‘DOOM Eternal’ bets on the graphic brutality of a potential 1000 fps on PC, but it is not clear if it is really necessary.
‘DOOM Eternal’ certainly left us dumbfounded when we tried it, for the infernal speed that he displayed and the demanding of his game strategy, which requires almost superhuman reflexes to manage the attack on the enemies, the raids through the corridors and the constant supply of grotesque demons. All of this can be further enhanced thanks to the latest id announcement about the graphics engine that runs the game, the id Tech 7.
According to the study, this new engine absolutely makes a fool of the previous version, which was moving at an already quite impressive 250 fps. Billy Khan, Chief Engine Programmer, states that on a PC with sufficient capacity, the game will be able to move at 1,000 fps. That’s 300% faster, as Khan claims. In fact, in this video for IGN, Khan states that there is no theoretical upper limit, and that perhaps more advanced PCs can move the game faster.
Without a doubt it is a spectacular technical leap, and it is logical that it is precisely sought with a saga with ‘DOOM’. Some spectacular gameplays by professional players make it clear that, for very advanced players, this improvement in speed could provide an extra boost of frenzied excitement to the game, but … is it really necessary?
Much more FPS – is there a difference?
In Engadget we have carried out tests with monitors of different capacities on numerous occasions, for example to compare the differences between playing at 60 Hz and playing it on a 144 Hz monitor. The fps are not always linked to the refresh rate of a monitor, and we have also discussed the subject in depth, but in any case we are always talking about the amount of frames per second that the human eye detects.
In cinema, more than 48 fps is difficult to bear and the 120 that Ang Lee experimented with turned into an extremely expensive disaster that can only be seen in some cinemas around the world. In video games things change, because computerized images do not require that realism that loses the “real” image of Ang Lee’s films and leads to rejection of the viewer. The 30-60 fps of a game still maintains the animated realism typical of video games, but we are talking about a thousand frames per second. Ten times longer than usual.
As referenced in this article, the optical experts themselves could not quite agree on the capacity of the human eye and if it can be “tamed” to perceive more and more frames, something that action video games could achieve. In other words, a professional player would detect more frames per second than an average player. And yet, a thousand are still more frames than is humanly tolerable.
An example: virtual reality helmets work at 90 Hz because the flickering of images and, above all, light, can be perceived in these limits in peripheral vision. Since a VR headset covers that peripheral vision, it pays to reach those limits. We are still far from a thousand, in any case, because in the end the question is another: even if a highly trained eye achieves a difference in images, let’s say between 300 fps and 500 fps … Can the human brain react significantly faster to that change?
Possibly not, and at least that answer is reassuring: at 60 or 1000 frames per second, ‘DOOM Eternal’ will continue to be just as fun (and demanding). That in the end, is what matters.
