vSYNC ON OR OFF

[R00k]

I have been getting questions about vid_vsync ON or OFF?!

Personally I find vsync on smoother then off. In QuakeWorld Clients, off causes mouse lag. In netQuake clients it also causes screen tearing, UNLESS, your "maxfps" is set to the same as your monitor's refresh rate. Thus just use vsync on AND cl_maxfps ~= monitor Hz refresh rate....

heres a quote i found on a tech forum....

Vsync should only be disabled when benchmarking so that the videocard and processor are not being limited by the display. Frame rates will appear higher with vsync off but the amount of information displayed is limited by your monitor in that instance. A monitor with an 85 Hz refresh rate will only display 85 frames per second even if the videocard is rendering 400 frames a second. The visual quality may decline as a result also because some frames could be skipped as a result of excess rendering so the interpolation between the first frame and the next frame displayed could be off resulting in 'tearing' or jerkiness.
{http://www.neoseeker.com/Hardware/faqs/kb/10,42.html}

so even if pq_drawfps or show_fps displays 500fps with "maxfps 500" you are ONLY displaying the max refresh of your monitor, which will/can cause lag if set too high

Bottom line set maxfps equal to your monitors MAX refreshrate (hz). Set vsync On for less screen tears.

[Baker]

I don't get visible screen tearing in any engine on my desktop (CRT monitor) or my Vista laptop and never have vsync on. I cap the FPS around 250 if using ProQuake and with DarkPlaces I don't bother to cap the FPS. I think both Qrack and JoeQuake 0.15 have vsync off by default with 72 FPS and I do notice a little tearing, but nothing that bothers me much and usually set cl_maxfps to around 200.

When I use higher FPS, my mouse movement feels much more responsive. This is particular true for online play for some reason (offline it does not matter). People far smarter than I say that the way Quake works is that it will request and receive more updates from the server if the FPS is set higher.

From what I can tell, some people have tearing issues and some don't. Is this related to the display? I use CRT's because they are reliable, but many people use flatscreen displays and flatscreen displays tend to vary widely in their performance.

[foq]

If you are rendering at 500 billion frames a second and you have a 60Hz monitor, you're only going to grt 60Hz, but your frames will skip and cause unseridreable effects. I always use vsync where available.

[Baker]

but your frames will skip and cause unseridreable effects.

In my case, the "undesireable" effects are sharper LG aim and more responsive mouse movement.

I'm telling you, it varies based on your equipment. I think vsync should be on by default to avoid the problems that you and others have, but thinking that everyone has the same experience as your own is not true.

Remember the flaws of the statistical survey of 1.

[R00k]

True, I only meant as a suggestion based on my experience. Both LCD at 75hz, cl_maxfps 999 and CRT 100hz cl_maxfps 999 with vsync OFF i get tearing (always have since windows 9. Mouse reposiveness? hmm, i have yet to track this down based on clientside video refresh timings. I might try vsync off / on to see how ping / mouse behaves. But to me, and my experience, vsync off is like m_filter 0 or ALMOST cl_nolerp 1.

[distrans]

Aye, what baker said. I've loaded FitzQuake onto a few varying systems recently (five distinct types IIRC) and experienced tearing on all till I set vid_vsync 1. Doesn't mean the next won't though

[Baker]

True, I only meant as a suggestion based on my experience.

About a year ago, I used pq_maxfps 120 and thought that was all someone needed and that there was no benefit to anything beyond that.

I ended up getting a bit jealous of Mindzy's near-flawless airshafting and I asked him about the settings he used. He used 250 or 300 and explained how much smoother the shafting was.

I tried it out and he was right.

Prior to this, I went by the "my monitor is 75Hz so anything far beyond 75 is going to be overkill" theory.

My airshafting did not go up to Mindzy's level, but within a day or 2 it was greatly improved.

Prior to raising it to 250 (when I was using 120), airshafting someone was probably something I could do only 1 in 20 times (I mean like a nearly full-health kill). Afterwards, it was probably 1 in 6 or 1 in 8 and was particularly noticeable in rocket arena for me when someone was knocked up in the air. :d

/If I had a tearing issue, I would probably use vid_vsync 1. Fortunately, my CRT does not give me tearing (that I can perceive) at any FPS setting with ProQuake or DarkPlaces (the tearing is slight in Qrack/JoeQuake). My laptop doesn't get tearing either. But I am very well aware that a lot of flatscreens do get tearing. This is one thing I think is unfair about the lightning gun, it is so sensitive and not a hardware (or ping)-neutral weapon.

A more interesting question ... is there a way to "unlock" the mouse movement gain (if this gain is real) in engines somehow WITHOUT vid_vsync 0? I mean, if there were then there would be no reason to use vid_vsync 0 because you can't see the gain (at least I can't).

Perhaps there is an existing setting that produces this mouse effect without the vid_vsync 0? I still don't know what m_smooth and m_filter do and really am not that familiar with any mouse cvars except that I use -dinput.

[LittleMe]

I'd like to add my two cents please. I'm currently using the qrack 1.83 (build 2038 ) client.

It depends on your LCD. Some support higher refreshes than others. ALSO some may accept a 75hz signal, but drop frames so that it is actually displaying 60hz anyway. This is what my LCD is doing so I use 60hz refresh. It uses an S-IPS (some say H-IPS) panel. Just because your panel will take a 75hz or 100hz signal doesn't mean it is displaying all those frames.

For my setup, an 8800gts overclocked to 650mhz, dual AMD 4200+ X2 w/3 GB of ram and I use the DVI video cable/connector. My LCD's native resolution is 1920x1200 and I play at that resolution. (75hz refresh is not possible at that resolution anyway)

I find that by far the best way to play is with vsync off and maxfps at 999. Yes there is a little bit of tearing but not much. If I set maxfps to 60 and leave vsync off, the tearing tends to be much more noticeable and in same area. If I then set vsync on, there is no tearing but I get a noticeable mouse lag.

My LCD introduces about 12ms of lag which is less than one frame.

So I keep vsync off, maxfps at 999 and I find this is best. Maybe if I set maxfps to 250-300 that might be better. I'm going to experiment.

[PapaSmurf]

i turn vsync off and put my maxfps at 300. It is a world of difference between 300 fps and 75 fps, and even 120 fps. Yes there is some tearing, but I only notice it if i'm looking for it, and never notice it during action-packed gameplay. The smother response you get from a higher framerate allows you to track and aim much better with the shaft, and that is really the only reason you need.

On a side note, i'm not sure about Qrack, but I know that setting pq_maxfps 0 in proquake will freeze the game. Baker, can you make it so that pq_maxfps unlocks the maxfps, ie, no framerate limit? R00k, can you do the same for Qrack and cl_maxfps if it is not already like this?