-
Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!
When and why did the obsession with resolution and "FPS" begin?
- Thread starter XandBosch
- Start date
MightyHedgehog
Member
Specs were always a thing to know about for anyone into more than just playing games, but especially if you were programming computers with the intent of making them. 3D graphics and add-in cards pushed the marketing harder than when the differences were purely on set on expansion memory and base specifications, so I think the mid-to-late '90s was the time when it blew up big among more mainstream players. Competitive online games really made the importance of framerate and resolution matter at the pure gameplay level. Still, it was kind of always a thing on the earliest graphics-capable home computers onward and console and arcade hardware was always showcasing the performance leaps almost every other year.
donutzsick
Member
Yeah. Especially in ps2 era there was practically NONE of this is online message boards.
I was also out of the PC culture back then but only post 360 did i see any of this but even then it was sporadic. By the time the ps4 and xone specs leaked, this talk had become prominent and now it is EVERYWHERE. Can't talk about a single game without pointing out its resolution and framerate. Hell even Nintendo games are being analyzed for this.
I'm sure there were people who talked about this stuff since the dawn of gaming, but I think this thread is more about this discussion becoming more popular and more mainstream.
TheCanisDirus
Member
I'm older than you by a bit and i grew up on the same consoles as well as PC. It's never been much of a "thing" for console players... but it's ALWAYS been a "thing" for the PC demo. Has been and always will be. It's a big part of how a game looks and plays.
Coolade
Member
I first noticed it being a mainstream discussion after I saw ign upload comparison videos of PS4 vs X1 resolutions of call of duty ghosts and assassins creed black flag. Maybe with a lack of first party titles people used other measurable as ammo. I never used to care until I built a PC on a whim. Now I can say fps and arbitrary resolution support are the most important factors in my purchasing decisions.
ExigentContact
Member
"System wars" and specs have always been a part of the culture. Hell, it's derivative of any competitive market culture and it was probably advantageous for manufacturers to cultivate since it eventually leads to brand loyalty. It's not new.
As for the most recent obsessions over resolution and framerate, the particular buzzwords like "1080p", "900p", "60 FPS", and so on were engendered with this generation of hardware, but the gen before that was busy fighting over 720p and "true HD". Before that, the Xbox touted taking advantage of the earliest HD TVs. Before that Nintendo touted 64 bits. Before that, blast processing. And so on and so forth.
As for the most recent obsessions over resolution and framerate, the particular buzzwords like "1080p", "900p", "60 FPS", and so on were engendered with this generation of hardware, but the gen before that was busy fighting over 720p and "true HD". Before that, the Xbox touted taking advantage of the earliest HD TVs. Before that Nintendo touted 64 bits. Before that, blast processing. And so on and so forth.
Tal Shiar Agent
Banned
It's always been that way, even before we had the terms for it. When NES games had bad "slowdown" we didn't like that. The N64 expansion pack advertised increased resolution for certain games.
It's always been a thing.
It's always been a thing.
LordRaptor
Member
The intensity of console warriors arguments about performance minutiae is inversely proportional to the actual performance differential of each tribes console
catashtrophe
Member
HD Twins and digital Foundry started this.
Hum... I don't know to be honest...
Of course resolutions was always important (even more before to be honest), but i don't remember that being as huge as a deal with the console consumer. It really seems like it blow out of proportions recently. (or at least, from PSX/N64/Saturn generation)
... But maybe i just didn't payed attention before ?
JamesJoyce1882
Member
+1Since this
PC gamers have cared about this ever since GPUs of different power existed. I remember discussions about which 2D GPU would get you the best performance for your DOS games. Tseng ET4000, anybody?
TheMoon
Member
Bit wars and all the other crap before was different from res/fps obsession that grew in the age of "video comparisons" fueling flame wars like never before.
FPS mattered for console players as well back then. The arcade ports also had framerate issues in addition to subpar graphics.
Joe Shlabotnik
Banned
I was so psyched when NHLPA 93 came out for the SNES. Finally a version of the awesome Genesis games on my SNES! But when I popped it in, something about it... sucked. It just didn't...animate.. or feel as smooth as the Genesis games, or something. I didn't really know what the problem was, but it was ruining the game. I was 15 or 16 and it was the first video game I ever returned to the store.
The framerate was atrocious.
The framerate was atrocious.
chromatic9
Member
When humans could compare one computer to another
BigBeauford
Member
2nd this. I kept saying "Why does this look so fast and smooth?"
Bubba_Sparks
Member
Probably once meaningful improvments in rendering techniques stopped being the driving factor (aka bump mapping, parralax mapping, pixel shaders, real-time lighting, etc).
Prophane33
Member
Mid-90s PC Gaming. Especially games like Quake.
On the console side of things we were counting polygons back during the PS vs N64 vs Saturn. Resolution and FPS was a big deal too (see any discussion about Saturn's Hi-Res mode, or Virtua Fighter 2 on Saturn).
On the console side of things we were counting polygons back during the PS vs N64 vs Saturn. Resolution and FPS was a big deal too (see any discussion about Saturn's Hi-Res mode, or Virtua Fighter 2 on Saturn).
Are you sure it's not just because you and the people you knew were younger at the time?
There was plenty of it to go around before the post-360 era, so you were just willfully ignoring it or not paying attention or something.
LordOfChaos
Member
Coincided with mass use of the internet, no doubt. Ideas spread and problems were pinpointed more easy, while a casual non technical consumer may know something was off but not know it was framerate. Or wouldn't even think of it, but would feel the difference in a better game.
ExigentContact
Member
It absolutely was a thing from the start and again, companies relished in cultivating it. To a more extreme extent than today, in the case of the fifth generation of consoles.
Strangelove77
Member
People have always cared about graphics, but the obsession with fps and resolution is kind of a new thing.
Last generation was when it seriously started with the rise of HDTVs and HD consoles.
In general, specs became important. I never heard anyone compare a PS1 or GameCube to a pc but everyone would constantly talk about how the 360 and PS3 were weak pcs and years behind and all of that.
Also, you're on Gaf. This is the place where people who care about this stuff come to talk about it. Most don't know or care.
Last generation was when it seriously started with the rise of HDTVs and HD consoles.
In general, specs became important. I never heard anyone compare a PS1 or GameCube to a pc but everyone would constantly talk about how the 360 and PS3 were weak pcs and years behind and all of that.
Also, you're on Gaf. This is the place where people who care about this stuff come to talk about it. Most don't know or care.
I feel like Major Nelson had some blog posts that were really fanning the flames on this.
TheCanisDirus
Member
Very true... but my over simplification was intentional in this discussion. Comparatively speaking, PC gamers have always been MUCH more concerned with the technical aspects of the games they play.
Prophane33
Member
Realtalk: Anyone who thinks it began in the 21st century wasn't playing games or was too young to care about the industry in the 90s.
RichiRamjag
Member
No idea. I never paid it any mind last gen or when I was young and was happier for it tbh.
I don't look down on anyone who does or anything like that though.
I don't look down on anyone who does or anything like that though.
Rats Off To Ya
Banned
People have been talking about this stuff as long as 3D gaming has been a thing, they just haven't always been using the proper terminology. I've been hearing about "jaggies" and "slowdown" as long as I've been posting on internet forums.
I think it's really been highlighted this generation with Digital Foundry becoming more and more commonplace within discussion. Previous generation I barely saw any of this sort of stuff. I'd hear like Call of Duty used an adaptive resolution or something and that's it... these days of DF detects a 3fps drop, then the world is ending according to some people.
C
Contica
Unconfirmed Member
It's always been there, but it didn't get really stupid until we were nearing this current generation. I didn't hear people say stupid shit like "unplayable unless 60 fps" during the 90s. Sure there were elitist people back then too, but we kinda just rolled our eyes at those weirdos who needed to have their toilet water at a specific temperature to urinate. It wasn't the norm it's become now.
Personally, I don't give a shit. I'll take effects and resolution over fps any day of the week. And contrary to many people's beliefs, there are a lot of games where fps makes no difference whatsoever.
Personally, I don't give a shit. I'll take effects and resolution over fps any day of the week. And contrary to many people's beliefs, there are a lot of games where fps makes no difference whatsoever.
mullet2000
Member
Always and anyone who says otherwise just wasn't part of that conversation at the time.
Sgtpepper89
Member
When I started playing CS 1.6.
Stutter/lagg when playing multiplayer or online mp is the worst thing ever.
Stutter/lagg when playing multiplayer or online mp is the worst thing ever.
Since forever:
Exactly the example I was going to use. I don't really care too much about resolution, but frame rate actually impacts the gameplay. When I was 6 years old playing Mega Man 2, I'd get pissed whenever there was a ton of shit on the screen and it slowed the game down. I didn't know the term FPS or what it meant, but it annoyed me then and it annoys me now. It simply makes the game less enjoyable.
professor denim
Member
From quake 2 for me
nkarafo
Member
Always.
- The Amiga was concidered a dream machine because of it's better graphics and smoother scrolling sprites in the 16bit home computer era. Same with the C64, Amstrad and Speccy users envied it's hardware scrolling capabilities since their machines had jerkier animation.
- The SNES was criticized earlier on because of it's slow CPU. Some early games (R-Type) suffered from slowdowns because of it and people who cared noticed it.
- 8/16 bit console era was mostly 60fps so you didn't hear many complains about performance there. Unlike in home computers where complains were more frequent.
- The Amiga was concidered a dream machine because of it's better graphics and smoother scrolling sprites in the 16bit home computer era. Same with the C64, Amstrad and Speccy users envied it's hardware scrolling capabilities since their machines had jerkier animation.
- The SNES was criticized earlier on because of it's slow CPU. Some early games (R-Type) suffered from slowdowns because of it and people who cared noticed it.
- 8/16 bit console era was mostly 60fps so you didn't hear many complains about performance there. Unlike in home computers where complains were more frequent.
No. No, no, no.
Sorry to pick on you but your post epitomises console gamers being way LTTP on this.
Resolution, Frame rate and graphic effects (remember the colour depth debate anyone?) were a selling point on PC since the 3DFX Voodoo over 2 decades ago.
If you weren't rocking a 3D card to power UT99, there was something wrong with you. Higher resolution,better textures etc. Console guys caught up for the 360 gen while PC gamers had "HD" resolution support for years, albeit not in 16:9.
Haha, the irony.
Yes, for consoles it's that era with previously market leader getting humbled so badly.