(1) (pronounced as separate letters) Short for
frames per second (and typically written in lower case), a measure of how much information is used to
store and display motion
video. The term applies equally to film video and
digital video. Each
frame is a still image; displaying frames in quick succession creates the illusion of motion. The more frames per second (fps), the smoother the motion appears. Television in the U.S., for example, is based on the
NTSC format, which displays 30 interlaced frames per second (60
fields per second). In general, the minimum fps needed to avoid jerky motion is about 30. Some
computer video formats, such as
AVI, provide only 15 frames per second.
(2) Capitalized, FPS is short for first-person shooter, a game
genre. FPS games are ones that are in the
first-person perspective where the gamer can only see the character's hands
holding a weapon on the screen.
Also see
All About Multiplayer PC Gaming in Webopedia's "Did
You Know...?" section.
