Frames?

[leek]

sorry if repost..

Just kinda' bothering me because I honestly have no clue whatsoever about what a "frame" is. I'm not necessarily new to fighting games, just never a complete pro about it. Does frame refer literally to the FPS in the game engine (as in what you're seeing)?

I've been playing mortal kombat since I was like 4, and just recently picked up SSIV.. I know my way around lows/overheads and the sort like that, meaning I know the slightly more complicated stuff. It's just never heard of frames before. Thanks in advance.

 

[Jim]

Yeah a frame refers to same frame as in frames per second. It isn't just about the image speed though, it is also the smallest unit for commands to be input. This game runs at 60 frames per second. So if you read something that says you are say -5 frames on block it means after your move is blocked you cannot do anything for 5 frames.

 

[Hydro]

Yeah a frame refers to same frame as in frames per second. It isn't just about the image speed though, it is also the smallest unit for commands to be input. This game runs at 60 frames per second. So if you read something that says you are say -5 frames on block it means after your move is blocked you cannot do anything for 5 frames.

Most of this is right, but generally -5 on block would not mean you can't do anything for 5 frames, it would mean that the opponent may act 5 frames earlier than you can after dropping their block. Odds are good you can't do anything for MORE than 5 frames (most moves take longer to resolve than this), but your opponent also has a small amount of block stun from your move, meaning their net advantage over you is 5 frames after dropping block.

 

[tehm]

As a follow up to what Hydro just wrote, you may be asking yourself "Why do I care if an attack takes 8 frames versus 7 to get out? Human reaction time is generally measured in tenths of a second, not 60ths... and anyways, I know which attacks are fast, which are slow. Does it really matter whether we call my jab a '5 frame' versus 'really damn fast'?"


This is absolutely correct! In reality it's not so much the absolute value of frames that are useful (in and of themselves) but rather how moves fit into the larger body of frame data that is important. When a move is described as i5 what you're really saying is "In any situation where my opponent is at -6 or worse I can ALWAYS punish with my i5 poke and it will ALWAYS connect--there is no way to counter it or avoid it whatsoever".

For right now what does this really matter outside of a mirror? Not too terribly much probably. But some nerds is crazy & will systematically build on their knowledge to a point that they see your 21f3 high->low->overhead starter coming (whatever, made up example) and not only do they on reaction block the low, high properly but having analysed your framedata ahead of time they'll automatically know which of their attacks can and can't punish it on block and will use their maximally damaging string to punish it every time.