Budget

In game design, the budget is the amount of time available to process each frame.

• At 60 frames per second, the optimal figure, each frame must be drawn in 16.6 milliseconds or less.
• At 30 FPS, the lowest acceptable figure, the budget allows for 33.3 milliseconds per frame.

Tip:In most situations it is graphics processing that takes up the majority of a budget. AI and game rules have no excuse for becoming expensive within a single frame, and physics calculations can be kept under control by limiting the number of interacting objects at any one time.

In practical terms it is impossible to achieve a pre-set framerate on the PC platform, since hardware can vary wildly and affect performance in all manner of different areas - so don't worry too much about the numbers above. Your best bet as a modder is to ensure that the game performs well with mid-level settings on modest hardware, and then allow your audience to tune their own settings according to their system's capabilities.

Monitoring your budget

Source's built-in tool for monitoring performance is the console command showbudget.

See also

• Cheap
• Expensive
• Free