Pixel art game + follow camera vs. monitor refresh rates

[galloper]

So here’s a problem: I got a bunch of monitors with different refresh rates and a pixel art game that’s being created in Unity. Game has a follow camera that follows the player and graphics behave way too different depending on the monitor refresh rate, but only when the camera moves along with the player. Basically there are two scenarios:

1. On 60Hz monitors everything looks fine, pixel art animations play as they should all while the camera is following a moving character.
2. On 144Hz monitors the movement of a player combined with the movement of the camera produce all kinds of jittery and/or blurry animations, ghosting etc. BUT I need to stress it: it only happens when camera moves along, if we switch the camera follow off, then animations look nice on 144Hz too.
   I tried different camera setups, move methods and where we put them, no luck so far.
   Testing on 200Hz monitor also (well ofc) shows same jittery results, then again, even on same 200Hz monitor, downgrading to 60Hz and all is fine.
   What can be done here? Does Unity provide some tools to cope with it? is it a widely known problem? I searched for it and couldn’t find a clear explanation or better a solution to this exact problem.

[karderos]

try using vsync and cap your fps at 60, just a guess

[AngryProgrammer]

Unity does provide some tools and settings that can help mitigate this problem:

• V-Sync: Unity has a V-Sync option that can be set in the Quality Settings of your project. V-Sync synchronizes the game’s frame rate with the monitor’s refresh rate. Setting V-Sync to “Every V Blank” should lock the frame rate to the monitor’s refresh rate (e.g., 60Hz on a 60Hz monitor, 144Hz on a 144Hz monitor). This may help with consistency across different monitors.
• Frame Rate Independent Movement: Ensure that the movement of your player character and the camera is frame rate independent. Instead of using methods like Time.deltaTime, use Time.fixedDeltaTime for physics-based movement calculations. This helps in maintaining consistent movement regardless of the frame rate.
• FixedUpdate for Physics: If you have physics-based movement, make sure to put the physics calculations in the FixedUpdate function to ensure consistent physics simulation across different frame rates.
• Animation Update Mode: In the Animator component, you can set the “Update Mode” of the animation to “Unscaled Time.” This ensures that the animation updates are not affected by changes in Time.timeScale, which can cause inconsistencies.
• Use Pixel Perfect Camera: Unity has a Pixel Perfect Camera package that can help ensure your pixel art remains sharp and aligned with the screen pixels. This can help with the visual appearance of your game, but it may not directly solve the frame rate inconsistency issue.
• Target Frame Rate: You can also set a specific target frame rate for your game using Application.targetFrameRate. Setting it to the lowest common refresh rate of your target platforms (e.g., 60fps) can help in creating a more consistent experience across different devices.