• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Xbox head Phil Spencer prefers higher frame rates than resolution.

CeeJay

Member
Some Pro Counter Strike players play in 720p or even SD to get a higher framerate.

Framerate > Resolution. Always.
Is that not something to do with making it easier to determine the hitboxes rather than framerates? I understand that they turn down the foliage and smoke effects to make other players easier to see as well.
 
Microsoft has been flip flopping hard this generation, this time they go from damage controlling X1's lack of native 1080p games, to boasting about 4k resolution despite the fact that most X1X games don't run natively, to now being all about frame rate.

It's a respectable decision though don't get me wrong, all of the big 3 have flip flopped in this generation one way or another.
 

CJY

Banned
I hope nobody tries to suggest a platform holder should mandate a 60FPS cap on their console.

Too late
 
it kind of makes perfect sense if the xsx is going to have crossgen games for a few years. Xsx shoot for~4K 60fps (which would be great) while Xbonex shoot for 30fps at 4K and xbonesad shoot for sub (I dunno, guessing) 1440p 30fps?
more like 720 to 900p on the Xsad machine, it will not get any better, this machine has bottlenecks up the wazoo.
 
30fps is only encouraged by Sony for all their “cinematic” third person experiences.

Well yes, they are one of the worst offenders. For me a 30fps game shouldn’t even qualify in any kind of ‘best graphics’ or ‘technical achievement’ category. It’s like gimping the game to make it look good and it needs to end!
 

Thaedolus

Gold Member
Not always. Sitting a few feet from my 43 inch computer monitor, I can instantly tell 1440p from 4k. It's all about use case (of which, mine is admittedly niche).

A more accurate statement would be between 1800p and 4k it becomes really hard to tell. On a 2080 level card and above, you can still push out some really nice 100fps + framerates around 1800p if you're willing to sacrifice a few graphical settings. Again, for sure, I do agree that past 1440p is dimishing returns for a lot of people.

Most people wont even have a use for over 1440p because A. Their monitor is limited to 1440p B. They sit too far from their TV to notice the difference (or their TV doesnt truly support 120hz and over 1440p).

With a 4k 120hz monitor (of which I'm only aware of two bigger than 27 inches), there are a lot more combinations where both the resolution going above 1440p and the framerate going above 100 could be almost equally important

Yeah, it’s inherently subjective and bigger displays or sitting closer will make the resolution more apparent, but when I’m thinking bang for my buck on a display for gaming it’s always going to be stuff like response time, variable refresh rate (gsync preferred) and other factors like an IPS over TN. Resolution is probably the least important factor (though admittedly still a factor, sure) for me because I feel like I can just adjust to whatever it is and get used to it. 60FPS 16 bit games still feel good to play on an old CRT because they’re incredibly snappy and responsive, regardless of the 480i display. Sub 30FPS just feels worse to me and always feels sluggish in comparison. For my own tastes, I’ll always adjust PC settings to hit a rock solid 60FPS over maximizing other options
 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
Well yes, they are one of the worst offenders. For me a 30fps game shouldn’t even qualify in any kind of ‘best graphics’ or ‘technical achievement’ category. It’s like gimping the game to make it look good and it needs to end!
giphy.gif
 

sdrawkcab

Banned
Their marketing has been all about fidelity, 4k and 8k so far.

I don't disagree with him, I'm going to be gaming at 1440p 60-120hz for the foreseeable future (until 4k 60-120hz is possible without breaking the bank) but considering everything else they've been saying, it comes off as disingenuous.

It also makes you wonder, does he have information that the resolutions on series X might be lower than that on PS5, hence the new messaging?
Oh for the love of God!

It's not new messaging. Phil has said this, many times in the past.

What one person likes, for themselves, doesn't mean it's the best point to use for marketing. Marketing is making things tangible. Marketing is playing on the lowest common denominator. Marketing is appealing to the masses; 4k, graphics and high-fidelity does just that, and has been doing just that for well over a decade.

Gaf really is a comedic goldmine. Are some of you people serious?! Give me a break
 
Is that not something to do with making it easier to determine the hitboxes rather than framerates? I understand that they turn down the foliage and smoke effects to make other players easier to see as well.

Wait, are you suggesting that someone floated making the game blurrier makes the hit boxes easier to make out? How would that work? Definitely turning down effects that create environmental obstructions could be a positive but in something like COD, CS, etc... where shooting first and accurately is key, some baseline of visibility at range would have to be impaired by going under 1080p. I would think that would be pretty important
 
Last edited:

GHG

Member
Oh for the love of God!

It's not new messaging. Phil has said this, many times in the past.

What one person likes, for themselves, doesn't mean it's the best point to use for marketing. Marketing is making things tangible. Marketing is playing on the lowest common denominator. Marketing is appealing to the masses; 4k, graphics and high-fidelity does just that, and has been doing just that for well over a decade.

Gaf really is a comedic goldmine. Are some of you people serious?! Give me a break

Seriously, you people thinking that anything he says is from the bottom of his heart is the biggest con since Don Mattrick attempted to convince us that the deadly combination of always on DRM and Kinect was somehow going to be good for us.

Everything this man says is PR/Marketing. Its literally his job and you're a fool to believe otherwise.

The only thing comedic is the cringe worthy hero worshipping of these well paid gaming executives.
 
Last edited:
Yeah, it’s inherently subjective and bigger displays or sitting closer will make the resolution more apparent, but when I’m thinking bang for my buck on a display for gaming it’s always going to be stuff like response time, variable refresh rate (gsync preferred) and other factors like an IPS over TN. Resolution is probably the least important factor (though admittedly still a factor, sure) for me because I feel like I can just adjust to whatever it is and get used to it. 60FPS 16 bit games still feel good to play on an old CRT because they’re incredibly snappy and responsive, regardless of the 480i display. Sub 30FPS just feels worse to me and always feels sluggish in comparison. For my own tastes, I’ll always adjust PC settings to hit a rock solid 60FPS over maximizing other options

Well yeah, I still play 16 bit through 64 on my Sony CRT when I feel like hooking it all up. A newer OLED with a decent scaler is a pretty good alternative though!

A consistent(ish) 30fps can feel ok when done right (Destiny, Halo on OG Xbox in the less hectic missions, etc...) but of course, once you've felt those same games at 60fps plus, there's no going back
 

Vawn

Banned
So Xbox has had a serious lack of quality exclusive software over the last 7 to 10 years and the head of Xbox continues to spend every single day doing interviews?

I'm starting to believe Phil is addicted to the attention he gets on the Internet by doing interviews.

Get us games Spencer. Or just do PR full-time and let someone who can actually run Xbox.
 
Last edited:

CeeJay

Member
Wait, are you suggesting that someone floated making the game blurrier makes the hit boxes easier to make out? How would that work? Definitely turning down effects that create environmental obstructions could be a positive but in something like COD, CS, etc... where shooting first and accurately is key, some baseline of visibility at range would have to be impaired by going under 1080p. I would think that would be pretty important
Making something lower res doesn't make it blurrier. If you have a low res texture that is upscaled and filtered then it becomes blurry. If you are playing at a low res and everything is rendered at that native res then it will be sharp, ugly as fuck but still sharp.
 

Journey

Banned
Seriously, you people thinking that anything he says is from the bottom of his heart is the biggest con since Don Mattrick attempted to convince us that the deadly combination of always on DRM and Kinect was somehow going to be good for us.

Everything this man says is PR/Marketing. Its literally his job and you're a fool to believe otherwise.

The only thing comedic is the cringe worthy hero worshipping of these well paid gaming executives.


2hwflx.jpg
 
Last edited:

DanielsM

Banned
Well yes, they are one of the worst offenders. For me a 30fps game shouldn’t even qualify in any kind of ‘best graphics’ or ‘technical achievement’ category. It’s like gimping the game to make it look good and it needs to end!


What about 900p games? :messenger_tears_of_joy:
 

Rolla

Banned
I don't understand the change in PR. Phil and Co have been beating the pixel drum since the first rumours of scorpio and now he prefers frame rate? Something seems off about that. Perhaps the next console is "less powerful" or the games they're bringing to the fore are simply not high in fidelity because they also need to be streamed.


I'm not a "I believe in Phil Spencer" type of gamer. He seems to enjoy pre-emptive PR and contradicts himself way too often imo.
 
Last edited:

DanielsM

Banned
What about them?

If it was up to me then all next gen games would be locked 60fps and some kind of reconstructed 4K. Then the priority can be on great gameplay design and not just making average games look good.

I'm talking about this gen games. :messenger_tears_of_joy:

Basically, Phil is saying run your games on high-end PC download from Steam.
 
Last edited:
Making something lower res doesn't make it blurrier. If you have a low res texture that is upscaled and filtered then it becomes blurry. If you are playing at a low res and everything is rendered at that native res then it will be sharp, ugly as fuck but still sharp.

Sorry my mistake. Yes, I understand that upscaling a natively low textured asset to a high rez will cause blurring.

If the assets are above that game's native rendering rez though, 'releasing' that game from its 720p, or even sub hd, shackles can do wonders and only make details much more visible.

A lot of 640p games on 360 had higher resolution assets (think Halo 3) that were rendered at sub hd resolutions to save on performance but still looked clearer (although just as jagged) as competitors with similar resolutions but lower quality assets (think COD).

Anyway, my point is, if the game has decent underlying asset, and you're skimping on resolution, you're just robbing yourself of detail. The intelligibility of far away objects will suck which makes a difference in comp shooters, obviously.
 
Last edited:

DanielsM

Banned
Well then the same applies. Frame rate > game mechanics > graphics > resolution

So... Phil should have been saying he never wanted to play on the Xbone.

Developers are not going to reduce the resolution to always hit 60..... fucking Gears of War 4 would have probably needed to be 600p. LOL

Of course, another day... another Phil Said segment.... I'll reduce my Xbone sales forecast again by 10,000 units. He speaks.... sales go down.
 
Last edited:

DanielsM

Banned
Im telling you what I want, not what somebody else wants. Capisce?!
Developers are not going to always reduce resolution for framerate.... some games don't even need it, imo. Which is why Gears of War 4 wasn't 600p on the Xbone to get to 60fps.

It depends. Either way, sounds like Phil should be playing on high-end PC.
 

cormack12

Gold Member
I prefer HFR when it's available but let's be honest - most of the stigma round this is games chugging at 23/24fps or sticking performance mode on games that stutter around 45-58fp giving the impression that 30fps is bad or 60fps is not enough. I'd prefer when they say they are 30fps, they remain 30fps for the entire game.

Having said that, if 4K/60fps is the standard then fair enough. In fact, I'd take a 1080p/60fps as standard
 
I don't understand the change in PR. Phil and Co have been beating the pixel drum since the first rumours of scorpio and now he prefers frame rate? Something seems off about that. Perhaps the next console is "less powerful" or the games they're bringing to the fore are simply not high in fidelity because they also need to be streamed.


I'm not a "I believe in Phil Spencer" type of gamer. He seems to enjoy pre-emptive PR and contradicts himself way too often imo.

Maybe just the opposite. There was just a leak that Lockheart could be 7.0 to 7.9 TF. Before, people were skeptical it would be higher performing, GPU-wise, than the current Xbone X. If there's a $200 price difference between it and the higher end model, the suggestions of $600 and 1080ti levels of performance could be true.

I was never on the bandwagon of 2080+ (nearing 2080ti) levels of performance for either console because AMD has consistently overpromised and under delivered (even on the CPU side, in purely gaming performance). Even if big navi is a revelation in power and efficiency expecting that level of performance would demand suspending financial reality, and contradicting the laws of physics. No chance a $500 PS5 (which is as high as they would go) eclipses that threshold, as Sony will no longer choose to lose money on hardware. The engineering on the cooling front, not to mention the PSU necessary, just arent feasible. They learned the lesson with early PS3 that overengineering doesnt work out for them.
 
Last edited:

CrisPy2019

Member
I prefer resolution and framerate over the rest.

I'd much rather play let's say Luigis Mansion2 (3Ds Game) in 1080p than Luigi's Mansion3 (switch game) in 400*240(3ds Resolution)
Both games keeping their polycount and effects.

I wish consoles would have settings like PCs do...
 
Last edited:

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
I prefer HFR when it's available but let's be honest - most of the stigma round this is games chugging at 23/24fps or sticking performance mode on games that stutter around 45-58fp giving the impression that 30fps is bad or 60fps is not enough. I'd prefer when they say they are 30fps, they remain 30fps for the entire game.

Having said that, if 4K/60fps is the standard then fair enough. In fact, I'd take a 1080p/60fps as standard

All day, everyday since they scale beautifully on 4K sets. Push the graphical envelope at a locked 60 in 1080p or 1440p max.
 

Dunnas

Member
I don't understand the change in PR. Phil and Co have been beating the pixel drum since the first rumours of scorpio and now he prefers frame rate? Something seems off about that. Perhaps the next console is "less powerful" or the games they're bringing to the fore are simply not high in fidelity because they also need to be streamed.


I'm not a "I believe in Phil Spencer" type of gamer. He seems to enjoy pre-emptive PR and contradicts himself way too often imo.
It’s really incredibly simple. The one x still had a garbage cpu so the focus was always on higher res. The next gen consoles will have far better cpus so they will be capable of higher frame rates as well. Why are you acting like it’s some crazy mystery?

FYI, 120 FPS has been talked about just as much as 8k since E3 in regards the Scarlet.
 

sunnysideup

Banned
Can we begin with enforcing locked framerates?

No game should ever be alowed to be released if it doesnt atleast have a rock solid locked 30fps with sound framepacing.
 
Last edited:

GameOfPixelsX

Neo Member
Designers are lazy and will go the easiest route. At some point we have to set the standard to 60fps or we will never see 120fps.

A higher base franerate is better for vr as well.

So the developers, that are responsible for all aspect of gaming (aside from power) are now lazy? They should not have the ability to choose less frame rate for fidelity or sacrifice fidelity for more frame rate? That is asinine. You have a right to choose games that fit your preference but, you really have not right to criticize the developers priority.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Spencer's lead has already come true.

Most of MS's key games released this gen are already 60 fps...... Halo, Gears, both Forza games, Cuphead, Ori, Crackdown. Well, State of Decay and SoT aren't. I think those are 30 fps games tops.

Same can't be said for Sony. Most of their games are 30 fps.
 
Top Bottom