Deano Calver
Newcomer
One question from K.I.L.E.R was why is frame rate unstable.
I tend to put it down to 2 main areas, one is simple that its takes a long time to go through every level and check every combination of enemy and weapon. Generally QA and devs try and remove it as much as possible but its very hard, sometimes a code tweak gives enough speed, sometimes an art change but often their are always a few still left. You also can't predict every situation (i.e. you tested with 3 enemies on screen, but for some reason their are 10). Also sometimes its the best solution, if you have a really cool puzzle (or whatever) its sometimes worth losing a bit of framerate.
The other is underlaying changes in the platform the game runs on. This can range from NTSC to PAL (or vice versa), to a new videocard or new operating system. Consoles generally have fewer combination and strict testing, so it occurs much less, PC on the otherhand have millions of combination and less testing. It occurs on consoles (HALO PAL60 being the obvious case, IMHO virtually unplayable) due to time constraints, but PCs are a nightmare; new drivers, new hardware, OS patchs, background programs, all causes a huge amount of variables. To make it worse, the atitude that the PC will be fast enough soon enough prevails. It also doesn't help that the minimum config is usually lower than the developer would like, so they have to push everything to the limit just to get a 'reasonable' framerate let alone a stable one.
The only answers are better testing, but with the time and money constraits this isn't going to happen that often. The more complex games (and the hardware) become that greater the problem.
I tend to put it down to 2 main areas, one is simple that its takes a long time to go through every level and check every combination of enemy and weapon. Generally QA and devs try and remove it as much as possible but its very hard, sometimes a code tweak gives enough speed, sometimes an art change but often their are always a few still left. You also can't predict every situation (i.e. you tested with 3 enemies on screen, but for some reason their are 10). Also sometimes its the best solution, if you have a really cool puzzle (or whatever) its sometimes worth losing a bit of framerate.
The other is underlaying changes in the platform the game runs on. This can range from NTSC to PAL (or vice versa), to a new videocard or new operating system. Consoles generally have fewer combination and strict testing, so it occurs much less, PC on the otherhand have millions of combination and less testing. It occurs on consoles (HALO PAL60 being the obvious case, IMHO virtually unplayable) due to time constraints, but PCs are a nightmare; new drivers, new hardware, OS patchs, background programs, all causes a huge amount of variables. To make it worse, the atitude that the PC will be fast enough soon enough prevails. It also doesn't help that the minimum config is usually lower than the developer would like, so they have to push everything to the limit just to get a 'reasonable' framerate let alone a stable one.
The only answers are better testing, but with the time and money constraits this isn't going to happen that often. The more complex games (and the hardware) become that greater the problem.
