01
The Frame
Sixteen milliseconds, and what fits.
Sixty frames a second leaves sixteen and two-thirds milliseconds, and in practice twelve or thirteen once the drivers and the two processors have taken their share. Everything in this section is a claim against that window.
Sixty frames a second leaves sixteen and two-thirds milliseconds, and in practice twelve or thirteen once the drivers and the two processors have taken their share.
Photo: Bibek ghosh / Pexels
In this section
Every entry is a budget and what gets cut from it- 01Sixteen millisecondsSixty frames a second gives you about sixteen and a half milliseconds to simulate, animate, light, submit and present. Every feature is a claim on that window, and most art-direction decisions are really budget decisions wearing a costume.
- 02Draw calls and what they costEach batch handed to the GPU carries overhead, which is why so much work goes into sending fewer, larger ones.
- 03Lighting as a budgetBaked, dynamic or a hybrid — the choice is made on cost per frame, not on looks.
- 04Thirty against sixtyHalving the target doubles the budget, and it is the commonest way to buy room.
Every entry is a budget and what gets cut from it. Worked examples, never rules.