can't play on my laptop because it has burnt my legs in the past LOL.

I was just saying I do remember the game being smoother in general to me, I would like it to be uncapped or at least 100fps for 2.0, 60 I can cope with, but dropouts to 45 fps is no joy for me, just feels lack luster and generally meh with regards to movement and navigating the gui.

[indira]

I don't want to get into the argument of lalala you won't notice any difference above 60fps, well for those of you that were lucky enough to experience XIV in the beta at 120fps I noticed a significant improvement.

most people cant even hit 30 FPS let alone see how smooth 60 is no matter what nothing runs past 60 FPS when you talking about hz. monitor HZ & game FPS different things.