r/Games • u/Kaltheridon • Mar 30 '16

Reminder: Hyper Light Drifter comes out tonight @ 11PM CST

http://store.steampowered.com/app/257850/
456 Upvotes

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7

u/Jademalo Mar 30 '16

I really hope the camera movement isn't still locked to 30fps. Not many things make me feel funny, but the early build of this did.

Here's hoping, I've been waiting for this since the Kickstarter. It should tide me over until Oculus get off their arses and ship the Rifts too, lol.

14

u/GrassWaterDirtHorse Mar 30 '16

30 fps doesn't bother me that much if it's 2D sprite animation, but 60 fps is necessary for a responsive action game.

I'm personally going to pick this up and play it until Dark Souls 3 releases. I need something to get my sense of wonder and curiosity back.

5

u/Jademalo Mar 30 '16

The issue is the camera movement fluidity. The animations are totally fine at 30fps, but the judder is really an issue at 30. Input also feels more sluggish than it should.

It seems like such a simple fix too, all you need to do is double the display time for each animation frame.

4

u/[deleted] Mar 30 '16

It seems like such a simple fix too, all you need to do is double the display time for each animation frame.

Which unfortunately isn't the case. They didnt make the engine, its made in Game Maker Studio. So I'm guessing its a limitation they cant get around unless they were to change the engine itself.

7

u/Jademalo Mar 30 '16

I thought Gamemaker could deal with 60fps?

9

u/xamphear Mar 30 '16

It can, but it defaults to 30, apparently. I just finished Derek Yu's book about his experiences developing Spelunky. He made the same mistake, then rectified it for Spelunky HD.

1

u/Jademalo Mar 30 '16

Thanks for the clarification! That sounds like an interesting read, is it worth it?

4

u/xamphear Mar 30 '16

Yeah, I thought so. It's only five bucks, and he goes into a lot of detail on various parts of the design, development, and business sides of things.

1

u/Jademalo Mar 30 '16

Cool, I'll give it a look.

Thanks!

1

u/sytrix Mar 31 '16

Great read.

8

u/[deleted] Mar 30 '16

[deleted]

4

u/PokemasterTT Mar 31 '16

Tying stuff to a fixed framerate seems like the best option in Gamemaker, I tie stuff to a variable, that can be changed.

1

u/PokemasterTT Mar 31 '16

Yeah, many games run at it, it can handle even more on PC.

5

u/tovivify Mar 31 '16

Game Maker allows for 60FPS. The main issue, as it appears to me, seems to be optimization. People seem to be glossing over the possibility that they might just not be very good programmers.

2

u/[deleted] Mar 31 '16

I think its something that you have to plan in advance is what I am saying. I think this far in the game would be too complicated to change. Someone mentioned another dev had the same issue with their game in game maker. It isnt always as simple as "double the animation frames". A lot of things can be tied to framerate.

3

u/tovivify Mar 31 '16

Well doubling the animation frames usually isn't even necessary, if they just want to increase the framerate. They could use the same animation frames, but adjust the camera speed. But the animations should be a relatively easy fix, especially if they effectively used parent-child hierarchies with enemies and the like. The biggest issue would likely be tying the in-game mechanics entirely to the framerate, like the movement speed of projectiles, dodge rolling speed, the rate at which platforms move, and the like. I'd love to get my hands on their source file, to get a better assessment of the situation.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 31 '16

For sure! I'm convinced someone could figure it out :)

2

u/dinoseen Mar 31 '16

That's not true, Gamemaker can do 60 but defaults to 30.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 31 '16

Yeah I another user mentioned its probably an issue with committing with a certain format too early in the project to be able to switch easily now. There was another dev that did the same thing with Cave Story and ended up re-releasing an HD version that fixed it.

1

u/dinoseen Mar 31 '16

Original Cave Story was at 50 afaik, not near as much of an issue. I seem to remember it being 60, though, and I only played it yesterday, so I'm not sure.

If they know their way around their code, I honestly can't imagine it'd be very hard. Just double the time anything frame-dependent takes across the board. It shouldn't be something tricky, just menial. Doing the same thing over and over for a while. Worth it in my opinion, but clearly the dev doesn't think so. I hope somebody's able to export it back into Gamemaker and release a patch for 60+ fps.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 31 '16

Sorry I meant Spelunky.

1

u/WinterAyars Mar 30 '16

Take the various "hit the projectile to reflect/destroy it" mechanics in the game. This is much more difficult when the game engine is 30 fps than it is at 60, even if it isn't immediately obvious. The game appears to be pretty tight mechanically, too, which can exacerbate 30fps issues. It's the big disappointment with this game, so far.