Graphic settings in FPS's.

[Swifty55]

Now, I've always been a competitive player in the FPS genre since back in the days of online gaming. I've always had the idea that lower = better. This became natural as frames and visibility mattered as well as PC performance. I've always gone on the basis of this in what ever FPS game I play. I find having a far more smoother game play trumps fancy graphics.

Now this was fine and dandy in the likes of Quake, UT, CS, CoD, BF, etc.. With today's gaming and performance/coding - is it more of a placebo effect now?

Take BF3 for instance. I play everything on low apart from Textures on high - this makes my frames stay above 140+ but hopefully gives me an advantage to see enemies better. Is this just simply a lie now?

Have I more of a chance noticing enemies with things like shadows on high to distinguish the difference?

Playing all on low - does this put more pressure on my CPU as I'm not utilizing my GPU better?

It's something that plays on my mind when I talk to people who say they play on Maximum settings with no difference...

So, OcUK - what are your thoughts about it?

Frames per second or Eye candy?

 

[V4NT0M]

FPS means little in BF3... There are so many other considerations. I don't play games to be a competitive hardcore FPSer, I play them to have fun, better graphics = more immersion imo

Maybe a game like CS but you're not going to have a problem getting High FPS in that anyway.

If having 140fps over 45- 60 fps is the difference between being good at a game and not then there is something wrong with the game.

 

[mistercrabb]

Well FPS wise if your fps is higher than your monitor refresh rate you aren't gaining any advantage from that. So I aim for a steady 60fps.

However, some graphics settings definitely give you a disadvantage.
Particularly bloom and motion-blur. They both look pretty but obscure your vision horrendously. I had to turn bloom off in Trackmania because driving from the shade into the sun would turn the screen white.

Shader settings can be good or bad, normally turning them on enables transparency in trees/bushes etc. It depends on the game. For example in Dota 2 if you turn the water settings to high you can see enemies by their reflection before they appear on-screen.

I'm rambling a bit but I guess it all depends on the game and just how much of an edge you want, as most of those changes have minimal overall effect. I personally just turn the settings as high as possible while maintaining a steady 60fps.

 

[~>Dg<~]

tbh its almost pointless in newer fps titles as they are console ports and really dont give you much advantage plus the net coding is mostly crap.

so newer fps just get 60 fps cap off older play as normal.

cod 4 ill play promod capped at 250 fps constant

bf3 if i ever play it 60 fps cause no benefit no strafing jumping really so really no advantages of the engine it uses. saying that i would never play even newer fps on maximum settings as they add too much bs on your screen and hinders you.