I'm going to be adding an option that will let you directly change the framerate at which the game runs, which will basically give you complete freedom in how fast everything moves when you play Aeon.

But what should our default frame rate be? I've heard that 30fps is pretty much a standard for most Flash games. Flash's default is 12 and it doesn't seem too bad so far, so I guess this all depends in how "smooth" we are planning on making the game. I assume that most of our animations will be pretty basic, so we probably wouldn't need such a high-frame rate.

And no object ever reaches much of a high speed, so it won't cause glitches like the enemies-falling-through-terrain glitch in HATPC, which is due to the frame rate not catching up with the object's movements.

But we better pick a standard frame rate now so that we can base all of our animations and movements based off of it. I'm thinking maybe 15fps, but if anyone of you know anything about this (maybe jell?), please say something. Remember, that this is important to you too, especially if you're going to be drawing/animating things for Aeon.

I think 30fps is perfectly fine, but yeah, we won't need too high of a framerate. However, I don't like that feature - it will make speed traps, for example, much easier if I can just play frame-by-frame. Nah, just stick with 30.

the point of that feature is b/c everyone complains how fast HATPC is for them, and how people like shos may have slow computers that let them be good at the game. It's just an option. as long as you don't abuse it, the game is still fun.

Don't think that if we set a low default fps, that everything will be slow. The default frame rate is only so that we can set a relative speed. Maybe 30 isn't that bad, especially since I heard someone say that 60 was the "ideal". But it still might be too high, especially if we're not planning to make it too perfectly smooth, especially in animations. But we could just run some animations at half speeds (like make it animate on every other frame)

I don't know...

I'd rather change the speed that things move, rather than change the frame-rate.........
If you have a lower frame-rate, the controls become less responsive, or something. I'm not sure how noticeable it'd be.

But I have no idea what I'm talking about. Wait, do you mean the fps would be controlled by the player, and not the creator?

In order to give you the best chance of beating the levels, you could end up spending a lot of time a 1 fps, and of course that'd be stupidly boring. I don't think it'd be fair to people that play at a normal speed that, in order to crack, say, the high-scores list, you have to be bored out of your skull. Pick a frame-rate, and stick with it. I like the sound of 30.

technically it's the same thing. The way it works is that I'm making a big loop that is fired based on a Timer, which is set to "tick" based on the framerate. That big timer loop does everything: change the x and y positions of everything that's moving, checks the hit-tests of everything that's doing something, make any necessary adjustments, and animate all objects that need to be animated (telling it to gotoAndStop at whichever frame the animation needs to be at next). That way, pausing the game is as simple as stopping the timer.

So if we simply change the amount of time between each tick, everything will update slower. Floyd will run slower across the screen, all animations won't run as fast, and unless each tick is ridiculously slow, it won't be distinctly more jumpy.

As for the option for the player to pick their framerate, we could always put limits on how far they can change it to, depending on what we think is acceptable. And btw, the scenario you said about slower people making the high scores list is technically already the case for people with slower computers. At least this gives people the chance to slow down the game to their taste, without having to run some crazy, processing-power-eating program in the background, as I heard about on the old forums.

HatPC runs around 30 fps. Console games and I think computer games too run at 60 fps. HD tvs I think run at 120 fps.
With that in mind, I think 30 is enough.

And I was actually wanting to make this topic. I also need to know what dimensions and background colour you use.

alright the game is at 30 fps.

the default dimensions are pretty large: 650x500, but of course, everything is programed so that you can change the dimensions by simply resizing the window, so all of the objects positions (and some objects' sizes) are relative to the current stage width and height.

I'm reading now that the default frame rate for flash applications is 24 fps. I dunno, but it might be a good idea.

And are we using a background colour? Or will we just use #FFFFFF

The background color for the menus, I think, is #333333, or it could be something else like #4b4b4b, I'll have to check. Actually just color pick from my screenshots....

24? I don't know why I though it was 12... not sure if we should use it.

In the previous versions it was 12. But processors have gotten better, so 24 is the new standard.

12 is just too little, make it 24/30 already.

The question is if it should be 24 or 30. 12 is indeed too little.

Let's just leave it at 30, since people say it's a standard.

I say we agree with Livo.

I say we agree with bmwsu.

You're trying to use 30 fps, but didn't you just say that Shos's computer (and mine sometimes) runs too slowly for that? I recommend about 24, or maybe even 16-18. Depends on if objects are moving quickly. If everything is about HatPC speed, lower framerates won't be a problem. If you have race cars that barely give time to react, I recommend higher.

Just do what's good for all computers, not what is great for supercomputers.

lol if we do custom tiles, having a larger frame rate might come in handy in case people want to make things that move really fast.

but yeah, my initial idea was to have like 15 fps first. but I dunno. I was thinking of adding an option that will let you slow down the framerate to your tastes and computer power

An ability to change frame rates would be cool. I like that idea.