Better frame rates or better visuals? An early report of Esports player practice in Dota 2

TL;DR

This study explores how Dota 2 players intentionally trade off visual quality for better latency and frame rate, revealing common practices and player motivations that impact performance and game design.

Contribution

It provides initial empirical data on player configurations and motivations regarding visual detail reduction in esports, highlighting areas for future research.

Findings

Players often disable VSYNC to improve performance.

Player intent aligns with their visual configuration choices.

Survey results suggest trends that can inform game design and player training.

Abstract

Esports athletes often reduce visual quality to improve latency and frame rate, and increase their in-game performance. Little research has examined the effects of this visuo-spatial tradeoff on performance, but we could find no work studying how players manage this tradeoff in practice. This paper is an initial examination of this question in the game Dota 2. First, we gather the game configuration data of Dota 2 players in a small survey. We learn that players do limit visual detail, particularly by turning off VSYNC, which removes rendering/display synchronization delay but permits visual "tearing". Second, we survey the intent of those same players with a few subjective questions. Player intent matches configuration practice. While our sampling of Dota 2 players may not be representative, our survey does reveal suggestive trends that lay the groundwork for future, more rigorous and larger surveys. Such surveys can help new players adapt to the game more quickly, encourage researchers to investigate the relative importance of temporal and visual detail, and justify design effort by developers in "low visual" game configurations.