game runs past device-set refresh rate

[Fxhsrx]

Type

Game behaviour

Bug description

The game runs past my device-set refresh rate (60hz) on startup, the limit cap kicks in when i make the game run on background then going back to it.
the frames cap of the set frame limit until going background.

Screenshots or videos

run game

Screenrecorder-2025-12-13-20-15-02-342.mp4

(may be unrelated)

Screenrecorder-2025-12-13-20-15-56-77.mp4

going to recent apps and going back to the game

Screenrecorder-2025-12-13-20-16-15-582.mp4.733D3CB.mp4

Version

2025.1209.0-lazer

Logs

Logs.zip

[Fxhsrx]

follow-up: changing frame limit to any (except vsync) bypasses the refresh rate limiter again.

Screenrecorder-2025-12-13-20-40-10-264.mp4

vsync

Screenrecorder-2025-12-13-20-43-54-118.mp4

log of the session: log.zip

[Fxhsrx]

is the audio/hitsound delayed? or im just imagining...

refresh rate capped

Screenrecorder-2025-12-13-21-14-56-797.mp4

frame limit bug

Screenrecorder-2025-12-13-21-15-17-803.mp4

[Fxhsrx]

it is delayed

demonstration.0EB668A.mp4

[bdach]

how are you "setting" your device's refresh rate?

[Fxhsrx]

how are you "setting" your device's refresh rate?

using my phone's settings.
it is set on 60hz.

[shiumano]

ppy/osu-framework#6682

This change means that vsync settings, which were previously handled by SDL and the OS, are now managed by the game itself.

The cause was that the default SDL vsync setting was extremely poor, causing significant performance degradation.
This was resolved by disabling vsync. Setting the game's fps limit to vsync again causes dramatic performance deterioration.
However, the “vsync that automatically activates after switching apps” provides acceptable performance, unlike the current vsync issues.

[shiumano]

Personally, I believe “works as intended.”
The setting is “2x refresh rate,” and while the FPS display's denominator is also twice the refresh rate, it absolutely never reaches that value. That's the mistake here.
Furthermore, GPU usage hardly changes with FPS, and since most of this game's load is CPU-side, power consumption remains unchanged. The FPS drop is also due to delay in the Update thread, not the Draw thread.

The issue mentioned here, that “incorrect limits cause delays,” can be fixed simply by manually setting “vsync,” one of the FPS limit options. It's currently in the worst possible state, though...

[Fxhsrx]

The issue mentioned here, that “incorrect limits cause delays,” can be fixed simply by manually setting “vsync,” one of the FPS limit options. It's currently in the worst possible state, though...

so the intended function of the frame limit options is that-
Vsync - game runs at what Hz the device is running
2-8x Refresh rate - game runs at 2x, 4x, ... of frames. (60 × 2 = 120fps) (60 is the base number right?)
Basically Unlimited - let the game run on what fps it can reach.

but ever since i started playing (even when i got a much better device), using vsync as the limiter runs the game bad (cause SDL Vsync is bad), so i use 2x refresh rate to play at 60fps (my device is set to 60hz).

My device CAN run the game past 60fps BUT a limiter is active to all the options. (cause OS decided that the game must run at 60fps, following the device's 60Hz).
and this is a bug since this broke the function of the frame limiter and its options since all other options literally is just vsync but not quite like it.

However, the “vsync that automatically activates after switching apps” provides acceptable performance, unlike the current vsync issues.

this was the type of performance i was playing. (which i never questioned all of this since its doing fair enough job and i thought this is THE intended function all this time.)

and now im suddenly getting 120fps this update which confused me...
is this all right? (from what i understand?)

[peppy]

I don't have an android device to test on, but the expectation should be:

• When the game is set to vsync (default) it should cap at device refresh rate. This is the best balance for performance and battery.
• When the game is set to anything else, it should do its best to match that setting. If it's not feasible to match the setting on mobile, I'd be more interested in hiding the setting altogether.

Can we confirm that this is how things are working? It doesn't sound like it from the various reports I've heard around the place.

[Fxhsrx]

(all recordings were re-encoded with ffmpeg to reduce filesize)

When the game is set to vsync (default) it should cap at device refresh rate. This is the best balance for performance and battery.
When the game is set to anything else, it should do its best to match that setting. If it's not feasible to match the setting on mobile, I'd be more interested in hiding the setting altogether.

yes the limiters are working properly, its just that the performance is not good, though i can say that consistent high fps is likely possible.
and the biggest problem is the audio, even without the recording, its delayed.

also, on the singlethread and multithread video, their fps is different
the draw on 2x refresh rate on single is 240fps but in multithread, its 120fps.
i hope this helps...

SingleThread.mp4

MultiThread.mp4

vsync-singlethread.mp4

vsync-multithread.mp4

2x-singlethread.mp4

2x-multithread.mp4

nolimit-singlethread.mp4

nolimit-multithread.mp4

[shiumano]

I did a little experiment (not sure if this is the right way to do it)

Device: Xperia 1 V (Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, 120Hz OLED)
The comparison was made under conditions as ideal situation: device refresh rate 120Hz, game setting FPS limit 2x, and thread mode multi-threaded.

The ideal situation described above (It only dropped to 120 FPS at the moment of SC, but in reality it was always 240 FPS.)

Device refresh rate 60Hz, otherwise the same (#19318 causes the FPS limit to be 240)

Device refresh rate 60Hz, limited to 60 FPS with "app-change vsync"

Device refresh rate 60Hz, game FPS limit set to vsync ("SDL's terrible vsync")

The closest thing to ideal for a 60Hz display was the game's vsync, SDL.
"App change vsync" was very unpleasant as the timing of the slider end was clearly off. If switching apps causes a sudden increase in latency, this should be addressed as a bug.
However, "SDL vsync" was ideal. Even though the FPS was only 40fps, I could hardly feel any difference in latency between the ideal and the round trip conditions.

probably,If you can use SDL's vsync, you should use it. Currently it's just a workaround.(But it's true that higher rendering FPS translates to lower latency. Keep this. Love you, bdach)