Capcom says DmC: Devil May Cry feels like it's 60 FPS (but it isn't)

DmC: Devil May Cry is going to be locked at 30 frames per second on consoles, a shift from DMC4's buttery 60 fps. But Capcom has told fans it will still look silky-smooth, thanks to some animation and control trickery that fools your eyes into feeling like it's seeing more frames than it is.

"During the course of the development of Dragon's Dogma we did a lot of experimentation and happened upon some techniques for working with Unreal Engine, some fairly elaborate techniques, that allow for a controller responsiveness that gives the player the feel of 60 frames per second," game director Hideaki Itsuno told Eurogamer. "At 30 frames per second there's a technique where you take advantage of the brain's ability to fill in the blanks. So even though you have it running at 30 frames per second, you create the motions and the poses in such a way that the brain will naturally fill in what would have been the extra frames."

He also said that the game has made some "adjustments" to button responsiveness, which also helps maintain the smooth feeling.

Apparently the developer chose to settle for 30 fps as an artistic consideration, so that it could make a more detailed city for Dante to occupy. Technical art director Stuart Adcock said that the Unreal Engine's limitations would have resulted in "very static environments and less combat effects" if they had pushed it to 60 fps.

The game isn't due until 2013, but a demo is coming before its launch.