(PS4 60fps) Half of Double Dragon IV runs at 30fps (Jimmy play-through) ~ The Beat Up #46
2Play-through with Jimmy in Double Dragon IV on PS4.
The game has real technical problems. : P
The way you're just dumped to the main menu and then have to try to remember which mission to continue from by hitting Select or whatever multiple times to roll through the hidden continue selection there is just clunky (33:25).
I hit the crash in the elevator sequence again. (39:55)
But much more insidiously than that, if you play this video at 60 fps and then single-frame it (pause, then use the "." key on PC), you'll find that most of the game--the sprites, their scrolling and animation--usually update at just 30 frames per second...although once in a while they'll update on an odd frame as well.
You could sort of defend that by pointing out that the NES Double Dragon games, from which this game takes its graphical style, ran at 30 fps. (They do, at least, in their Kunio World incarnations on PS4, which are accurate as far as I know = o : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fohzZfzfJI , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjbN8KwiO28 .)
But, besides the DDIV sprites sometimes updating on odd frames as well as even frames, resulting in minute intermittent hiccups in the sprite framerate, Double Dragon IV tries to scroll the screen 60 fps rather than 30; it can't seem to do it evenly, though, so part of the background will shift position with the scroll in one frame, then the rest, or another chunk, will catch up in the next frame; meanwhile, the sprite only moves every other frame, and if caught between the tearing background sections scrolling on separate frames, will tear (losing a row of pixels) along with the background for the next frame or two; frame-by-frame the horizontal scrolling segments at 3:10 or 50:54, for instance. This tearing will also happen when scrolling vertically.
To my now perhaps oversensitized and paranoid eyes, there's even something disconcerting with the motion of sprites moving against a static background in the game; I suppose this could happen if they are moving at uneven HD pixel distances per frame--or I could just be imagining it. (You couldn't say screenshot it and measure frame by frame pixel distances from this video though because it in itself is pixel limited as I can only capture widescreen 60fps video at 720p--so there's my own technical liability!) In any case, even playing a non-scrolling mode like Tower Mode is weirding me out now.
I think I'd better lay off this game for a while. 8o
On the sort of? plus side, my Jimmy did luck out and catch the final mob--both bosses, plus their lieutenants--in a get-up clump where they simply couldn't escape from his mashing punch. : P (53:45) Weird that in a game where the characters all have specialized, often pretty invincible get-up attacks, they couldn't get out, but hey, it got me out of the play-through faster, so I'll take it!
Recording: PS4, Elgato HD60