Some interesting trivia: The frame rate difference between NTSC and PAL screens causes issues when calculating world records for speed runs, which leads to the communities of games impacted by this to either use a conversion system for fairness or create separate categories for NTSC and PAL times
Oooh, that's true! I believe I've gotten that information as well, thanks to Summoning Salt's wondrous documentaries on various aspects of speedrunning. It might or might not be your case too, but thanks for pointing this out, is what I mean.
I just wanted to say I'm glad there's so many interesting comments like this on Sakurai's videos so I can learn further than just from the vid. That one dude who kept asking for Smash patches scared me a bit and I thought it was going to be Sakurai's Twitter all over again but seeing the actual informative and relevant comments now drowning those out gives me hope for this channel's future.
I remember getting a rom of the original Mario in the 90s and it wasn't labeled as pal and couldn't figure out why the framerate was slow and the music sounded wrong,lol
Even as someone who already knows all of this, listening to Sakurai talk about it with this beautiful presentation is just special, highly entertaining and relaxing to watch.
I can definitely see a gaming professor assigning their students to watch these videos if they are getting into game design which is really cool! I'm glad Sakurai is put all of this effort into these videos.
I’m glad SOMEONE mentioned that old TVs can run 60fps (be it in 240p “frames” or 480p “fields.”) Too often, I’ve seen videos that deinterlace old game footage to 30fps and lose several visual details that only look good in 60fps. For a notorious example, the flicker effects in “Sonic the Hedgehog” when you hit a boss or grab a shield. At 60fps, two images flicker between each other so quickly that both look transparent, but with half the frames lost, you only see one solid image and completely miss the other.
Same. I've also seen people who literally claim the Wii could only run games at 24 to 30 fps which is just dead wrong. One such video I saw that said so literally was showing 60fps footage of Mario Galaxy on the Wii while saying so lol.
whoa wait, so is that why videos on youtube with classic sonic games look the way they do? it's something i always notice when watching sonic rom hack videos, i guess youtube takes the away the interlacing then?
@@legoboy7107 60fps is the reason why the cursor was so fast and precise in the Galaxy games, compared to Skyward Sword which was noticeably slower, until the HD version released.
...sigh. 240p is not an interlaced video standard. 480i is. On most consoles pre-dreamcast, games were designed and typically ran at 240p, that is, any horizontal resolution that has roughly 240 pixels (or lines) being drawn. I'm not here to bash Sakurai, I think this is an excellent video.. buuut.. that's not exactly how analog television worked. Most CRT TVs have essentially two modes when it comes to resolution. 480i, which would be 480 horizontal resolution, interlaced into fields to create 60 fields per second motion (which is either deinterlaced as 30p or 60p on modern televisions depending on the software used) for display. 240p, is literally half of 480i, and CRT televisions are able to draw a 240p image via progressive scan. If you're noticing flickering, it may also simply be an impromper capture card that's misrepresenting the signal from a modern display, or poor cables introducing artifacts, ie, composite video. When the 6th generation of video game consoles was released, the PS2, Dreamcast, Gamecube, Xbox, etc, all typically ran at 480i, a higher resolution than 240p, but interlaced to safe bandwidth... granted, some of the games and consoles like the Gamecube could output 480p natively, however it was rare due to either requiring lesser used cables or lack of compatibility in titles. The standard composite video could only output 240p and 480i, component was the only one capable of producing 480p at that time, which most people didn't bother with Tl;dr, it's very complicated. Your mileage may vary. Retrorgb may be able to provide more information along with Wikipedia, blogs, etc. Analog television very much operated on compromises to draw frames or half-frames, so a "field" in a 480i frame is essentially a half frame. In 240p games, 60 frames per second, in 480i games, 60 fields per second, which would create the illusion of 60 frames on a CRT or would be deinterlaced to 60fps on a modern display. Retro games do 240p, hence progressive scan. Color television before digital is very much archaic.
Using Sonic as the example of how different games were for NTSC and PAL was perfect, cuz it's what I usually think about when it comes to the regional differences back in the day. It was wild in that not only did the lower framerate of PAL effect the gameplay, but also the music. It's not vaporwave levels of slowdown, but it puts to mind that style of music.
Genesis games are an interesting topic when it comes to PAL as most if not all Genesis games in PAL (which people call it there the Mega Drive) was unoptimized for PAL speed in general.
In a lot of cases, tho, music was optimized, however, gameplay speed wasn't. The PAL release of Contra: Hard Corps (Probotector) actually gave the player fewer continues to compensate for the slower playing speed. IIRC, from Sonic 2 onwards, the Sonic games were partially optimized in that music was fixed and gameplay speed was tweaked, but still ran slightly slower than their NTSC counterparts to avoid alienating players who were more used to the unoptimized play speed of Sonic 1. The 50Hz frame limitation for PAL regions started to die out around the Dreamcast's release, when TVs started to accept 60Hz signals as well (you'll notice you're given the option to set the refresh rate manually in most PAL Dreamcast releases).
There's this thing called "Delta time" some newer games use. Basically, if your engine has a clock that's independent of other processes, you can use a bunch of math to calculate distances based on actual time instead of "that much per frame", which keeps it consistent even if the machine running the game has slowdowns. It's also quite complicated and "that much per frame" is still used a lot
do note that this changes the way physics works in your game. the way objects interact with each other can change by very slight amounts every time you run the simulation. this means a perfect bounce can be a few pixels off.
I think games will often still tick "that much per frame" at an internal fixed timestep for game logic, but interpolate the rendering at a variable framerate like you mention. This lets the game state update reliably/deterministically, but also allow the display to accommodate slowdowns or fast computers.
@@DanielSavageOnGooglePlus that also happens but not for everything. Only for physics. If you need something to be like this, in unity you use FixedUpdate. But Unity themselves recommend only doing that you really need it.
Hey Sakurai, I know that you probably don't read the comments (and this will get buried), but as someone who has wanted to develop, as well as write the stories for his own games and get a start in the game industry, I can't help but admire your work ethic and personality. You're such a cool dude and I hope one day I can reach your level of awesomeness. Keep doing what you love, my man
I know, as Sakurai said at the beginning, most avid gamers already know this, but that being said. Massive praise to the animation, editing and subtitles here. I have never seen FPS explained so beautifully.
My favorite thing Sakurai does is with his transitions with the loading screens and how at the end with a "STAGE CLEAR!" screen with some victory music on top of it. It feels like I just beat a level in a video game and learned some great knowledge from a wise teacher. Thank you for your videos, Sakurai! Don't let anything break your stride! :D 桜井さんの好きなところは、ロード画面の遷移と最後に「STAGE CLEAR!」をするところです。その上にいくつかの勝利の音楽が表示された画面。 ビデオゲームでレベルを上げて、賢明な先生から素晴らしい知識を学んだような気がします. 桜井さん、動画ありがとう！ 何があっても歩みを止めないでください！ :D
In what way? This isn't anything new, many RUclipsrs who have an interest in performance and game code have already made these videos for beginners and intermediate. A lot of fanboys coming to this channel like they are glazing upon forbidden fruit when this is so old news it's not even worth watching. He can do better with his decades of experience.
2:01 I actually didn't knew that. I always thought that slow screen redrawing and slowdown were both the same thing. It seems like you indeed learn something new everyday.
I love how Sakurai looks so happy/excited for being able to have his channel and talk about games stuff like this, makes me so happy for him, go on master!
I remember the difference in frame rates between PAL and NTSC being a divide in speedrunning. Speedrunning is an interesting topic, I'd love to hear what Sakurai thinks about that topic!
I've always been fascinated about how he teaches and talks about games in his Sakurai presents from Smash reveals so these are perfect and I could listen to him talk for hours
One of the biggest examples of speed difference in NTSC and PAL was the soundtrack for an unreleased Genesis version of a game based on a sci-fi tv show called Time Trax. That change in framerate affected the speed of the music, which changed the vibe of the soundtrack completely. To this day, game music nerds still argue about which way the soundtrack is supposed to be listened to.
The difference between 30 FPS and 60 FPS is just crazy. I always knew that there was a difference since it is obvious in some games but this is the best example between 30 and 60 FPS.
@@Furiac. Yes. Another example would be Super Mario World for SNES. It's not mentioned here as this is discussing framerate, but that game went a step further, as it also used the extra 20-odd pixels in height, where most games would simply letterbox them out.
fun fact, since most of those older games actually output very slightly non-standard resolutions (typically referred to today as 240p for ntsc or 288p for pal) the framerates could be slightly different from spec. consoles which achieved 240p by outputting 263 lines per field (like the n64) would actually run slightly slower than normal video, about 59.82 fps, whereas consoles which did 240p by outputting only 262 lines per field (like the snes) would run slightly faster than normal video, roughly 60.05 fps. anyway, as it turns out, modern televisions often have trouble interpreting the non-standard, non-interlaced signals from these old consoles correctly, often resulting in them attempting to deinterlace video that was never interlaced to begin with, thus adding unnecessary delay and/or mangling the image to some degree. a lot of modern TVs don't even support the analog connections these consoles produced, such as S-video or RGB-Scart. as such a lot of people who still play games on these old systems have invested in such devices as the Micomsoft Framemeister, OSSC, or Retrotink in order to convert the signals into something a modern television will both accept and won't distort too much, and weirdly enough these boxes can even REDUCE input lag relative to just plugging the console in directly due to proper handling of non-interlaced video. there also exist much more generic AV>HDMI converter boxes, however these typically have many of the same problems as just plugging your console into the television directly, and will often be the WORST option when it comes to both input lag and image quality
Fun fact: Brazilian televisions used PAL-M a 60MHz version of PAL so the games ran as normal here. If you use an European game on a Brazilian Master System or mega drive, for example, it will run games that weren't optimized for PAL in 60fps (if the game is not region locked)
Gracias Sakurai-san por estos videos que tienen un valor inmenso. Una cosa es ver a «pseudo-expertos» de RUclips y otra es ver a toda una leyenda viva de la industria hablar de ello.
I love how he is trying to bring us all together on topics we all can relate too from around the world and teaching the struggles of playing games from Europe
It wasn't a struggle playing games in Europe, that's just a pure lie. There are European game developers making games in 50, and other game developers compensated for slower framerate with higher game speed. Plus PAL had higher resolution, and wasn't known as the system with "not the same color" issue. I'd say PAL was overall better, but people are only fixated on 60 frames per second like that's the only thing that matters.
Have you ever tried to play pal games in America you need to import a tv that has a 50 hertz’s option and then the cable doesn’t fit into the wall so I need another adapter to do so, it’s all a rough process and slow really it’s all just slow😂
Nice introduction to the idea of framerate when applied to games! One addendum I think people will generally find worthwhile, especially since modern games often work differently: Many modern games separate their game logic framerate and their display framerate. What this means is that the actual physics, inputs, motion, collision- all of that is done on some fixed timestep. ( 20, 30, 60 fps...) If that fixed timestep was directly drawn, then we get a system where the display framerate is limited by the game logic. The trick? Draw to the screen independently of that game logic code! So, on a variable frame rate, the game visuals are interpolated between these fixed frames. This means that, for example, 60 frames occur in a second for gameplay, but 90 frames could be drawn to represent those 60 frames. To give a more mathematical example, the 20th frame drawn to the screen could represent the 13.333333333.... gameplay (physics) frame, instead of being limited to drawing the 13th or 14th physics frame. This is done because game logic is much more consistent when it works on a fixed timestep. It's easier to design for and program without worrying about frames taking an irregular amount of time. However, people really like their smooth framerates- which is completely understandable! High framerates can really help improve the feel of a game. So, interpolating between gameplay frames allows both an easier to design gameplay and a pleasing image. It also solves the issue Sakurai outlined regarding the ports of classic games to PAL regions; If one person has a 165fps monitor, and another has a 60fps monitor, then there's no issue! Both of their games are internally running at the same framerate- the difference is that the player with the 165fps monitor has 105 added in-between frames drawn to their screen. This does NOT make a game immune to slowdown. It takes time to calculate game logic, and in particularly complex scenarios, that calculation can cause the game logic to take longer than the timestep. Once the timestep is exceeded, the length of gameplay frame is extended, slowing down the gameplay. If anybody is curious about the literal implementation of such a system, you can find it by looking for "fixed timestep interpolation" online. It's often much simpler than you'd think.
I think the best example of this system is Minecraft, where the game will run at full speed regardless of your framerate. You can go up to over 200FPS and still play the game just fine.
I’ve heard Sonic Team did that with the Switch version of Sonic Forces-the input is 60 FPS, but the visuals run at 30 FPS or something like that. Hopefully they do that again with the Switch version of Sonic Frontiers, assuming they haven’t magically managed to make it run at 60 FPS on the hybrid console (I’m still skeptical Frontiers will run well on Switch, admittedly)-obviously playing it at 144 FPS on my PC is ideal FPS-wise, but hopefully the Switch version is good, too so that I could play it more often in handheld mode in bed.
There are some things which I already understood. Mr. Sakurai simplifies it and shows visual representation. I miss the Smash Directs but this is totally behind the scenes in the gaming industry. Your videos are awesome and I will keep watching. Thank you Mr. Sakurai for all of your hard work in the gaming industry.
This channel is great! It feels like a record of gaming advancements and creative ideas. It’s great to catalog this information for future game designers. Also I hope Mr. Sakurai gets to reveal the final DLC amiibo. :)
@@OtakuMan26 Running PAL as Sakurai stated meant games chopped 50fps instead of 60fps. While already unfavourable versions of these games to use given nothing stopped them from using NTSC ISOs, some games like Tekken 3 copped it harder because running an FG at its unintended framerate is unacceptable
Sakurai: Some PC games and high-end machines can surpass 120 or even 200 fps, depending on processing power. But none of that will matter if your monitor doesn't support it. Geometry Dash players: I'm going to pretend I did not see that
You need a very fast CPU for those framerates. The CPU has to do all of the game logic and process your inputs, if the CPU and RAM aren't fast enough, you have the GPU waiting and not working at full speed, this is called a CPU bottleneck.
Finally, even if you run a game internally at 100fps while your monitor displays 60Hz or 60fps, it will be more responsive than the game's code running at 60fps with the same monitor.
Something to add on/build upon what was said, if you have a game run at 120fps, it may do things FASTER than at 60fps or 30fps which you might not want and introduce bugs. Some advice if you are trying to avoid these issues: originally Mr Sakurai and co had to design with every part of the game being frame rate dependent (slows down on low fps, speeds up on high fps), but in all engines nowadays we can make certain calculations (e.g. how far a player should move along the screen) happen at the same speed regardless of frame rate, to create a similar playing experience. This is called "Delta Time" - a value that you can use in code (e.g. in Unity C# you type Time.DeltaTime). This number represents the time between each frame being drawn. If you multiply something like your movement speed by DeltaTime in your code every frame, you will move along the screen at the same rate regardless of framerate.
Reminds me how in Donkey Kong 64, Rare sort of did a similar thing, where when the game is running at a lower framerate, they speed up the Kong's movement speed so that you feel like you cover the same amount of distance in the same amount of real time. Of course, their solution was imperfect, and at really low framerates, the Kongs actually move TOO fast, and you can make jumps that would otherwise be impossible. At least, that's how I've heard it explained by speedrunners of the game.
Frame rates are the most important things for gameplay as a whole, as the smoother they are, the more responsive the controls are. It is worth noting that gameplay benefits were dependant on the genre, so more action focused games benefit this the most, while more slow pace ones like strategy games may be a bit unnecessary.
I'd argue that minimizing input lag is more important than framerate directly in terms of making a game responsive. of course, all else being equal a 60 fps game will have less input lag than a 30 fps game, but when all else is not equal, a 30 fps game with 20 ms of input lag will be more responsive than a 60 fps game with 40 ms of input lag.
@@MizoxNG Well, it all varied by games. There are a lot of games that tied their game engine to FPS, which can leads to inconsistency of how the game's behaves, especially for most of old games. Example; your cars suddenly brake a lot tighter on 60 FPS than it was at 30.
really hope this channel will be a success, because this sakurai guy have a pure noble heart about game and game developer. i hope you have a long happy life mr sakurai !
I’m about to attend college to create video games, and this is one of the best and most helpful channels there is. Thanks for what you’re doing, Sakurai.
New favorite channel, period. I watch content like this for hours in my own time, getting something like this from someone who's still big in the scene is incredible. Keep up the great work, and I'll be sure to take notes !!
Awesome, i watched an entire video about a subject that i feel know enough, yet it was very informative in many ways i didn't knew before watching this, very well put together and very well produced as well, great stuff Mr Sakurai.
I'm so happy he now has the time to do whatever he wants, like with these videos. Imagine if he had uploaded something like this during SSBU production, everyone would be thinking "this is a hint that Shadow of the Colossus characters will be the next DLC!!" or something like that lol
Japanese people are experts in time management so its not really a surprise. Because they work so long they need to use every minute as best as possible and mange to do more things than US or EU people for example. But it is also kinda rushed and stressful I think to not using time a bit more relaxed or being lazy sometimes
I am sure there are large teams behind these videos from every angle. Those transitions and visuals are excellent and very smooth, and the fact that other games are cited must have been quite a headache for lawyers. However, it all comes together to create a very good explanation of fundamental game design elements from a well-known and often-loved legend of the art! Thank you Mr. Sakurai, and thank you to those the viewers do not see. Reliable access to professional knowledge will be a pillar of learning in the future, and everyone involved in these videos are helping to lead the charge! 😄✨💙
I’m definitely, (hopefully) binging these, Sakurai is so passionate and lovable that seeing him have his own game design documentary is probably the best thing in the world.
A crucial thing about higher framerates is they let a player react sooner to events, which is why fighting games try to achieve and maintain 60 fps. I like thinking every frame drawn as information being presented to the player. More information allows your brain to calculate and make better decisions, like "when should I dodge to avoid damage" in Dark Souls or "when should I start charging my Greatsword to smack this monster out of their lunge" in Monster Hunter. Another thing I've found is avoiding packing too much info into one frame, as this is what leads to clutter or over-stimulation. Your brain can only process so much, and too much means you'll need more time to process and decide, or some of that info can get thrown out; sometimes that info can be vital, like an incoming attack or a bottomless pit. As an example, one game I was playing recently had very nice pixel art graphics, but because everything was SO detailed, I ended up not noticing a pit that was right in front of me, and I walked straight into it and lost a life. On the first level, no less.
Hope you will tackle Frame time as well. Many people still don't know why some games stutter and some don't even though they're both running at the same frame rate.
I'm glad you properly optimized your games for PAL signals. Thanks for that! That was very rare back then and I always appreciated it, when developers took measures against slowdown. Especially Kirby's Adventure felt amazing. I have the PAL Wii Virtual Console Version and played it since I was a child.
at the end where he's like "please keep these terms in mind" I was nodding and going "yes Mr. Sakurai" like i was in middle school all over again. Love these vids
![Risk and Reward [Game Essence]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/FXqEykD5Ub4/mqdefault.jpg)
![Risk and Reward [Game Essence]](/img/tr.png)
![Down with Lag! [Grab Bag]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/gjoKKyskco4/mqdefault.jpg)
![Stop for Big Moments! [Design Specifics]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/OdVkEOzdCPw/mqdefault.jpg)
![Strike a Balance with Sound Effects [Audio]](/img/1.gif)
Sakurai is my favorite youtuber now
sorry captain disillusion, sakurai's #1
He’s a king among kings.
Hell ya iron pineapple! You and sakurai arr my favorite dude!
Everyones favorite youtuber😇
I’m so glad we live in a timeline where that can be said
Sakurai is like your favorite teacher you actually listen to in learning.
FACTS!!
@@Husky478 Yes!
Some interesting trivia: The frame rate difference between NTSC and PAL screens causes issues when calculating world records for speed runs, which leads to the communities of games impacted by this to either use a conversion system for fairness or create separate categories for NTSC and PAL times
Oooh, that's true! I believe I've gotten that information as well, thanks to Summoning Salt's wondrous documentaries on various aspects of speedrunning.
It might or might not be your case too, but thanks for pointing this out, is what I mean.
I just wanted to say I'm glad there's so many interesting comments like this on Sakurai's videos so I can learn further than just from the vid. That one dude who kept asking for Smash patches scared me a bit and I thought it was going to be Sakurai's Twitter all over again but seeing the actual informative and relevant comments now drowning those out gives me hope for this channel's future.
I remember getting a rom of the original Mario in the 90s and it wasn't labeled as pal and couldn't figure out why the framerate was slow and the music sounded wrong,lol
576th like, that's the amount of scan lines on a PAL tv
This channel is an absolute goldmine, and a delight.
Hello lovely people from Nintendo Life!
Agreed since Masahiro Sakurai stopped doing all the smash ultimate screenshots
@@BlackbeardGaming- "... from Nintendo Life here!"*
Even tho Smash is done, we still get to see Sakurai’s amazing video presentations!
Nice to see you give your positive thoughts
Gotta go fast (if resources allow)!
Oh my goodness my favorite blue rat is here too.
Yooo what's upppp
Hedgehog the Sonic
Nah this is the Offical channel to.💀
Hire Sakurai (It's A Joke )
Even as someone who already knows all of this, listening to Sakurai talk about it with this beautiful presentation is just special, highly entertaining and relaxing to watch.
Haha same I love it
Sakurai’s got a sick editing team for these videos
i was thinking the same here
I'd honestly be ok with him opening a Patreon for this. Really informative and I feel bad for him paying for this out of his own pocket
@@chaoslordmissingno its funny that people making high quality content on youtube barely get paid by youtube
I can definitely see a gaming professor assigning their students to watch these videos if they are getting into game design which is really cool! I'm glad Sakurai is put all of this effort into these videos.
I’m glad SOMEONE mentioned that old TVs can run 60fps (be it in 240p “frames” or 480p “fields.”) Too often, I’ve seen videos that deinterlace old game footage to 30fps and lose several visual details that only look good in 60fps. For a notorious example, the flicker effects in “Sonic the Hedgehog” when you hit a boss or grab a shield. At 60fps, two images flicker between each other so quickly that both look transparent, but with half the frames lost, you only see one solid image and completely miss the other.
Same. I've also seen people who literally claim the Wii could only run games at 24 to 30 fps which is just dead wrong. One such video I saw that said so literally was showing 60fps footage of Mario Galaxy on the Wii while saying so lol.
Never cared for the Genesis’s use of frame flickers for faux transparency. SNES’s actual transparency layers were the way to go.
whoa wait, so is that why videos on youtube with classic sonic games look the way they do? it's something i always notice when watching sonic rom hack videos, i guess youtube takes the away the interlacing then?
@@legoboy7107 60fps is the reason why the cursor was so fast and precise in the Galaxy games, compared to Skyward Sword which was noticeably slower, until the HD version released.
...sigh.
240p is not an interlaced video standard. 480i is.
On most consoles pre-dreamcast, games were designed and typically ran at 240p, that is, any horizontal resolution that has roughly 240 pixels (or lines) being drawn. I'm not here to bash Sakurai, I think this is an excellent video.. buuut.. that's not exactly how analog television worked.
Most CRT TVs have essentially two modes when it comes to resolution. 480i, which would be 480 horizontal resolution, interlaced into fields to create 60 fields per second motion (which is either deinterlaced as 30p or 60p on modern televisions depending on the software used) for display. 240p, is literally half of 480i, and CRT televisions are able to draw a 240p image via progressive scan. If you're noticing flickering, it may also simply be an impromper capture card that's misrepresenting the signal from a modern display, or poor cables introducing artifacts, ie, composite video. When the 6th generation of video game consoles was released, the PS2, Dreamcast, Gamecube, Xbox, etc, all typically ran at 480i, a higher resolution than 240p, but interlaced to safe bandwidth... granted, some of the games and consoles like the Gamecube could output 480p natively, however it was rare due to either requiring lesser used cables or lack of compatibility in titles. The standard composite video could only output 240p and 480i, component was the only one capable of producing 480p at that time, which most people didn't bother with
Tl;dr, it's very complicated. Your mileage may vary.
Retrorgb may be able to provide more information along with Wikipedia, blogs, etc. Analog television very much operated on compromises to draw frames or half-frames, so a "field" in a 480i frame is essentially a half frame. In 240p games, 60 frames per second, in 480i games, 60 fields per second, which would create the illusion of 60 frames on a CRT or would be deinterlaced to 60fps on a modern display. Retro games do 240p, hence progressive scan. Color television before digital is very much archaic.
My man's literally talked about Frame Rates for 4 minutes and somehow it's some of the most interesting video essay format I've seen.
Using Sonic as the example of how different games were for NTSC and PAL was perfect, cuz it's what I usually think about when it comes to the regional differences back in the day. It was wild in that not only did the lower framerate of PAL effect the gameplay, but also the music. It's not vaporwave levels of slowdown, but it puts to mind that style of music.
Genesis games are an interesting topic when it comes to PAL as most if not all Genesis games in PAL (which people call it there the Mega Drive) was unoptimized for PAL speed in general.
In a lot of cases, tho, music was optimized, however, gameplay speed wasn't. The PAL release of Contra: Hard Corps (Probotector) actually gave the player fewer continues to compensate for the slower playing speed.
IIRC, from Sonic 2 onwards, the Sonic games were partially optimized in that music was fixed and gameplay speed was tweaked, but still ran slightly slower than their NTSC counterparts to avoid alienating players who were more used to the unoptimized play speed of Sonic 1.
The 50Hz frame limitation for PAL regions started to die out around the Dreamcast's release, when TVs started to accept 60Hz signals as well (you'll notice you're given the option to set the refresh rate manually in most PAL Dreamcast releases).
@@Trimint123 Some Mega Drive games were optimized for PAL thankfully, like Thunder Force 4, Alien Soldier, Sonic games from 2 onwards, etc
Shadow of the Colossus making it onto the screen while Sakurai is talking. Is this heaven?
We somehow moved into the best timeline
There's this thing called "Delta time" some newer games use. Basically, if your engine has a clock that's independent of other processes, you can use a bunch of math to calculate distances based on actual time instead of "that much per frame", which keeps it consistent even if the machine running the game has slowdowns. It's also quite complicated and "that much per frame" is still used a lot
Unity's built-in stuff uses "delta time". If you do stuff manually (like on Update), you need to do the math yourself or it will be per-frame basis.
DeltaTime actually measures how long a specific frame takes to execute. That's why multiplying the speed by deltatime makes it (unit of speed)/second
do note that this changes the way physics works in your game.
the way objects interact with each other can change by very slight amounts every time you run the simulation. this means a perfect bounce can be a few pixels off.
I think games will often still tick "that much per frame" at an internal fixed timestep for game logic, but interpolate the rendering at a variable framerate like you mention. This lets the game state update reliably/deterministically, but also allow the display to accommodate slowdowns or fast computers.
@@DanielSavageOnGooglePlus that also happens but not for everything. Only for physics. If you need something to be like this, in unity you use FixedUpdate. But Unity themselves recommend only doing that you really need it.
Having Sakurai as a teacher about gaming is something I never knew I wanted
I'm loving how he is treating this like the Smash Dojo in which he posts every single day.
Hey Sakurai, I know that you probably don't read the comments (and this will get buried), but as someone who has wanted to develop, as well as write the stories for his own games and get a start in the game industry, I can't help but admire your work ethic and personality. You're such a cool dude and I hope one day I can reach your level of awesomeness.
Keep doing what you love, my man
Using Sonic 1 to show the difference between NTSC and PAL is such a good call.
Hearing this brilliant man speak about videogames is like its own type of ASMR.
petition for Sakurai to pull out the cat in these videos
Something about Sakurai talking about frame rates is just so satisfying
I know, as Sakurai said at the beginning, most avid gamers already know this, but that being said. Massive praise to the animation, editing and subtitles here. I have never seen FPS explained so beautifully.
“Silky smooth graphics are where it’s at!” - Masahiro Sakurai
Oh I get it. Each type of video is one of the four colors of the triangles in the logo! Sick.
Now I understand why playing imported games felt much better (I am from europe)
This channel is so great, please never stop 😭🙏
I'm glad you mentioned the limitations of 50HZ. It was awkward growing up with it until 60HZ became the standard on newer devices.
I love how he's talking about not just games, but this bleeds into how animation and even film works as well.
Sakurai is genuinely one of the people I admire most in this world. I could watch him talk about anything.
My favorite thing Sakurai does is with his transitions with the loading screens and how at the end with a "STAGE CLEAR!" screen with some victory music on top of it.
It feels like I just beat a level in a video game and learned some great knowledge from a wise teacher.
Thank you for your videos, Sakurai!
Don't let anything break your stride! :D
桜井さんの好きなところは、ロード画面の遷移と最後に「STAGE CLEAR!」をするところです。その上にいくつかの勝利の音楽が表示された画面。
ビデオゲームでレベルを上げて、賢明な先生から素晴らしい知識を学んだような気がします.
桜井さん、動画ありがとう！
何があっても歩みを止めないでください！ :D
Props to the editor for bringing us these video so quickly within the span of two days!
I feel like this video is supremely important to spread around in gaming circles
In what way? This isn't anything new, many RUclipsrs who have an interest in performance and game code have already made these videos for beginners and intermediate. A lot of fanboys coming to this channel like they are glazing upon forbidden fruit when this is so old news it's not even worth watching. He can do better with his decades of experience.
2:01 I actually didn't knew that. I always thought that slow screen redrawing and slowdown were both the same thing. It seems like you indeed learn something new everyday.
It’s only been a few days and Sakurai already has almost 300k subs
I love how Sakurai looks so happy/excited for being able to have his channel and talk about games stuff like this, makes me so happy for him, go on master!
Watching Sakurai’s videos has become part of my morning routine
I remember the difference in frame rates between PAL and NTSC being a divide in speedrunning. Speedrunning is an interesting topic, I'd love to hear what Sakurai thinks about that topic!
I've always been fascinated about how he teaches and talks about games in his Sakurai presents from Smash reveals so these are perfect and I could listen to him talk for hours
One of the biggest examples of speed difference in NTSC and PAL was the soundtrack for an unreleased Genesis version of a game based on a sci-fi tv show called Time Trax. That change in framerate affected the speed of the music, which changed the vibe of the soundtrack completely. To this day, game music nerds still argue about which way the soundtrack is supposed to be listened to.
Ah, a fellow Tim Follin enjoyer
The difference between 30 FPS and 60 FPS is just crazy. I always knew that there was a difference since it is obvious in some games but this is the best example between 30 and 60 FPS.
Would've never guessed that such a legendary Japanese developer would make his own RUclips channel
Even watching him talk about stuff I already know is great. He's just so likeable!
I appreciate the slowed down comparison of 30fps vs 60fps, just in case anyone's watching this in 480p resolution or lower. Nice attention to detail!
"Let's go back to the days of the NES"
Shows Sonic footage*
Never change Mr. Sakurai, never change
Just got to that part.
Genesis does what Nintendon't
Wow, it's really cool such a respected member of the industry is interested in educating people!
there was something innately excited seeing him use Shadow of the Colossus as an example, even though I know all this is separate from Nintendo
It's cool that he's introducing ideas for absolute beginners.
He's the guy who made Kirby's dreamland after all, he always keeps in mind the beginners
That last part was extremely interesting about how ported games to PAL ran at slower speeds. Thank you
Not all PAL games did, for instance Super Mario Bros. on NES was "sped up" to make sure it run at proper speed even at 50Hz.
@@fattomandeibu oh interesting, so some ports had more time put in to them, accounting for these sorts of issues
@@Furiac. Yes. Another example would be Super Mario World for SNES. It's not mentioned here as this is discussing framerate, but that game went a step further, as it also used the extra 20-odd pixels in height, where most games would simply letterbox them out.
@@fattomandeibu 16 pixels, but yeah. It's rare to see 16-bit games take advantage of the 224 vs 240 PAL resolution
Why is this so entertaining watching someone explaining about game development I actually like it
Daily uploads? Mr. Sakurai, you spoil me.
Geeking out with Sakurai first thing in the morning.
In my country i watch it during my break from studying since it's 4:45 PM
Same! 😂
fun fact, since most of those older games actually output very slightly non-standard resolutions (typically referred to today as 240p for ntsc or 288p for pal) the framerates could be slightly different from spec. consoles which achieved 240p by outputting 263 lines per field (like the n64) would actually run slightly slower than normal video, about 59.82 fps, whereas consoles which did 240p by outputting only 262 lines per field (like the snes) would run slightly faster than normal video, roughly 60.05 fps.
anyway, as it turns out, modern televisions often have trouble interpreting the non-standard, non-interlaced signals from these old consoles correctly, often resulting in them attempting to deinterlace video that was never interlaced to begin with, thus adding unnecessary delay and/or mangling the image to some degree. a lot of modern TVs don't even support the analog connections these consoles produced, such as S-video or RGB-Scart. as such a lot of people who still play games on these old systems have invested in such devices as the Micomsoft Framemeister, OSSC, or Retrotink in order to convert the signals into something a modern television will both accept and won't distort too much, and weirdly enough these boxes can even REDUCE input lag relative to just plugging the console in directly due to proper handling of non-interlaced video.
there also exist much more generic AV>HDMI converter boxes, however these typically have many of the same problems as just plugging your console into the television directly, and will often be the WORST option when it comes to both input lag and image quality
Even if he’s done, he’s still making additional content for beginners, just for fun. Thank you
Waking up to a new Sakurai video is lovely!
Fun fact: Brazilian televisions used PAL-M a 60MHz version of PAL so the games ran as normal here. If you use an European game on a Brazilian Master System or mega drive, for example, it will run games that weren't optimized for PAL in 60fps (if the game is not region locked)
vuvuzela gaming wins again(?)
Sakurai is a human being with goals and aspirations beyond just creating games. What a beautiful human being.
Its so interesting to hear these concepts from someone so well known in the industry
This is interesting as you don't see many teachers on game development here on youtube talk about frame rate!
These feel like tiny character presentations and really bring me back. Please, keep them coming.
Amazing content
Holy shit, it's TheRelaxingEnd.
Holy shit, it's Trimint Pikachu.
I still can't believe Sakurai is a RUclipsr
Agreed
Almost no likes nor comments?
we are really lucky to live in a time where this series exists
Gracias Sakurai-san por estos videos que tienen un valor inmenso. Una cosa es ver a «pseudo-expertos» de RUclips y otra es ver a toda una leyenda viva de la industria hablar de ello.
I love how he is trying to bring us all together on topics we all can relate too from around the world and teaching the struggles of playing games from Europe
It wasn't a struggle playing games in Europe, that's just a pure lie. There are European game developers making games in 50, and other game developers compensated for slower framerate with higher game speed. Plus PAL had higher resolution, and wasn't known as the system with "not the same color" issue.
I'd say PAL was overall better, but people are only fixated on 60 frames per second like that's the only thing that matters.
Have you ever tried to play pal games in America you need to import a tv that has a 50 hertz’s option and then the cable doesn’t fit into the wall so I need another adapter to do so, it’s all a rough process and slow really it’s all just slow😂
I never struggled on pal
I love how short and sweet these videos are
This is my favorite new series on RUclips. Very informative, to the point and extremely well edited.
Nice introduction to the idea of framerate when applied to games!
One addendum I think people will generally find worthwhile, especially since modern games often work differently:
Many modern games separate their game logic framerate and their display framerate.
What this means is that the actual physics, inputs, motion, collision- all of that is done on some fixed timestep. ( 20, 30, 60 fps...)
If that fixed timestep was directly drawn, then we get a system where the display framerate is limited by the game logic.
The trick? Draw to the screen independently of that game logic code!
So, on a variable frame rate, the game visuals are interpolated between these fixed frames.
This means that, for example, 60 frames occur in a second for gameplay, but 90 frames could be drawn to represent those 60 frames.
To give a more mathematical example, the 20th frame drawn to the screen could represent the 13.333333333.... gameplay (physics) frame, instead of being limited to drawing the 13th or 14th physics frame.
This is done because game logic is much more consistent when it works on a fixed timestep.
It's easier to design for and program without worrying about frames taking an irregular amount of time.
However, people really like their smooth framerates- which is completely understandable! High framerates can really help improve the feel of a game.
So, interpolating between gameplay frames allows both an easier to design gameplay and a pleasing image.
It also solves the issue Sakurai outlined regarding the ports of classic games to PAL regions;
If one person has a 165fps monitor, and another has a 60fps monitor, then there's no issue!
Both of their games are internally running at the same framerate- the difference is that the player with the 165fps monitor has 105 added in-between frames drawn to their screen.
This does NOT make a game immune to slowdown. It takes time to calculate game logic, and in particularly complex scenarios, that calculation can cause the game logic to take longer than the timestep. Once the timestep is exceeded, the length of gameplay frame is extended, slowing down the gameplay.
If anybody is curious about the literal implementation of such a system, you can find it by looking for "fixed timestep interpolation" online. It's often much simpler than you'd think.
Interesting aside ^w^. Thanks for sharing
I think the best example of this system is Minecraft, where the game will run at full speed regardless of your framerate. You can go up to over 200FPS and still play the game just fine.
i think he touched on this quickly with the shadow of the colossus footage.
I’ve heard Sonic Team did that with the Switch version of Sonic Forces-the input is 60 FPS, but the visuals run at 30 FPS or something like that. Hopefully they do that again with the Switch version of Sonic Frontiers, assuming they haven’t magically managed to make it run at 60 FPS on the hybrid console (I’m still skeptical Frontiers will run well on Switch, admittedly)-obviously playing it at 144 FPS on my PC is ideal FPS-wise, but hopefully the Switch version is good, too so that I could play it more often in handheld mode in bed.
I love how sakurai always looks like he's intensely concerned about your life choices 😂😂
Like "Did you really eat all those pizza rolls in one day"
There are some things which I already understood. Mr. Sakurai simplifies it and shows visual representation. I miss the Smash Directs but this is totally behind the scenes in the gaming industry. Your videos are awesome and I will keep watching. Thank you Mr. Sakurai for all of your hard work in the gaming industry.
I am LOVING these video game analysis videos! I look forward to every video, and I hope they continue for a long time ^^
This channel is great! It feels like a record of gaming advancements and creative ideas. It’s great to catalog this information for future game designers.
Also I hope Mr. Sakurai gets to reveal the final DLC amiibo. :)
Pretty cool for Sakurai to talk about the PAL differences. That's one of the reasons the Playstation classic didn't exactly sell well
Oh yeah? Do tell.
@@OtakuMan26 Running PAL as Sakurai stated meant games chopped 50fps instead of 60fps. While already unfavourable versions of these games to use given nothing stopped them from using NTSC ISOs, some games like Tekken 3 copped it harder because running an FG at its unintended framerate is unacceptable
Sakurai: Some PC games and high-end machines can surpass 120 or even 200 fps, depending on processing power. But none of that will matter if your monitor doesn't support it.
Geometry Dash players: I'm going to pretend I did not see that
You need a very fast CPU for those framerates. The CPU has to do all of the game logic and process your inputs, if the CPU and RAM aren't fast enough, you have the GPU waiting and not working at full speed, this is called a CPU bottleneck.
@@saricubra2867 I'm going to pretend I did not read that
Finally, even if you run a game internally at 100fps while your monitor displays 60Hz or 60fps, it will be more responsive than the game's code running at 60fps with the same monitor.
Something to add on/build upon what was said, if you have a game run at 120fps, it may do things FASTER than at 60fps or 30fps which you might not want and introduce bugs.
Some advice if you are trying to avoid these issues: originally Mr Sakurai and co had to design with every part of the game being frame rate dependent (slows down on low fps, speeds up on high fps), but in all engines nowadays we can make certain calculations (e.g. how far a player should move along the screen) happen at the same speed regardless of frame rate, to create a similar playing experience.
This is called "Delta Time" - a value that you can use in code (e.g. in Unity C# you type Time.DeltaTime). This number represents the time between each frame being drawn. If you multiply something like your movement speed by DeltaTime in your code every frame, you will move along the screen at the same rate regardless of framerate.
Deltatime existing makes such a difference to game feel and scale
Reminds me how in Donkey Kong 64, Rare sort of did a similar thing, where when the game is running at a lower framerate, they speed up the Kong's movement speed so that you feel like you cover the same amount of distance in the same amount of real time. Of course, their solution was imperfect, and at really low framerates, the Kongs actually move TOO fast, and you can make jumps that would otherwise be impossible. At least, that's how I've heard it explained by speedrunners of the game.
Mr Sakurai, thank you for sharing your expertise and insight in game development with the world. This is truly a gift.
Frame rates are the most important things for gameplay as a whole, as the smoother they are, the more responsive the controls are. It is worth noting that gameplay benefits were dependant on the genre, so more action focused games benefit this the most, while more slow pace ones like strategy games may be a bit unnecessary.
What are you talking about? Picross is unplayable on anything lower than 120fps.
I'm not being serious, by the way.
I'd argue that minimizing input lag is more important than framerate directly in terms of making a game responsive. of course, all else being equal a 60 fps game will have less input lag than a 30 fps game, but when all else is not equal, a 30 fps game with 20 ms of input lag will be more responsive than a 60 fps game with 40 ms of input lag.
@@MizoxNG Well, it all varied by games. There are a lot of games that tied their game engine to FPS, which can leads to inconsistency of how the game's behaves, especially for most of old games. Example; your cars suddenly brake a lot tighter on 60 FPS than it was at 30.
@@Trimint123 This causes certain issues with certain emulated games that have increased framerates.
@@AkameGaKillfan777 Well, I wasn't specifically mention emulation, but yeah.
really hope this channel will be a success, because this sakurai guy have a pure noble heart about game and game developer. i hope you have a long happy life mr sakurai !
I liked the part with Sonic
Starlight zone does sound nice in 50hz
Sonic part was pretty pog.
Don't you have a Chao to abuse
I’m about to attend college to create video games, and this is one of the best and most helpful channels there is. Thanks for what you’re doing, Sakurai.
0:55 I lost it when the lady bolted off screen. The editing of these videos isn't just clean and clear, it's hilarious at times as well.
The sound effect too lol
This channel feels like something truly special so far. I can see it becoming quite popular
Anyone else want Sakurai's cat to show up in these videos?
This series genuinely brings me joy.
I’m really enjoying this series of videos from Sakurai-san! Keep up the good work! 👍🏽👍🏽
I appreciate this channel so much, it's a privilege to learn from a legend like Sakurai.
New favorite channel, period. I watch content like this for hours in my own time, getting something like this from someone who's still big in the scene is incredible. Keep up the great work, and I'll be sure to take notes !!
Awesome, i watched an entire video about a subject that i feel know enough, yet it was very informative in many ways i didn't knew before watching this, very well put together and very well produced as well, great stuff Mr Sakurai.
As someone whose currently learning programming to become a game dev. It’s so cool to see Sakurai talk about all of this stuff.
Sorry I accidentally disliked your comment if you got a notifcation for that! Didn't mean to!
That's awesome! Hope that turns out well!
@@yuelia9937
There’s no notifications for dislikes
I'm so happy he now has the time to do whatever he wants, like with these videos. Imagine if he had uploaded something like this during SSBU production, everyone would be thinking "this is a hint that Shadow of the Colossus characters will be the next DLC!!" or something like that lol
so tru
Japanese people are experts in time management so its not really a surprise. Because they work so long they need to use every minute as best as possible and mange to do more things than US or EU people for example. But it is also kinda rushed and stressful I think to not using time a bit more relaxed or being lazy sometimes
That intro sound is EVERYTHING!
I wish I could send Mr. Sakurai a letter of appreciation as somebody learning about game design at the same time as this channel started
I am sure there are large teams behind these videos from every angle. Those transitions and visuals are excellent and very smooth, and the fact that other games are cited must have been quite a headache for lawyers.
However, it all comes together to create a very good explanation of fundamental game design elements from a well-known and often-loved legend of the art!
Thank you Mr. Sakurai, and thank you to those the viewers do not see. Reliable access to professional knowledge will be a pillar of learning in the future, and everyone involved in these videos are helping to lead the charge! 😄✨💙
I’m definitely, (hopefully) binging these, Sakurai is so passionate and lovable that seeing him have his own game design documentary is probably the best thing in the world.
A crucial thing about higher framerates is they let a player react sooner to events, which is why fighting games try to achieve and maintain 60 fps. I like thinking every frame drawn as information being presented to the player. More information allows your brain to calculate and make better decisions, like "when should I dodge to avoid damage" in Dark Souls or "when should I start charging my Greatsword to smack this monster out of their lunge" in Monster Hunter.
Another thing I've found is avoiding packing too much info into one frame, as this is what leads to clutter or over-stimulation. Your brain can only process so much, and too much means you'll need more time to process and decide, or some of that info can get thrown out; sometimes that info can be vital, like an incoming attack or a bottomless pit. As an example, one game I was playing recently had very nice pixel art graphics, but because everything was SO detailed, I ended up not noticing a pit that was right in front of me, and I walked straight into it and lost a life. On the first level, no less.
60fps means 1/60th of a second or 16.6 ms.
People play CSGO over 300fps, that is less than 3.4 ms.
This man is actually making videos?
That is mind-blowing.
I feel like I'm genuinely learning things from these videos
Thank you for your insight on how framerate was used on older hardware.
I feel like I'm in a game design class, and I want more!
So glad he decided to do this. Now I'll be able to understand these things better.
Hope you will tackle Frame time as well. Many people still don't know why some games stutter and some don't even though they're both running at the same frame rate.
I'm glad you properly optimized your games for PAL signals. Thanks for that!
That was very rare back then and I always appreciated it, when developers took measures against slowdown.
Especially Kirby's Adventure felt amazing. I have the PAL Wii Virtual Console Version and played it since I was a child.
at the end where he's like "please keep these terms in mind" I was nodding and going "yes Mr. Sakurai" like i was in middle school all over again. Love these vids