Random Gaming Thoughts

[Exhuminator]

Somewhere at Level-5 studios Japan, circa 2008...

Jin Fujisawa: "Hmm. It seems when we show all four party characters on screen at once, the frame rate dips down to 15 or less, fairly often."

Akihiro Hino: "Oh, in Dragon Quest IX? Yeah."

Jin Fujisawa: "Um. Well, you know, we are targeting 30fps at all times, right?"

Akihiro Hino: "I suppose."

Jin Fujisawa: "Howabout we put an option in the menu, that lets the player disable seeing the other three part members on the traversal screen. You know, to keep the frame rate up?"

Akihiro Hino: "That'd be admitting to the player that we have a programming problem. So, not so much."

Jin Fujisawa: "We could at least optimize the engine to use scanline rendering, instead of z-buffer. Granted the DS has native support for z-buffer, but let's be honest, it's not up to snuff for what we're trying to do here."

Ryutaro Ichimura: "Whoa, whoa, whoa. We gotta get this game out the door. No way in hell I'm letting you make the programmers rewrite something that intrinsic to the game engine. You're high Jin."

Akihiro Hino: "Besides, nobody's going to notice the frame rate drops. This is a handheld game on a tiny screen. Who's going to care, as long as what is rendered looks really nice, despite how slow it is? You'd have to be a truly pedantic asshead to even notice, let alone care."

Jin Fujisawa: "Yeah, I guess you guys are right. Forget it then, let's double down on those grottoes!"

Somewhere in south Georgia USA, circa 2016...

Exhuminator: "What the hell Level-5? Are you shitting me in the ass here? I get a fully party and I'm sludging through a goddamn slideshow! Who programmed this crap? Who signed off on this sloppy junk? Ugh!"

[marurun]

Are you shitting me in the ass here?

Trying to figure out the mechanics of this maneuver is giving me a headache.

[Ack]

Are you shitting me in the ass here?

Trying to figure out the mechanics of this maneuver is giving me a headache.

Oh it's easy. Imagine a tiny screaming Exhuminator being passed from the rectal cavity of one Japanese programmer directly into the rectal cavity of another Japanese programmer.

[marurun]

Are you shitting me in the ass here?

Trying to figure out the mechanics of this maneuver is giving me a headache.

Oh it's easy. Imagine a tiny screaming Exhuminator being passed from the rectal cavity of one Japanese programmer directly into the rectal cavity of another Japanese programmer.

Well, my headache's gone, but now I seem to have another problem altogether...

[MrPopo]

Are you shitting me in the ass here?

Trying to figure out the mechanics of this maneuver is giving me a headache.

Oh it's easy. Imagine a tiny screaming Exhuminator being passed from the rectal cavity of one Japanese programmer directly into the rectal cavity of another Japanese programmer.

I think I saw something like that once on AMV Hell Divided By Zero.

[KalessinDB]

So very glad that I'm not in the group of people bugged by sub-optimal framerate. I notice it (sometimes... sub 30 I usually can) but it doesn't really bug me. Makes life easier.

[Xeogred]

So very glad that I'm not in the group of people bugged by sub-optimal framerate. I notice it (sometimes... sub 30 I usually can) but it doesn't really bug me. Makes life easier.

I've gotten a little picky about it with FPS's.

[KalessinDB]

So very glad that I'm not in the group of people bugged by sub-optimal framerate. I notice it (sometimes... sub 30 I usually can) but it doesn't really bug me. Makes life easier.

I've gotten a little picky about it with FPS's.

I don't play FPS's, my love of shooters is confined to run n gun and shmups only, so that might explain it

[Exhuminator]

So very glad that I'm not in the group of people bugged by sub-optimal framerate.

When a developer is making an exclusive game for an exclusive platform, it means they're developing solely for a known commodity, insofar as actual hardware capability is concerned. In that situation, a developer has no excuse for a bad frame rate. Especially a top tier developer working with a world class IP.

[KalessinDB]

So very glad that I'm not in the group of people bugged by sub-optimal framerate.

When a developer is making an exclusive game for an exclusive platform, it means they're developing solely for a known commodity, insofar as actual hardware capability is concerned. In that situation, a developer has no excuse for a bad frame rate. Especially a top tier developer working with a world class IP.

Wasn't trying to say they had excuses for it. Was just saying I'm very glad that I'm not bugged for it - heck I very rarely even notice it unless it's to the point most people would call unplayable.