Busted said:
Why is the gamepad updating faster than the tv a bad thing? |
Is that directed at me? I'll try to explain how I see it.
You've got 3 devices going at the same time with the wii u. The first device is the console itself. Its running software at whatever speed regardless of the TV its hooked up to or the gamepad. Then you have the gamepad, which displays what the console software tells it to: not instantaneously, but as fast as it can relative to when the WiiU tells it to. Then you have the TV, which the same setup as the controller, only its connected by a cable. There is a base lag between when the software in the WiiU says to display something, and that something actually gets displayed on the fasted connected device. In this case, its the controller.
So an event happens in the Wii U software, like say mario walking toward a pit. He walks toward the pit at a constant speed internal to the wiiu regardless of what is being displayed when on the TV or controller. He gets to the edge (where if he went even one pixel closer, he would fall) at time = 0.
At time = 0+base lag, the Wii U controller displays mario at the edge of the pit. However, as far as the software is concerned, but the time you see mario at the edge of the pit he has already fallen into it because of the base lag. This time interval is probably so small though that it wouldn't effect gameplay.
Now, at time = base lag + 116ms, the TV shows mario at the edge of the pit. Except that as far as the software is concerned, he's already fallen in again. He fell in 7-8 frames ago. You hit your jump button expecting him to jump, but he falls in.
Controller lag is bad. You want it as close as possible to the actual timing in the console itself. Anyone who's played Rock Band or Guitar Hero on an LCD before calibration knows just how bad display lag can ruin your day. Try adjusting your RB calibration by 100 ms and then try to play and see how hard you fail.
Fortunately, for most game genres a 100ms lag isn't going to ruin your experience. You subconciously adjust to it since the only way you've ever played any particular game is with that 100ms lag built in. But in this situation we have 2 different timings on 2 different displays. So if you play on the TV most of the time and then switch to the gamepad, you're timing that you're used to will be off by a tenth of a second. That's the difference between making that jump over the hole, or falling into it.
