Consoles and V Sync options...

Soldato
Joined
12 May 2005
Posts
8,384
Currently playing Star Wars Force Unleashed – I wish developers would start to use some triple buffering or at the very least give owners the option to enable v sync.

Been playing a few PS3 games recently, its really starting to get a bit much… Seeing as I’m mostly from a PC background, something as simple as enabling V Sync is taken for granted.

Sure it can affect the games response as it waits to render each frame to the refresh rate, but the visual affect is way more rewarding then seeing a huge line flicker across the screen as a bit of scenery or a facial animation is cut into sections.. Really detracts from the overall immersion of the game being played..

Uncharted 1
Heavy Rain
WipeOut HD fury
Star Wars force unleashed

Well, guess as developers get to grips with the PS3 hardware, they’ll turn v sync off as default and as engines etc get better on the machine they’ll turn it back on again..

Uncharted 2
Batman Arkham
Red Dead Redemption

Are good examples of how a game looks without screen tearing – much better.. At least provide the option, and you know with all the PS3 options, the one that I’d use the most – being able to control the v sync…
 
My memory is rubbish with the names of the wipeout HD tracks, but I've noticed it happen with fury move over then wipeout HD. Its mostly when its replaying or when the pre-start fly overs before you start a race, and i've seen it pretty much each time I watch a fly over before each race..

Its not as bad as other games, so bare with me... Star Wars unleashed however, very bad as is uncharted 1. Yet uncharted 2 isn't anywhere near as bad, but I'm lead to understand that uncharted 2 used triple buffering.

I can handle slowdowns, had these since the PS1 days... I guess v sync is the new pop up..!! I remember wipeout on the PS1, and that had amazing pop up, whereas Wipeout HD suffers with 'small' I will say screen tearing... So its maybe me expecting too much...

Classic example of a die hard PC gamer - where you can configure everything to how you like it, and not how a developer thinks it should be... lol
 
Have to get used to it I'm afraid. I'm the same as you, mostly using a PC as my main games platform, but have been hammering some PS3 stuff since I bought one this year.

At the end of the day, vsync effects framerate, so really it's the developers keeping up the percieved fps at the expense of visual quality. Triple buffering would eat up an already limited amount of video memory, which would mean less space for textures etc.

PS3 has 256MB of VRAM? Ok that's not a lot to play with, so guess developers will need to up their game and learn to get the best from the machine.. Nah, course they won't...

Not something I'd like to get used to, Heavy Rain and Uncharted 1 & 2 are pretty much PS3 only, so unless I want to reduce the number of games I can play and play PC games only... I guess you're right. This, is the core reason I'm not sold on consoles being the only gaming platform... Its a bit, well, its like this, and you'll damn well put up with it.

Oh well.. *rant mode off* lol I can ignore screen tearing in a VERY good game... Heavy Rain is worth it.
 
I don’t think games consoles are years behind PC, they just aren’t as configurable. Its really weird, if I play a PC game without V Sync the game tears with every turn in a game, its very noticeable..

Was playing Star Wars force unleashed (not a very long game BTW, clocked it last night) and the screen tearing is very random. Sometimes I went through a whole level and never witnessed it once, then the next level it’s a tear festival in certain parts…

I have to admit, once the action gets frantic, you kinda forget and I bet it did tear – I just didn’t notice.

I’m of the opinion that Sony could firmware patch this, it wouldn’t be hard to provide a user option to enable V Sync, then its down to the customer… The PS3 is a fantastic media player and has quite a few options, one more like this would be useful.. After all some developers are just lazy or forget to give the option…

They patched Bioshock to give a V Sync option…
 
The PS3 when developed for and programmed correctly is perfectly capable of producing some top looking titles, you’ve only got to look at Metal Gear Solid 4 or God of War III to see proof of that..

A top end PC costs three – four times that of a PS3. Anyhow, my issue is not the hardware, or the games offered with the PS3. I think PS3 games look, for most part fantastic on a 42” plasma. I merely complained about the lazy slack programming in regards to adding v sync to avoid screen tearing.

God of War III and uncharted 2 managed perfectly fine… This is down to lazy developers, or that ongoing ‘PS3 is too difficult to get to gripes with’ argument.
 
So, let me get a better understanding… I’m fairly sure my Plasma is a 60hz screen, so when the game tears, its because the game has hit over 60fps?

Or am I totally mis-understanding this? If they locked the fps to 60fps using v sync if the game drops below 60fps, due to v sync it will drop to 30 and not say 55fps? I’m not understanding this..

So a game locked to 30fps on PS3 using v sync could, in theory do 60fps but due to drops they decided to keep it smooth and lock to 30 with v sync enabled, but some developers don’t like this so don’t lock the frames, and when it hits past what your TV can handle, you get tearing?

This mean then that Star Wars force unleashed is hitting past 60fps in some scenes and hence the tearing?

Sorry to ask, but if I’m complaining about something I need to better understand this. Its been reported that Star Wars forced unleashed (its just an example game) tears more in the PS3 then the 360… so, in theory the PS3 is pumping out more fps then the 360, hence more tearing??

So, those with 120hz 3DTV should be seeing no tearing at all unless the game on a PS3 hits past 100fps… highly unlikely..

So to recap, to keep the frame rate up past 30 on average, v sync isn’t enabled, and means if the game does on average 45 – 55 fps, then it won’t drop to 30, but if it goes past 60 then it tears? If you’ve got a 60hz display..?
 
Ok thanks all for the explainations and pros and cons.

Triple buffering is something I've known about, wish it could be more frequently used. Uncharted 2 doesn't suffer for it, looks really good to my eye.

I have seen the option for v sync with the lego games, I enabled it and it certainly didn't affect performance...

Online playing, well you want the best response time you can get, for single playing.. Its all about style and how it looks and gameplay over how quick it moves.. Some slowdown in single player I can handle.. Half the screen shifting across and seeing the next frame before the last one has gone - well I really don't like seeing it..

Its PC gaming thats done this.. Those super high powered gaming rigs means you take something like v sync for granted.. lol
 
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