Speeding at 60 FPS

Posted on April 16, 2003 @ 17:58 in Games

I was wondering whether my tv would support the Xbox's PAL60 video mode, which promises smoother gameplay for games that support it. Splinter Cell was literally giving me a headache last night, because lights and the OPSAT screens are so bright with respect to the otherwise rather dark surroundings of the first two levels.

As an aside and simplifying a bit, there basically are two tv video modes: PAL and NTSC. Europe and Japan use PAL and the USA uses NTSC (these are, according to arcane video-engineer lore, acronyms for Never The Same Color and Pay for Additional Luxury). PAL has a somewhat higher resolution than NTSC, but NTSC runs at 60 frames per second, while PAL only manages 50 FPS. The PAL60 mode is a sort of hybrid, in that it runs 60 FPS at PAL resolutions. If the video-card wars have taught us anything, it's that higher resolutions and higher refresh rates are an unmitigated good. When your tv supports PAL60 and the game does too, gameplay will be smoother.

The good news is that my tv supports PAL60, the bad news is that I see no real improvements in Splinter Cell, so the game probably doesn't support it. Interestingly though, Jet Set Radio Future suddenly speeds up a LOT when you enable PAL60. You whizz around like there is no tomorrow and if I'm not mistaken, you jump a lot further as well. Could be a nice trick to get past some particularly difficult part of the game. I don't think though, that the developers intended this behavior. In certain places the audio and the video are out of sync and sometimes the gameplay actually slows down, because so much has to happen so fast now, that apparently the processor can't keep up. It's a real adrenaline rush to suddenly grind up railings and power lines at a blistering 60 FPS :-)

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