The development of the smartphone market has become more and more frequent, and technological upgrades have become more and more frequent. And with the increasing attention of mobile games, users' requirements for mobile phone performance are also becoming higher.
However, compared with the previous simple data list, the experience upgrade that can be felt in actual use is more intuitive and practical for users. According to this line of thinking, the user's user experience becomes the primary focus of technology advancement.
Based on this, taking advantage of the recent release of one plus Ace, one plus has also pushed another concept of game performance measurement to the front of the stage, that is, "dropped frames".
Number of Frames Dropped vs. Average Frame Rate
Before we get to know the number of frames dropped, let's talk about "What is frame rate?" ”
When it comes to frame rate correlation, many users may think of the concept of "FPS", which refers to the frames per second, that is, the number of frame updates per second. The faster the picture updates, the smoother the display will be. That is to say, the level of FPS value is positively correlated with the smoothness of the picture.
As users' understanding of FPS increases, smartphones and audio-visual entertainment products have also begun to move towards the road of high-frame. Up to now, some mainstream mobile games have been upgraded to 90 frames, 120 frames of screen support, and high-end mobile phone products are basically equipped with high brushes.
With the continuous popularization of high-frame products, how to measure their actual performance has also become a concern of the industry. In the past, we often used "average frame rate" to judge, but now another standard, "number of frame drops", has also attracted a lot of attention.
It is reported that the specific definition of "number of frame drops" is that the Drop value of Tencent's professional game test tool PerfDog performance dog in game testing refers to the average number of times the frame rate difference between two adjacent FPS per hour is greater than 8 frames.
Specifically, when we play the game, the frame rate performance of the device is in flux, and its game performance effect will be visualized in the frame rate fluctuation.
If you look closely at the actual game experience and the change in frame rate during the game, you will find that when the game is stuck, the frame rate data will also show large fluctuations. And this moment of fluctuation is the "dropped frame" that we have been talking about, and it is also what everyone usually says "this game is stuck".
Then after understanding what is "dropped frames", the "number of dropped frames" becomes easier to understand.
Combined with the definition of this concept, the case where the frame rate difference between adjacent two FPS is greater than 8 frames can be regarded as a "frame drop". The "number of dropped frames" is the number of times the Drop value refers to the average number of such "dropped frames" per hour.
Based on this, the game stuttering situation is presented in the data, that is, the larger the number of frame drops (Drop value), the more times the number of stutters, the worse the game running effect; the smaller the number of frame drops (Drop value), the fewer the number of stutters, the smoother the game runs.
So what is the difference between the concepts of "dropped frames" and "average frame rate"?
Among them, the "average frame rate" is familiar to everyone, which shows the average of the frame rate fluctuations during the game. In the past mobile game performance test, it provides a large number of judgment basis, and can greatly reflect the performance of mobile games.
However, a single measure is often prone to omission. The "average frame rate" is also not taken into account in the more detailed part of the game experience because it is an average performance.
For example, in the actual game, there are cases such as high and low frame rate fluctuations, cliff-like frame drops, etc., but the high frame rate appears for a long time, and it can still get a good average frame rate performance.
That is to say, for some scenes with smooth performance and some scenes with caton, it is obvious that only measuring the average frame rate cannot make a completely correct judgment.
In this case, it is better to measure it in terms of the number of dropped frames.
As mentioned earlier, the number of dropped frames is closely related to how smoothly the game runs, and it can be clearly perceived by the user. As far as current experience is concerned, the stuttering caused by the sudden decrease in frame rate is the main factor affecting the game experience. Measuring the effect by the concept of dropped frames can turn the hard-to-describe feeling experience into easy-to-judge data.
In this way, there is no need to recall the game process, nor to describe the specific feeling experience, by comparing the Drop value in the data, you can see whether the device is performing smoothly in the game. Compared with the average frame rate comparison method commonly used in the past, this new concept is closer to the real experience of users.
What do we get when we optimize the Number of Dropped Frames?
Now that we understand that the number of frame drops has a greater impact on the game experience, what kind of game experience will we get after the focus has been strengthened to strengthen the factors that affect the number of frame drops?
Based on technical explanations alone, Presumably, you may not have a clear concept. Therefore, we also conducted actual tests of the game.
Indoors at room temperatures from 22°C to 25°C, we conducted a one-hour trial of the Peace Elite game. In the smooth/90 frame mode of the OnePlus Ace, the Drop value is 3.8 after one hour of testing.
At the same time, the frame rate fluctuation chart shows that its overall frame rate performance is basically in a straight line, which matches the Drop value information, and the game screen and experience are smooth.
Also focusing on the Drop value part, a Snapdragon 8 device with a higher value of 21.4 has seen several sudden frame rate drops in the full frame rate performance.
Combined with the actual feeling, the full frame rate performance, and the Drop value, it once again verifies that the drop value is smaller, the smoother the actual game performance. The Drop value of 3.8 does bring a relatively smooth and smooth game experience.
But how do you get a low number of frame drops? We can take one plus Ace as an example for analysis.
It can be seen that OnePlus uses a customized Tianji 8100-MAX chip. Generally speaking, compared with the ordinary version, the custom chip tends to be more compatible with other components, thus promoting the performance of the device in terms of performance and smooth operation, providing objective conditions for the smooth operation of the game.
In order to provide more powerful performance support, products for the gaming field tend to be stacked on the hardware side.
But when dealing with complex game scenarios, the hardware running at full strength causes the temperature to plummet. The high temperature will go back to limiting the performance of the hardware, resulting in sudden stuttering. Some devices automatically adjust the frame rate to keep the temperature from rising, and then lock the frame to run.
This is the main reason for the cliff-like frame rate decline. In the face of this problem, we may be able to refer to the operation idea of the HyperBoost game frame stabilization engine.
Among them, GPA frame stabilization technology can follow up the operation of the device in the game and adjust parameters such as game scene, user behavior and device temperature in real time; graphics heterogeneous technology disassembles the graphic instructions of the game at the chip level, distinguishes the priority of rendering, and reduces the load.
Under this series of operations, the equipment operation load is reduced, and the overall game process has also formed a virtuous circle of "hardware reasonable operation game performance smooth temperature effective control hardware reasonable operation". Cliff-dropping and continuous frame locking are naturally and effectively avoided.
In terms of specific effect performance, after our one-hour 90-frame "Peace Elite" room temperature trial, the Ace has a temperature of 42.9 °C on the front and 43.6 °C on the back, with an average frame rate of 89.4 frames.
As far as the product itself is concerned, a smooth and smooth gaming experience has always been the unanimous demand of brands and users. Whether it is an upgrade at the chip level or the development of the system part, better game performance is the ultimate goal.
Compared with the previous evaluation criteria, the concept of "dropped frames" proposes a new way of thinking and measuring angles. For mobile phone products facing the gaming field, it provides a new optimization direction.
Nowadays, smartphones that focus on gaming performance are emerging in large numbers. After using the "number of dropped frames" as a measure, it is also expected that the overall market situation will change.