ILMxLab had to fake a 24 frames-per-second lightsaber in 90hz virtual reality

In the world of games, many of us have come to the conclusion that a faster framerate is always better. But it can sometimes ruin the look of something as iconic as a lightsaber from Star Wars.

Hollywood visual-effects studio Industrial Light & Magic is hopping into the world of virtual reality with the HTC Vive Star Wars: Trials on Tatooine experiment from its ILMxLab division. This tech demo has players fixing the Millennium Falcon and fending off blaster bolts with a Jedi’s laser sword. We tried this quick demo out at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco earlier this month, and we found that it accurately captured the feeling of the galaxy far, far away, but ILMxLab had to do a ton of fidgeting to get the lightsaber right. That included faking the look of a much lower framerate.