Concerning FPS

[zero88]

Today, I was curious about the amount of FPS of Final Fantasy VII. Using FRAPS, I found out that the "field" (you know, towns, the overworld, etc.) usually runs at about 30 FPS, the in-game menus/status screens/etc. run at about 60 FPS, and battles/FMVs run at about 15 FPS. These FPS amounts are very constant, meaning they barely, if ever, deviate from the values I gave above (and if they do deviate, it is usually only one or two FPS down, never up). The amounts may sound low, but the game is perfectly playable, so I am going to assume that those are the FPS amounts that the game is designed to run at.

Using dziugo's YAMP, I installed the patch that fixes the game's mini-games up so that they run at a playable amount of FPS. I noticed that if you play around with the patch's configuration file, then you can adjust the FPS of the mini-games to your desire. For example, the patch allows for the configuration of the amount of FPS during the "battle swirl" that precedes a battle. The patch sets that to 30 FPS and the game runs that at 30 FPS (and FRAPS picks it up as being 30 FPS). But if I change the value in the patch's configuration file to "60," the game runs the "battle swirl" at 60 FPS and FRAPS picks it up as being 60 FPS. Obviously the frame limiter is present in the game and not in my computer's hardware.

Now, my question is, is there a way to adjust that frame limiter in the game itself? Like is there some way possible to make the field run at 60 FPS instead of 30 FPS, and run battles at 30 FPS instead of 15 FPS? The patch that dziugo created leads me to believe that there probably is a way...

Thanks for any and all help.

[auxili160]

That'd be great if it were possible. I'm eager to know.

[dziugo]

If you change it without implementing a new frame limiter, increasing the FPS ratio will just speed things up.

[zero88]

I suppose, then, that implementing a new frame limiter would be rather complicated? I really have no frame of reference for the difficulty of these things, so please don't think that I am assuming that all of this is just easy. I don't want to come off as rude.

[Terid__K]

It would make the gameplay faster, not smoother. Try changing the battle swirl to 15fps. It will go noticeably slower than the standard value.

[zero88]

It would make the gameplay faster, not smoother. Try changing the battle swirl to 15fps. It will go noticeably slower than the standard value.

I'm not exactly sure what you're trying to say here, but it sounds to me like you're just restating what dziugo already said...

Basically, what I want to know is if there is a way to make the gameplay smoother. In every 3D game I have ever played, increasing the FPS is the way to make the game run smoother. Now, taking what dziugo posted, I'm assuming (key word there, so don't rip me apart if I'm wrong ) that if one were to implement a new frame limiter, the gameplay could run smoother, as he said that without implementing a new frame limiter, increasing the FPS ratio will just speed things up. I guess that I'm taking the opposite of what he said and assuming it's true.

I could be totally misinterpreting what he said, though, and therefore making incorrect assumptions, so perhaps he'll return to clarify what he meant...

[auxili160]

FF7 is pretty retro in how it's designed. Just like arcade games, everything is tied to fps. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is why things like the motorcycle minigame go so fast on good pcs - the game doesn't limit this minigame's fps by default, thus the game's fps skyrockets (thus speeding the game up). In newer games, this doesn't happen because of better game engines or how they are programmed, I suppose (in newer games, you can play at 120fps and the game won't speed up, and you can play in 10fps and the game will still play at the normal speed, but will be choppy instead of slow-mo).
FF7's overworld and battle sequences have frame limiters, which normalize the game's speed.
I could be wrong about the details, but I'm pretty sure this is basically what's going on.

I know of some new games that still change the game's speed to do things like reduce noticeable fps slowdowns. Phantasy Star Universe, a crappy game, reduces the game's speed when a lot is going on, which allows the game to keep running at 60fps no matter what, even if it's in slow-mo. It's kinda stupid, but it's a shortcut out of trying to make the game run more efficiently. Most people don't even notice these occurences of slowdown (who are also the types of people who don't know what fps is, lol).

[dziugo]

Yeah, you all are right. Changing the framelimiter would be troublesome, because of the way it was written:
1) Update the variables
2) Display everything
3) Wait so it's approx xx fps
4) Goto 1

That's why it would speed up if you decrease the wait time (increase FPS ratio).

Now that I've thought about it, one could merge the (1) and (3) so the loop could look like this:
1) Check if it's time to update the variables (so it's like 15 changes per second in battle) and update if needed
2) Display everything
3) Goto 1

That way you'd get as high FPS ratio as your PC could handle, and still get a "normal" speed. I just don't know if it would be noticeable ( -> smoother).

[Aali]

The "right" way to do it would be of course to update variables as fast as possible relative to how much time the last frame used up. (so everything is time-based instead of frame-based)

But that would of course mean you have to change just about every calculation the engine does, and i dont think anyone is up for that.