Frame skipping, max frames, watchdog etc.

stunts · (This post was last modified: 11-03-2009, 10:13 AM by stunts.)

I'm having trouble grasping my head around how the frameskipping works.

As far as I know, if I set frame skipping to say 1, then it is rendering 1 frame for every two frames normally rendered. This makes perfect sense to me. Thing is, when I play for example Mario Galaxy, if I am getting 30fps on a level, then shouldn't this mean when I put frame skipping on 1 that the game should be running at full speed at 30fps?

It's just that it seems to be still slightly in slowmo unless i get past 45fps with frame skipping on 1. And then when my frames hit 60, the game feels too fast. Is what I think is slow motion at 30fps actually the normal speed and i'm just thinking it's slow because it speeds up faster than normal at 60fps etc.
If I set the frame rate limit to 30fps will that make the game stay at it's normal speed or is it best to leave it at 60 or turn it off?

And what is watchdog? Does this have something to do with the framerate a Wii would be displaying.
Hope this post makes sense, it's quite hard to explain what I mean although I have a fair idea in my head Tongue

You guys have been extremely helpfull with all my other questions so far, so thanks in advance!!

Actually I have another question,
is it not possible to hide the mouse in the DX9 plugin. I've tried both boxes in the setting but neither hide the cursor in fullscreen or a window. Hides fine in opengl though, i've been having to use a fully transaparent cursor in windows when I play games that use tyhe wiimote, it works fine but is slightly annoying having to change it every time.

a mad pigeon · 11-03-2009, 11:53 AM #2

I'm not really a pro at this, or even that knowledgeable (correct me if I'm wrong) but here goes: When enabled, frameskipping occurs when your PC can't render all 60 frames in a second. So your game will run at full speed but in return it will lose frames. The higher count the frameskipping is set at, the more severe this will be. But when it can render 60 frames per second, it won't frameskip.

And I have no clue what watchdog is.

CacoFFF · (This post was last modified: 11-03-2009, 12:17 PM by CacoFFF.)

In short words, Watchdog is similar to frameskipping (faster and without the same synch and feeling), only that it works with few games causing slowness otherwise.
Its value (X) means that up to (60/X - 1) frames can be skipped (games can cap this as well).
Fixed now

stunts · 11-03-2009, 12:39 PM #4

Thanks i'll try disabling frame skip and enabling watchdog and see if that gives me a smoother result

**James333** · 11-04-2009, 05:33 AM #5

So watchdog is working now...

The old patch still working or you made a new one ?

extreme64 · 11-04-2009, 06:16 AM #6

Frameskipping only helps if your graphics card can't render all the frames to your screen. Your cpu still has to be able to render all the frames but it takes some load off of the graphics card. It's only real use is on older graphics cards or integrated chipsets

**KHRZ** · 11-04-2009, 07:24 AM #7

Nah, frameskipping helps with a good graphic card because the CPU graphic thread has to convert lots of commands before sending them to the graphic card. But it can't skip all of it with frameskip, just some, so it has to do some work even for the skipped frames. (This is what I understood from XTra.KrazzY)
Also, the other CPU thread could still be throttling you (though it doesn't seem like it, as I could run SMG in 110% with lots of frame skip where I just had 30 FPS without)

CacoFFF · 11-04-2009, 09:11 AM #8

(11-04-2009, 05:33 AM)James333 Wrote: So watchdog is working now...

The old patch still working or you made a new one ?

It does, but it requires fifo changes.
Too lazy for that.

stunts · 11-04-2009, 12:20 PM #9

(11-04-2009, 07:24 AM)KHRZ Wrote: Nah, frameskipping helps with a good graphic card because the CPU graphic thread has to convert lots of commands before sending them to the graphic card. But it can't skip all of it with frameskip, just some, so it has to do some work even for the skipped frames. (This is what I understood from XTra.KrazzY)
Also, the other CPU thread could still be throttling you (though it doesn't seem like it, as I could run SMG in 110% with lots of frame skip where I just had 30 FPS without)

Thanks, all makes sense now, I didn't think watchdog was making any changes.

Is Twilight Princesses usual framerate 30fps? I thought it would be 60fps but if I raise the fps cap above 30fps then it goes over 100% without frameskip

dstruct2k · (This post was last modified: 11-04-2009, 05:53 PM by dstruct2k.)

Remember that most consoles consider 30 FPS to be "full motion", just like most movies are 29.97 or 30 FPS. Many games are capped at 30 FPS. Some PAL (European) titles are capped at 25 or 50, most US titles are capped at 30, and the odd one here or there is capped at 60. I haven't seen a definite list yet on what games have what caps, but I do seem to recall both Wind Waker and Twilight Princess being 30 FPS games.