Something I've always wondered about is the superior smoothness of DX-Ball 2. In spite of the fact that Rival Ball was based on the same game engine, there is a difference in the appearance of the frame rate between the two...and it seems the succeeding casual games were based on the same engine update from there.

Even if objects in DX-Ball 2 may appear to have a slight frame skip at times (due to processing demands from stuff I run in the background), there is still this exceptional smoothness about it which transcends everything else. Surely I can't be the only one to notice this?

So what is it about DX-Ball 2 that makes it run so exceptionally smooth, and why was this quality deprived in Rival Ball and the succeeding games?

Is it just when the lightning effects show up or other particle effects? I found out the way to solve this is to turn off the background completely. My eyes have a hard time seeing the bricks when I have the background on half bright or fully lit.

I'm not really sure what exactly you are referring to ? My opening post was in regards to the game's frame rate, which determines the smoothness of all realtime motion, like the movement of the balls, power-ups and particle effects. I believe DX-Ball 2 runs very close to 60 frames per second, while it appears that the frame rate of Longbow's succeeding casual games were significantly reduced, starting with Rival Ball.

After playing around with some screen captures, I found it fascinating to watch the footage in reverse, which eventually coalesced into this !




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imran

with nothing better to say, its obviously great....

It's even more smoother if played using a vintage CRT tube monitor