A frame is a calculation of a virtual world rendered by a computer by using a game engine.
The game engine this Tutorial is about is the Quake3 Engine (id-Tech 3) with Ritual Entertainments Übertools used by Star Trek : Elite Force II, but this tutorial can be applied to almost all id-Tech 3 game engine based Games.
The id-Tech 3 game engine processes every frame it's data like:
- Input (Keyboard,Mouse,Joystick)
- Output (Sound,Graphics)
- Internal (Event handling,Interpolation,Networking)
A stable rate of Frames Per Second (frame rate) makes the game-play feel smother and allow the Player to get used better to the virtual world with it's own rhythm!
A stable frame rate guarantees that the input such as Mouse and Keyboard is processed and send to the server in a predictable and constant similar rhythm, which allows the Player to adapt to circumstances of on-line playing.
If the frame rate becomes unstable the game-play will feel clumsy, especially during on-line gaming. Also the Out and In-put becomes slower, the game engine will slower grab the (movement) informations of your mouse and Keyboard.
You can try to stabilize your frame rate by reducing the Game Effects, upgrading your Drivers or your Hardware. But there are ways to tweak id-Tech 3 based Games such as frame limitation (for Star Trek: Elite Force II the cVar is com_maxfps) and network optimisation.
Set a frame rate limit for Star Trek: Elite Force II:
Open up the game console and type in:
seta com_maxfps 76
This will limit your frames to a maximum of 76 frames rendered per second, if you have a strong PC you can push the limit up, on slow PC's you have to find a balance between stability and suppleness.
