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10-30-2009, 01:10 PM
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"We want to give you guys, our fans and players, the best looking games you can buy on a console," Insomniac developer Mike Acton wrote on his company's blog (http://www.insomniacgames.com/blogcast/blog/mike_acton/1503082). There's certainly no doubt that the team's latest release, A Crack in Time (http://www.joystiq.com/tag/a-crack-in-time/), is a very good looking game. But how much better could it have looked if Insomniac was willing to sacrifice its 60fps rate?
Consoles only offer a finite amount of resources, and developers utilize various tricks to get the results they want. For example, Bungie noted that a drop in vertical resolution in Halo 3 offered them increased bandwidth for improved lighting effects (http://www.joystiq.com/2007/10/01/bungie-halo-3-resolution-cut-for-hdr-lighting/). Dropping the framerate would allow Insomniac -- and other developers -- to increase the amount of detail in each frame, something the studio is seriously considering. "There is virtually no advantage in sales or reviews of a 60 fps game versus a 30 fps game," Acton notes.
In fact, in some cases, a lowered framerate actually makes a game look better, Acton explains. "A drop in framerate is interestingly seen by some players as a reward for creating or forcing a complex setup in which a lot of things must happen on the screen at once." We nickname that phenomenon the "Otogi 2 effect (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZySNXLnCtQ)." With all of these aspects considered, it seems the studio will no longer focus on locking a 60 fps rate. "It means that framerate is still important to us here at Insomniac, but it's not on the same pedestal it was before. And that Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time will probably be Insomniac's last 60fps game."
[Thanks, Marius!]http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/http://www.joystiq.com/media/feedlogo.gif (http://www.joystiq.com)Dev: 'A Crack in Time will probably be Insomniac's last 60fps game' (http://www.joystiq.com/2009/10/30/dev-a-crack-in-time-will-probably-be-insomniac-s-last-60fps-ga/) originally appeared on Joystiq (http://www.joystiq.com) on Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds (http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/).
Read (http://www.insomniacgames.com/blogcast/blog/mike_acton/1503082) | Permalink (http://www.joystiq.com/2009/10/30/dev-a-crack-in-time-will-probably-be-insomniac-s-last-60fps-ga/) | Email this (http://www.joystiq.com/forward/19216690/) | Comments (http://www.joystiq.com/2009/10/30/dev-a-crack-in-time-will-probably-be-insomniac-s-last-60fps-ga/#comments)http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/Ks0t1GCdtbSm7fMewazwiaoPoWo/0/di (http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/Ks0t1GCdtbSm7fMewazwiaoPoWo/0/da)
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"We want to give you guys, our fans and players, the best looking games you can buy on a console," Insomniac developer Mike Acton wrote on his company's blog (http://www.insomniacgames.com/blogcast/blog/mike_acton/1503082). There's certainly no doubt that the team's latest release, A Crack in Time (http://www.joystiq.com/tag/a-crack-in-time/), is a very good looking game. But how much better could it have looked if Insomniac was willing to sacrifice its 60fps rate?
Consoles only offer a finite amount of resources, and developers utilize various tricks to get the results they want. For example, Bungie noted that a drop in vertical resolution in Halo 3 offered them increased bandwidth for improved lighting effects (http://www.joystiq.com/2007/10/01/bungie-halo-3-resolution-cut-for-hdr-lighting/). Dropping the framerate would allow Insomniac -- and other developers -- to increase the amount of detail in each frame, something the studio is seriously considering. "There is virtually no advantage in sales or reviews of a 60 fps game versus a 30 fps game," Acton notes.
In fact, in some cases, a lowered framerate actually makes a game look better, Acton explains. "A drop in framerate is interestingly seen by some players as a reward for creating or forcing a complex setup in which a lot of things must happen on the screen at once." We nickname that phenomenon the "Otogi 2 effect (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZySNXLnCtQ)." With all of these aspects considered, it seems the studio will no longer focus on locking a 60 fps rate. "It means that framerate is still important to us here at Insomniac, but it's not on the same pedestal it was before. And that Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time will probably be Insomniac's last 60fps game."
[Thanks, Marius!]http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/http://www.joystiq.com/media/feedlogo.gif (http://www.joystiq.com)Dev: 'A Crack in Time will probably be Insomniac's last 60fps game' (http://www.joystiq.com/2009/10/30/dev-a-crack-in-time-will-probably-be-insomniac-s-last-60fps-ga/) originally appeared on Joystiq (http://www.joystiq.com) on Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds (http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/).
Read (http://www.insomniacgames.com/blogcast/blog/mike_acton/1503082) | Permalink (http://www.joystiq.com/2009/10/30/dev-a-crack-in-time-will-probably-be-insomniac-s-last-60fps-ga/) | Email this (http://www.joystiq.com/forward/19216690/) | Comments (http://www.joystiq.com/2009/10/30/dev-a-crack-in-time-will-probably-be-insomniac-s-last-60fps-ga/#comments)http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/Ks0t1GCdtbSm7fMewazwiaoPoWo/0/di (http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/Ks0t1GCdtbSm7fMewazwiaoPoWo/0/da)
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