Sorry, Android 15’s new framerate override feature doesn’t work with most games

Android phones with high refresh rate displays are now everywhere, but there are still many games on the platform that don’t support running faster than 60fps. There are several legitimate reasons behind some developers limiting Android games to 60 fps, but not all games will crash or run poorly if forced to run at a higher frame rate on certain devices. That’s the idea behind a new Android 15 developer feature that lets you disable the game’s default 60fps frame rate limit.

With the release of Android 15 Developer Preview 2, Android’s Developer Options page now has Disable the game’s default frame rate Set “Disable[s] Limits the game’s maximum frame rate to 60Hz. ” Android gamers who saw the switch were excited at the prospect of a feature that would finally allow them to play their favorite games at their device’s native refresh rate. Unfortunately, the feature is only available for a fairly small number of game.

Under the hood, Disable the game’s default frame rate Toggle switch in developer options to toggle system properties persist.graphics.game_default_frame_rate.enabled Between “true” and “false”. By searching for this property in AOSP, I was able to find multiple references to the “Game Default Frame Rate Override” feature in the Android graphics stack. For example, one reference mentions how the availability of the feature is determined by the value of the previously mentioned system property, but the actual frame rate override value is determined by another system property, ro.surface_flinger.game_default_frame_rate_override.

Comment based on code ro.surface_flinger.game_default_frame_rate_override System properties, this feature is intended to cover games that fail setFrameRate() API. in other words, Disable default frame rate switching for games In Android 15 only works for games that don’t explicitly set their own maximum framerate. Most games specify frame rates to ensure a stable, consistent experience, so there may not be many games that can take advantage of this feature.

Additionally, this new override has lower priority than any Game Mode intervention set by the OEM. For example, Android 13 adds FPS limiting as an available intervention in the Android Game Mode API. If an OEM chooses to use this intervention to limit FPS for a specific game, the new Android 15 feature will not work for that game on the OEM device.

since ro.surface_flinger.game_default_frame_rate_override Not set on a Pixel 8 Pro running the latest Android 15 developer preview, I had to set the property manually to test this feature, otherwise, it just defaulted to 60. However, I couldn’t find a game where the feature actually worked during my brief testing period. With this feature enabled, I was able to run Minecraft: Pocket Edition at 120 fps on the Pixel 8 Pro, but that’s only because the game seemed oddly locked at 60 fps on the two Pixels I tested it on, even though it Runs great at 120 fps on every other device I’ve tried.

There are hints in Android’s source code that the feature will be used by Android’s Game Manager service, which is the underlying system service used by Android’s Game Mode API, so it’s possible a more prominent user-facing toggle will be added to Android’s Game Dashboard in the future. . But for now, the feature is hidden behind developer options precisely because it’s not really available to users right now. Even so, if you can find a game that supports this feature, you may find yourself having a more enjoyable gaming experience.