Blogpost 4: The Frame Data Chart Knowledge

     A person coming in as a new player might scratch their heads when they see mathematics in their fighting video games. But these numbers aren’t there to confuse you or give you a hard time. In fact it’s the exact opposite. Frame data charts exists so that it will be easier to track how fast a move starts, recovers and their unique properties. Every game has this especially 3D ones. So as a rising star in the world of fighting games, the Frame data chart is one thing you should definitely take advantage of and mind you, you’d be surprised how these numbers will affect your decision making during a match.

Almost everyone gets put off when they see math and numbers so let us familiarize ourselves with this so called Frame data charts. A player that goes by the name OmegaRyuji wrote an article entitled “A Guide to Frame Data” that gives us a primer and how to utilize this knowledge to up your game. He carefully explains things in a very “beginner friendly” manner about what you should know first and proved to be an interesting read for a rather complicated topic.

“The bottom line is that frame data is a tool which can guide you in the right direction, but it is not the be-all-end-all of knowledge. Frame data can never tell you something that match experience will not, but it can lead you to the same conclusions much faster and more clearly.”

Indeed. Frame knowledge is a very useful tool to study decision making in a match. But of course, knowledge is only as good the one who holds it cause decisions will come solely from the player. Frame data charts only helps you decide on what you should do faster and more efficient than doing this in practice or trial and errors.

A portion of Sergei Dragunov's TTT2 Frame data

An anonymously written article from Dustloop that goes with the title “Reading and Using Frame Data” talks about the limitations of these chart knowledge. It starts out with an introduction and usage information just like the previous article with portions about what the Frame Data Table can’t do. For example, it can’t tell you help you pinpoint an exact response to a relatively different positioned matches.

“Frame data is information on timings. We can see if there’s enough time to make a move, but you still need to go back to the game to make sure the move is relevant, spacing-wise.”

So there we have it, theirs is no doubt that Frame data knowledge will be a very big help to players playing any fighting game that exists today. It’s an inseparable thing when we talk about video games. But these aren’t too necessary to become a very good player but only speeds the process up. So if you like to spend time reading and thinking instead of testing them the old fashioned way then these tables are made for you.