The Influence of Variable Frame Timing on First-Person Gaming

TL;DR

This study investigates how variable frame timing, enabled by modern VRR monitors, affects perceived smoothness and performance in first-person shooter games, finding it influences perception but not actual gameplay performance.

Contribution

It provides empirical evidence on the perceptual and performance effects of variable frame timing in FPS gaming, a topic previously underexplored.

Findings

VFT affects perception of smoothness

No significant performance difference in FPS tasks

VFT influences subjective experience without impairing performance

Abstract

Variable frame timing (VFT), or changes in the time intervals between discrete frame images displayed to users, deviates from our traditional conceptualization of frame rate in which all frame times are equal. With the advent of variable refresh rate (VRR) monitor technologies, gamers experience VFT at the display. VRR, coupled with increased display refresh rates and high-end hardware, enables smoother variation of frame presentation sequences. We assess the effects of VFT on the perception of smoothness (experiment 1) and performance (experiment 2) in first-person shooter (FPS) gameplay by introducing frequent but relatively small (4-12 ms) variations in frame time around typical refresh rates (30-240 Hz). Our results indicate that VFT impacts the perception of smoothness. However, the results from experiment 2 do not indicate differences in FPS task performance (i.e., completion time) between variable and constant frame time sequences ranked equally smooth in experiment 1.