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[Truean]

Simply, I run Starcraft II at between 30 and 40 fps. I have no lag or trouble with that.

On the Hyperion, Float the mouse over the "Menu(F10)" tab. It will show you a System Requirements bar with fps on the bottom. I've never seen mine get above 40 and my computer is basically brand new.

That said, why do people go nuts when their screen gets to this level? I could understand FPS death at lower levels, but 30? Is that really so bad?

[Lectorog]

It's not too interesting seeing your dwarves slowly walk around for hours

Have you ever died an FPS death? 30 FPS is basically one of the symptoms of a fortress disease.

[squeakyReaper]

Starcraft plays well at 30 FPS, as do a few other games.  DF, on the other hand, doesn't.  Usually 30 FPS is bareable, though painful, it quickly drops to 5 or 2 FPS.

[Truean]

Hum, why does starcraft do well at that rate? SCII is pretty top of the line isn't it?

[Gatleos]

Hum, why does starcraft do well at that rate? SCII is pretty top of the line isn't it?

In DF, the FPS represents the actual passage of time in the game, rather than the number of frames being drawn to the screen per second. That's the G_FPS.

I haven't ever heard anyone complaining about ~30 FPS. But try running a fort at about 10 FPS, and you'll see what people are talking about.

[Truean]

Hum, why does starcraft do well at that rate? SCII is pretty top of the line isn't it?

In DF, the FPS represents the actual passage of time in the game, rather than the number of frames being drawn to the screen per second. That's the G_FPS.

I haven't ever heard anyone complaining about ~30 FPS. But try running a fort at about 10 FPS, and you'll see what people are talking about.

Well yeah, at that level sure, but there are tons of people who are not cool with 30 fps. To some, anything under 60 is unplayable, which I don't understand.

As long as there is a crapton going on, I'd be ok with very low FPS. If it's from water or some other liquid then that sucks but eh.

[Lectorog]

StarCraft doesn't need high FPS. It can run well at most rates, its output just varies. I didn't explain that very well at all, though.

DF's FPS is much more raw than other games'. It represents the computing and output in total. If the game's at 30FPS, it runs 70% slower than at 100FPS. That's why it's so painful.

If you want to see what it's like, set your FPS cap to 30, or 10.

Well yeah, at that level sure, but there are tons of people who are not cool with 30 fps. To some, anything under 60 is unplayable, which I don't understand.

I fall under that category, sorry. I run short-lived fortresses usually, so it's cool.

[Organum]

Having never known what 100 FPS is like and having seen that my old average was 10-15 ish, I'm fine with whatever I have. I think it's pretty relative- If you've had 100 fps steadily, it's going to hurt more to see your dwarves at 30 than it would if you were like me.

[ImBocaire]

It's confusing because "FPS" in Dwarf Fortress isn't the same as "FPS" in other games. What we would call FPS in, say, Starcraft would be in Dwarf Fortress called "GFPS," or the graphical refresh rate, which has a separate cap in the init file (and is by default set to 50). FPS in Dwarf Fortress is pretty much the speed that the game is literally running at; a typical healthy dwarf takes one step every ten frames. At 100 FPS, this means that the dwarf will take one second to go down a ten-tile hallway. At 30 FPS, the dwarf will take 3 1/3 seconds to go that same distance. At 10 FPS, the dwarf will take ten seconds to go down that hallway. Since a fortress has hallways and rooms that are far more than ten tiles across, this becomes... not crippling, but very, very annoying to anyone who enjoys having things happen at a reasonable rate. In particular, going from less than half an hour to play through the first year to over three hours to play through the tenth year is rather jarring.

TL;DR: The term "FPS" means different things for Dwarf Fortress than for most other games.

Seemingly paradoxically, lowering the GFPS cap can raise the FPS of a flagging fortress.

[612DwarfAvenue]

In summation: FPS in other games refers to how smooth it goes, FPS in DF refers to how fast it goes.

[o_O[WTFace]]

Its a slider like this:

More FPS ---[]------- More Stuff

Mine is set partway toward More FPS.  More stuff means more dwarfs, more fluid motion, more temperature but less dwarf fortress per unit of time because everything is moving slower.  I'd like to mess around with oceans more, but not enough to sit there while nothing happens for ages. 

[Dakk]

FPS in DF works differently, FPS in DF measures the performance tasks are being executed with, time wise. In other games FPS is justhow many frames goes in your screen per second. In fact, you will rarely see a "normal game" go much above 50 FPS, plus, most of the time, FPS in these games has nothing to do with the tasks being executed but just how many frames you're seeing, but things keep happening even if you do not see it, this is lag.
But yea, everyone already explained this, yada yada. DF FPS =/= FPS in regular games.

[Cruxador]

Basically the issue is that graphical frames per second is not the same as processor frames per second. Processor frames dictate how rapidly the game runs. Graphical frames don't do anything important, as long as you have enough that the screen looks animated.

[Strife26]

Because once you get to 20 fps or so, stuff goes slowly! Especial when the long lived fortress are have more time between events as well.

[Sensei]

Set your max FPS to 3 and try it out for a while. Now you know why we kill kittens.