This might not be the first time bugs are found in PUBG ever since the title became popular, but it is arguably the biggest so far. This bug may have an effect on both seasoned and casual players and if it does not get enough attention, the problem can even rule out PUBG as a legitimate e-sport.
Is There An Issue With PUBG’s Gunplay?
Players are aware of vanishing loot and cars appear to be flying, some of them can overlook these tweaks but when there is a huge problem with shooting, that is an entirely different story. It is all started with a report on GamingIntel, which highlighted the real reason behind the randomness players notice in gunplay, which is believed to come down to the FPS.
If what GamingIntel said turn out to be true, both competitive and casual players will be affected by it. Shooting can make or break a game and in the worst case scenario, gamers lose part of their control and have to rely on whether the fire rates are in harmony with the frame rate. For example, when a player who is looking out of a city engages with another who is looking at the opposite direction, the odd will be on the former’s side since his or her frame intensity is probably lower.
What Is The Correlation Between Fire Rate And FPS?
So there is evidence that the lower FPS will result in a slower fire rate, which might give your enemy an edge in gunfire, but this is not entirely true. When this issue is further investigated, it turns out that the actual correlation that can affect shooting is actually between the gun player uses and the frame rate.
To make this easier to understand, let’s take the AKM as an example. This rifle is capable of firing 10 shots each second and when it is paired with an FPS of 30, there will be 1 shot for every three frames. With this combination, no problem is noticed because the rifle works as it is supposed to do.
The real issue appears when the FPS is raised to 31. You will probably notice missed bullets here and there. So the rule to ensure the rifle works smoothly is the rate must be a multiple of 10 like in the first part of our example.
This directly leads to the effectiveness of the weapon players use. When the FPS is decreased, the gun might have merely 75% of its designed power left. Losing 25% of effectiveness does not sound like a big deal at all but in a game where a split second can make or break your victory, you want everything you have at hand to perform their full potential.
Even if you have known what causes the problem, it is still extremely hard to turn a blind eye to it as guns have a wide range of fire rates and sooner or later, you will run into this shooting issue. The instability of gunplay has raised concern in the gaming community over whether PUBG is suitable to be played at the professional level.
The Impact On PC And Console
This whole frame rate and shooting problem have made the future where PUBG becomes a console title getting more distant. The trouble it has with rendering and the decrease in FPS is adversely affecting its performance on PS4 and Xbox.
The shooting problem is more visible on consoles, especially where the frame rate is smaller. The most visible sign giving the issue away is missed bullets (the reason is the gun firing rate is not synced with the FPS). We have enough evidence to conclude that in most situations, the weapons do not work as well as they are supposed to do. So for consoles, the one that proves to have the biggest effect is the AKM, as long as you pair it with a round number of FPS.
For now, PUBG on PC is the best solution to this shooting issue as a PC has stronger hardware that enables it to run as a speed of more than 100 frames, which makes the problem less noticeable.
More seasoned PUBG gamers even come up with the idea to make out the ideal rate for each gun, adjust the FPS accordingly, and then fix it at that number. This solution might be feasible elsewhere but not on the console where players have no way to increase or decrease this rate at will. The FPS on console is determined by the game itself.
PUBG Being An E-Sports?
Players’ frustration aside, there is a more pressing issue, which is whether PUBG can be a legitimate e-sport. Professional gamers often gather at events to compete and with an unstable game, their achievement will definitely be affected.
How deep this problem goes will depend on many other aspects.
In a professionally-held competition where it is highly likely that all players will use identical hardware and have the same FPS, the issue is lessened as there should not be any player who has an unfair advantage over others.
However, the worst scenario is when the two gamers using two identical guns and one of them has the FPS decreased, the two guns might show different DPS rate. This may happen in a situation in an example above. If one player is looking at something that may cause the frame rate intensity to drop, like a city for example and the other does not have this problem, because he or she is facing a clear ground, the gun that has the firing rate harmonized with the current FPS will end up with a better performance.
In A Nutshell
In short, this instability of shooting can have a negative effect on a large number of PUBG matches which involve both professional and amateur players. Some might say that with the introduction of Apex Legends and Call of Duty Blackout, PUBG is coming to the inevitable end of its glorious life. If this is true, the shooting problem might not get enough attention.
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