Forcing a Lower FPS on NVidia Cards

I’m one of those guys that connects his TV to his gaming PC via a long HDMI cable. My wife likes watching me play games, but movement at 30 frames per second or higher gives her motion sickness. This goes for both games and movies, 120Hz HD movies also make her sick.

I’m running an NVidia card. Is there any way to limit FPS playback to 24 via a driver hack?

I can't fathom playing games at 24 FPS all the time. Is she sure it's motion sickness or is she just not used to 60 FPS? 60 can look really, really weird to someone who isn't used to it.

Uh... here. In that thread there is mention of a program called "DXtory" that does it for at least one user. I still find it hard to believe that 60 makes the experience worse for anybody.

@Garrick_Greathouse said:

I’m one of those guys that connects his TV to his gaming PC via a long HDMI cable. My wife likes watching me play games, but movement at 30 frames per second or higher gives her motion sickness. This goes for both games and movies, 120Hz HD movies also make her sick.

I’m running an NVidia card. Is there any way to limit FPS playback to 24 via a driver hack?

I'd recommend limiting it to 30FPS. 24 FPS for games will seriously impact your control. Those extra 6 frames will feel like a massive difference and shouldn't make things too much worse for her.

There's a reason most console games are capped at 30. It's perfectly playable and it's what I do most of my PC gaming at so I can eek out some more visual fidelity from an aging rig.

I can't fathom playing games at 24 FPS all the time. Is she sure it's motion sickness or is she just not used to 60 FPS? 60 can look really, really weird to someone who isn't used to it.

Uh... here. In that thread there is mention of a program called "DXtory" that does it for at least one user. I still find it hard to believe that 60 makes the experience worse for anybody.

@Jack268 said:

@believer258 said:

I can't fathom playing games at 24 FPS all the time. Is she sure it's motion sickness or is she just not used to 60 FPS? 60 can look really, really weird to someone who isn't used to it.

Uh... here. In that thread there is mention of a program called "DXtory" that does it for at least one user. I still find it hard to believe that 60 makes the experience worse for anybody.

I'm pretty sure DXtory is a screen capture program. I THINK it might be possible to go to the display settings in Windows, going to advanced options and changing the refresh rate to 24 Hz? I don't know if that will stick in games or not though.

I was just repeating what I said in the thread. Apparently, it does have that functionality built into it somewhere.

Some games let you limit the FPS in the options... Worth checking! Borderlands 2 does, as does Just Cause 2. I limit Just Cause 2 to 30fps, because the game feels much smoother at a locked solid 30fps rather than a frame rate that is sometimes 60, sometimes 30 and everything in between. Those dips are noticeable. A solid 30fps just seems smooth. Always wanted to do it in Saints Row the Third (my fps is all over the place in that - although mostly pretty high) but haven't found a way yet.

@Jack268 said:

@believer258 said:

I can't fathom playing games at 24 FPS all the time. Is she sure it's motion sickness or is she just not used to 60 FPS? 60 can look really, really weird to someone who isn't used to it.

Uh... here. In that thread there is mention of a program called "DXtory" that does it for at least one user. I still find it hard to believe that 60 makes the experience worse for anybody.

I'm pretty sure DXtory is a screen capture program. I THINK it might be possible to go to the display settings in Windows, going to advanced options and changing the refresh rate to 24 Hz? I don't know if that will stick in games or not though.

I was just repeating what I said in the thread. Apparently, it does have that functionality built into it somewhere.

idk N64 games?

Forcing "Adaptive (half-refresh)" in your Nvidia control panel should limit you to 30FPS. It may have technical implications on some games, but it should work OK most of the time.

@believer258: im guessing it gets "too" real, and then her body gets confused as to why she doesnt feel what her eye's are experiencing. (movement etc)

@Devildoll said:

@believer258: im guessing it gets "too" real, and then her body gets confused as to why she doesnt feel what her eye's are experiencing. (movement etc)

I've been playing games for longer than I can remember, so I've gotten quite used to not feeling what I see, but I definitely know people that have that problem. It never occurred to me that reduced frame rate might help with that.

@believer258 said:

I can't fathom playing games at 24 FPS all the time. Is she sure it's motion sickness or is she just not used to 60 FPS? 60 can look really, really weird to someone who isn't used to it.

Uh... here. In that thread there is mention of a program called "DXtory" that does it for at least one user. I still find it hard to believe that 60 makes the experience worse for anybody.

heh it's really not about the experience in this case and he's just trying to make his wife happy :)

@VisariLoyalist said:

@believer258 said:

I can't fathom playing games at 24 FPS all the time. Is she sure it's motion sickness or is she just not used to 60 FPS? 60 can look really, really weird to someone who isn't used to it.

Uh... here. In that thread there is mention of a program called "DXtory" that does it for at least one user. I still find it hard to believe that 60 makes the experience worse for anybody.

heh it's really not about the experience in this case and he's just trying to make his wife happy :)

I know, I meant the sensation of actually seeing something, but:

@Scrawnto said:

@Devildoll said:

@believer258: im guessing it gets "too" real, and then her body gets confused as to why she doesnt feel what her eye's are experiencing. (movement etc)

I've been playing games for longer than I can remember, so I've gotten quite used to not feeling what I see, but I definitely know people that have that problem. It never occurred to me that reduced frame rate might help with that.

It never occurred to me that the problem might be seeing yourself move but not actually moving. Huh, I never thought of that.

@MattyFTM said:

Forcing "Adaptive (half-refresh)" in your Nvidia control panel should limit you to 30FPS. It may have technical implications on some games, but it should work OK most of the time.

This is a nice easy option if you don't want to put too much work into it, however if you want to go a little deeper and get your desired 24fps, EVGA precision gives you the option to limit your frames to whatever number you want (assuming you're all up to date with your drivers of course):  

Thanks for the input everybody! To answer some questions, she's had tv/film motion sickness for as long as I've known her. She can't watch hand held camera footage either, it has nothing to do with the newness of 60 fps games. The first time saw her get sick from a video was Rayman on the PC, the ultra smooth scrolling killed her.

I'll try frame limiting. If that doesn't work, we'll try sitting at off angles to the TV. It sucks, because she wants me to play Alan Wake but it makes her ill.