VR Will Bring Back The Question of Better Framrate Into AAA Games

One thing that has happened this generation has been an emphasis on resolution in video games at the expense of all else- including, much to my chagrin, at the expense of a game’s performance and framerate. The mentality makes no sense to me: after all, framerate can actively influence how a game plays. And yet, developers, as a result of consumer demands, themselves a result of some clever marketing by Sony, are forced to focus how many lines and dots their game will render on screen.

That may change with the advent of popular virtual reality. VR, as you may well know, requires extremely high framerates to avoid any nausea for the user- and this may lead to a reorientation in game development philosophy, leading developers to look at framerates as important again.

At least that’s what Andy Tudor from Slightly Mad Studios believes. In an interview with GamingBolt, he was asked whether VR may not see the return of an emphasis on framerates again. He believes that this is a shift in mindsets that is just waiting to happen.

“I think it’s definitely going to bring the issue of framerate up more when developing your game, absolutely,” he said. “If you want your game to ever be a VR game, it needs to be running at that silky smooth framerate. Most driving games are either 30fps or 60fps- we prefer to go for 60 frames, because it’s a smoother experience, but other racing games just stick to 30. And if they want to be VR capable now, then they will need to be 60fps, or greater. So VR is going to bring the question of framerate back to the forefront for many developers, definitely. And on the other hand, VR also increases resolution, now you’ve got effectively two monitors, two screens that you are rendering to, so I think there will be many studios out there that will have to readdress their own internal technology to try to reach these goals, if they ever want to have a game that is a VR experience also.”

A game like Bloodborne, for instance, would have benefitted far more from a steady 60fps, than a 1080p. And yet, From Software, no doubt on Sony’s encouragement, emphasized the latter over the former. Incidents like this truly are a shame.