Should you always use V-Sync?

[Shawn]

I was having a slightly annoying issue where my character's movement would appear a bit jerky. V-Sync fixed that problem, but is there any reason why you wouldn't want that on?

[Olivier]

I'm asking myself the exact same question. It would be nice to hear an official word about the best practices of using V-sync, and in the various runtimes, especially since that setting isn't explain at all in the Help.

[Danny]

It will force the framerate to run in Sync with your monitor so it will lap it up to 60fps and try remain in sync with your monitor's refresh rate. With the jerkiness you refer to Shawn this is classed as 'tearing', V-Sync usually fixes tearing as it keeps the game's fps and the monitors refresh rate in-sync.

The only time you will experience or see an issue is if your frame-rate drops considerably. If at the end of your game's development you're confident your game's frame-rate will not drop and maintain a pleasant 60fps then you'll be fine. It's always good to offer the option to your users though as some are using 50mhz refresh rates and some just don't like V-Sync on either way, you could just offer VSync as a flag/switch in your games options that you can turn on/off at runtime.

I have seen the VSync option still enabled for stuff like Flash/Android/iOS however I think it may just be a redundant option, I suppose only the likes of Francois/Andos could answer that one.

[Shawn]

Yeah that's a simple solution, just add the option. If something isn't working, the user can turn it off. Thanks for the explanation Danny

[Danny]

You're welcome dude. I have absolutely loads to showcase regarding these kind of things at CC13, in particular with IGX.

[Alonso]

I'm also wondering the same.

There's this in the help file:

If selected, will synchronise the application with the display. Usually provides a smooth display. As the monitor refresh rate is usually between 6O fps and 90 fps, it's a good idea to set the frame rate of the application to 90 or 100 when you select this option.

I ran an application at 65 fps with v-sync on, and it remained at 65fps, so it doesn't limit the fps to the refresh rate.

You're welcome dude. I have absolutely loads to showcase regarding these kind of things at CC13, in particular with IGX.

You should give us a preview

[Danny]

I ran an application at 65 fps with v-sync on, and it remained at 65fps, so it doesn't limit the fps to the refresh rate.

Was this with Standard/HWA? If so, then something is wrong somewhere... I just did a quick test (even though IGX conforms) in a blank app and 65 drops to my refresh rate of 60 with VSync on and 65 with no VSync!

You should give us a preview

I will release the same presentation online also for those that can't attend

Edit: Alonso just confirmed he is using Build 251 so that could be the reason why...

[Olivier]

I have seen the VSync option still enabled for stuff like Flash/Android/iOS however I think it may just be a redundant option, I suppose only the likes of Francois/Andos could answer that one.

Yes I would really like to learn more about v-sync in the other runtimes, thank you Danny. I found out lately than with v-sync ON I improved the FPS (about +5) of an iOS game.