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VSync video options.
what is this option?
It turns VSync (Vertical Synchronization) on and off.
From Wikipedia:
"Vertical synchronization (v-sync, vbl-sync) refers generally to the synchronization of frame changes with the vertical blanking interval. Since CRTs were nearly the only common video display technology prior to the widespread adoption of LCDs, the frame buffers in computer graphics hardware are designed to match the CRT characteristic of drawing images from the top down a line at a time by replacing the data of the previous frame in the buffer with that of the next frame in a similar fashion. If the frame buffer is updated with a new image while the image is being transmitted to the display, the frame buffer gives it the current mishmash of both frames, producing a page tearing artifact partway down the image.
Vertical synchronization eliminates this by timing frame buffer fills to coincide with the vertical blanking interval, thus ensuring that only whole frames are seen on-screen.
Computer games often allow vertical synchronization as an option, because it delays the image update until the vertical blanking interval. This can cause lowered frame rates due to latency (the period of the refresh rate at maximum), which might be undesirable in games that require fast response (e.g. first person shooters)."
From Wikipedia:
"Vertical synchronization (v-sync, vbl-sync) refers generally to the synchronization of frame changes with the vertical blanking interval. Since CRTs were nearly the only common video display technology prior to the widespread adoption of LCDs, the frame buffers in computer graphics hardware are designed to match the CRT characteristic of drawing images from the top down a line at a time by replacing the data of the previous frame in the buffer with that of the next frame in a similar fashion. If the frame buffer is updated with a new image while the image is being transmitted to the display, the frame buffer gives it the current mishmash of both frames, producing a page tearing artifact partway down the image.
Vertical synchronization eliminates this by timing frame buffer fills to coincide with the vertical blanking interval, thus ensuring that only whole frames are seen on-screen.
Computer games often allow vertical synchronization as an option, because it delays the image update until the vertical blanking interval. This can cause lowered frame rates due to latency (the period of the refresh rate at maximum), which might be undesirable in games that require fast response (e.g. first person shooters)."
In laymen's terms, it slows down your monitor's refresh rate to 60 (the accepted maximum the human eye can really see, though we can notice the difference between higher framerates). If your monitor refreshes very quickly and you "move" around alot, especially in a game, you can get vertical tearing. Doesn't look pretty. Note, VSync really only helps on LCDs.
Sort of, moldyman...
The vertical sync rate of your monitor is how fast it redraws the entire display. For most LCDs, this rate is 60 Hertz (i.e., 60 times per second), and for CRTs, this might range between 50 Hertz and 85 Hertz. This is the fastest that your monitor can ever draw anything.
What vsync does is it synchronizes the draw from your graphics card to your monitor with an integer number of these vertical syncs. So, if you have a 60-Hertz LCD and a graphics card that can happily draw and blit at least 60 frames per second, then vsync will lock the graphics card to always display exactly 60 frames per second (which is actually somewhat more than most people can see).
There are two advantages of vsync: it smooths out bumpy framerates, and it eliminates vertical tearing. Vertical tearing is sort of hard to describe in words, but you'd know it if you saw it. As to bumpy framerates, well, most people are far more sensitive to framerate variations than to the framerate itself. So if your framerate jumps around incessantly between, say, 35 and 50 frames per second, that might start to annoy you. That's where vsync comes in. Since it locks your framerate to an integer number of screen refreshes, if your screen is a 60 Hertz model, then your framerate will be either 60fps, 30fps, 20fps, 15fps, 12fps, etc. Even if this is a lower framerate than you were getting before (as in my previous example of 35-50fps), the fact that it will be a constant framerate often makes the display seem smoother and less headache-inducing.
Note: if you use triple-buffering, then you probably already have a pretty smooth framerate and don't need vsync. Not that anybody ever uses triple-buffering...
The vertical sync rate of your monitor is how fast it redraws the entire display. For most LCDs, this rate is 60 Hertz (i.e., 60 times per second), and for CRTs, this might range between 50 Hertz and 85 Hertz. This is the fastest that your monitor can ever draw anything.
What vsync does is it synchronizes the draw from your graphics card to your monitor with an integer number of these vertical syncs. So, if you have a 60-Hertz LCD and a graphics card that can happily draw and blit at least 60 frames per second, then vsync will lock the graphics card to always display exactly 60 frames per second (which is actually somewhat more than most people can see).
There are two advantages of vsync: it smooths out bumpy framerates, and it eliminates vertical tearing. Vertical tearing is sort of hard to describe in words, but you'd know it if you saw it. As to bumpy framerates, well, most people are far more sensitive to framerate variations than to the framerate itself. So if your framerate jumps around incessantly between, say, 35 and 50 frames per second, that might start to annoy you. That's where vsync comes in. Since it locks your framerate to an integer number of screen refreshes, if your screen is a 60 Hertz model, then your framerate will be either 60fps, 30fps, 20fps, 15fps, 12fps, etc. Even if this is a lower framerate than you were getting before (as in my previous example of 35-50fps), the fact that it will be a constant framerate often makes the display seem smoother and less headache-inducing.
Note: if you use triple-buffering, then you probably already have a pretty smooth framerate and don't need vsync. Not that anybody ever uses triple-buffering...
If you can't figure it out, the top one is the one with tearing, now imagine that occurring every frame if you're unlucky.
It's a cow!
A Swiss cow!
Why is it staring at me like that?
What Chaos, didn't you know cows are carnivorous?
"This is nothing out of the unusual. Cows turn themselves inside-out all the time!"
- Officer Barbrady
- Officer Barbrady
I would like to take this moment to point out the obvious.
Mmm, spacecow burgers.
Mmm, spacecow burgers.