Vehicle handling, particularly drifting, is affected by framerate. The higher the framerate, the more the car will slide. In normal cars, it also slows down more during a slide. This isn't the case in drift cars, but I haven't done any real testing on those. TL;DR lower framerates are better.

Below are the results of some testing from the past couple days, performed using a CCXR with full eBay bonuses on Nürburgring GP Circuit. Each test pass simply consists of going around the first corner as fast as possible. The game is recorded, the recording is gone through frame by frame, and the minimum speed (in km/h) the car dropped to is logged. Minimums were chosen because using the average of each test pass would unduly minimize the differences caused by different framerates.

Full disclaimer, it isn't possible to test this with 100% accuracy, but I did my best and spent several hours doing a few hundred passes to try to average out any inconsistencies.

I'm no statistician, but this should be enough to get some idea of what's going on. The most important thing here is the average without outliers (average of the minimum speeds of each test pass), which shows a clear downward trend in speed as the framerate increases. This is also reflected by the minimum without outliers (lowest minimum speed of any test pass), which follows the same trend.

The maximum (highest minimum speed of any test pass) is notable because it actually stays relatively consistent. Unfortunately, I can't show this easily in data, but the reason is that these fastest test passes don't involve drifting. There still seems to be a slight downtrend with higher framerates, but I can't conclusively say that lower framerates are faster—more research is warranted.

Even assuming high framerates can be as fast as low framerates, the data proves their consistency isn't equivalent. Despite me being objectively worse at the game at lower framerates (due to a combination of heightened input latency and motion sickness), the minimum speed at 15 and 30 FPS was significantly higher than at 120 or 240. I attempted to show this in the rightmost column, standard deviation, with mixed success. The low-speed outliers only existing at higher framerates also supports this. (If you're wondering, 0 km/h is a spin—and I was unable to spin the car at lower framerates no matter how hard I tried. Maybe initiating a drift is more difficult?)

Finally, to touch on the sub-30 FPS numbers, these are below console performance and generally considered unplayable. However, I suffered through it to see whether scaling continues beyond 30. Long story short, they appear to have diminishing returns. Despite this, there were some results that were out of line, like the 121 km/h result at 20 FPS, and so out of caution I have to recommend that framerates below 30 FPS be officially banned from use in speedruns to maintain parity with consoles (and also to be fair to people who can't take the abuse of low framerates).

Anyway, that's all for this loveliness. Let me know what you guys think. Thanks @Night_95 for insisting the problem exists.

Edit 2024-03-10: Apparently all cars have a "skid type" and drift cars don't lose speed because they use the drift skid type. They're still less consistent at higher framerates, but the extra sliding might be beneficial if you're going for high scores.

Also, just to be clear, the decrease in consistency scales linearly with framerate. That means going from, say, 30 to 60 FPS is less impactful to your times than going from 120 to 240 FPS, even though it's visually more impactful. That's why I'd still recommend playing at 60 if you can't handle 30. Funnily enough, that also means ultra high framerates like 1000 FPS could make the game literally unplayable.

Over the years, a number of people have asked why Any% and 100% categories don't exist for main game runs, so here's a quick explanation.

Prior to May 2020, Any% and 100% existed. Any% was Burnout License. 100% was Elite License. Simple, right? Not really.

Any%, by definition, ends when the credits roll because that's normally when the game is complete. In this game, though, getting the Burnout License does nothing. No special awards received, most cars locked, all events reset, collectibles not complete, and rivals still roaming.

The real reason the credits roll is that playtesters said the game was too long, and this was the concession: have Atomika set a low goal for the player and roll the credits after that low goal is passed.

So, the Elite License was supposed to be the end of the game. The real "Any%". All events are done, most cars are unlocked, and the gold cars are awarded, but not everything is done. That means it's not 100%. The Criterion Elite License is 100%.

So why not call them Any% and 100%? Consistency, for one. Shorter main game runs are already license runs, why would the longer ones not be? Also, existing runs titled Any% would confuse people if the label was shifted up one rung. So, categories got renamed to what they are now, which is generally less controversial.

Hopefully this clears things up for people. I'll be linking this thread the next time someone asks and yes, I'm only writing this because someone asked again.

Thanks to the site update I realized there could be improvements in some areas, hear me out.

Because some glitches are PC only, a separation needs to exist, but there are no runs at all in the Console category. There are active console runners but I suspect they've been accidentally ostracized by this separation. So why not revise levels to have one category for normal runs and a secondary category for runs that use glitches? Not only would this allow console players to compete directly with PC players, it would also allow PC players to do runs without glitches and remain competitive. All platforms would be effectively identical. Glitch runs would have to be found and moved manually, but there aren't that many so it shouldn't be too much effort (I think the Hurrah Pass respawn is the only one currently, barring the yet-unused LA respawn). Not sure what the categories would be named, restricted/unrestricted, glitchless/glitched? Mods can decide.

There's the small matter of what constitutes a glitch, like how the huge Peninsula Run cut isn't technically an OOB glitch and wall riding/wall bouncing is technically part of the game's physics and not a glitch. Personally, I'd ignore those and use the glitch category for respawns, true OOBs and other glitches exclusive to one platform, but once again it's for the mods to decide. Anything would work as long as the rules are clear.

Also, if it wasn't obvious from the title, this is entirely separate from full game categories. Those play more of a role due to loads and VO skips along with the PC only respawn glitches. I guess it could be switched to LRT and have a similar separation to the above, but that'd mean recalculating times and putting significant effort in, so I won't advocate for it.

Anyway. Thoughts?

I grabbed screenshots of the top 10 on every in-game leaderboard on every platform. Sharing them here for those who want to compare their times.

Google Drive folder (don't know of a better way to host albums, sorry)

UPDATE—I've dumped the entire PS3 leaderboard as of 2024-04-09. You can find the data here: Google Drive

Couple notes—PC is generally best for comparison since people on PS3/360 often have times faster than what's possible via time trials. Only a couple times on PC are like this and they stand out enough that you'll know. The PS3 runs are real despite the times, which are possible because they went online and abused drafting to get better times.

Another thing is that PC has cheated times using trainers and stuff. You'll be able to spot these pretty easily most of the time. If there's some confusion as to whether a time is legit, you can compare to catty7073's times since most (if not all) of their runs are legitimate and they're usually near the top. Alternatively, you can ask me about it here or on Discord, because I was around when ghosts worked and mostly remember which runs were cheated.

Anyway, that's it, hope this helps some runners out there set some targets.

Post your skill game runs in this thread. These have the same requirements as other runs - the platform has to be specified and a video with the time visible is needed. Runs are assumed to be glitchless for now, but I can add the other categories if runs are done in them.

You can find all the leaderboards on this spreadsheet - click me! The forums unfortunately have no good way of displaying the data, so this is the best we're gonna get.

Hey all! I've been spending some time doing up the page for the original game and want to make some changes to BPR's page as well, mostly to address recent site changes which make it even more difficult to navigate ILs than previously.

The plan is to reduce the number of IL categories so that all runs can be displayed on one page, without having to scroll from side to side. There seem to be two ways to accomplish this, though of course you can suggest more:

1. Merge car and bike categories into one leaderboard.
2. Merge the normal and no traffic categories into one leaderboard, replacing them with a variable (or a subcategory?).

The second option is implemented on the original game's page as a variable, so you can check the ILs there for examples. (I'll probably end up changing it at some point, though.)

Both options could technically be implemented at the same time, but right now I'm leaning towards only using the first one since bikes are mostly a dead category. Cars and bikes are split because the game splits them, but can anyone think of a reason to follow that model? Because I honestly feel like they're not even valuable as a variables here.

I'm also planning on adding a damage variable to runs and lifting the ban on modded damage simply because it's so ubiquitous, but we'll see how that pans out.

Anyway, I'm keen to hear ideas and thoughts on this, kinda wish it could be kept as-is but it's nearly impossible to view all the times on the boards at the same time now. Hopefully the sr.c team will take a course in responsive web design and spare us this crap in the future.

Due to speedrun.com's rather inept design and flaws with the existing game rules, some changes have been implemented. Those changes, and the reasons for them, are as follows:

1. There is now a Version field. Due to various server shutdowns and the deletion of updates from official servers, among other issues, the rule requiring runners to be on the latest game version has become untenable. To rectify this, runners may now choose which version of the game they are on. Refer to the the version identification guide if you need help finding your version number.
2. IL categories have been simplified. The Version field replaces per-version categories, while a Traffic field has been added and replaces the traffic/no traffic categories. This means categories no longer go off the screen. An Any Glitch category has also been added for parity with BPR's ILs.
3. A Damage field has been added to ILs due to its ubiquity in Road Rules and known effect on times. Modded damage values are allowed, but 2 and above must be marked as max damage. If you are using a value below 2 which is not listed, there is an option to enter a custom value.
4. Mods for PC which re-enable DLC are allowed. This means the Toys, Legendary Cars and Boost Specials included in the game. This exception has become necessary following the server shutdown.
5. Mods for PC which add console-exclusive DLC are allowed for Road Rules. There is a specific version for this in order to differentiate runs. DO NOT use these mods for full-game categories or other ILs or your run will be rejected.

Some of these will likely be controversial, mainly the ones regarding mods, but I feel like the leaderboards need to become more accessible to the people who actually do runs. The process of making IL categories visible again ended up being the perfect opportunity to do that.

The traffic and damage fields will probably be brought over to BPR's ILs at some point. Luckily the rest isn't applicable at all, keeps it simple.

The game version is now required to be submitted with runs. This guide is meant to help identify which version of the game you are using.

If you have not installed any updates, your version can be identified here:

• Burnout Paradise (PS3/Xbox 360, disc): 1.0
• Burnout Paradise (Xbox 360, download): 1.0
• Burnout Paradise (PS3, download): 1.4
• Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box (all platforms, disc): 1.6/PC 1.0
• Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box (PC, download): 1.7/PC 1.1
• Burnout Paradise (Xbox One, backward compatibility): 1.9

If you are still having trouble determining which version of the game you are using, there are several ways to find out. The three easiest require no inputs and can be found below.

Method 1: Loading screen

Method 2: Videos

Method 3: Title screen

If your game is version 1.6-1.8, you can determine the exact version by how large the category list is, even if the DLC vehicles are unavailable:

If your game version is 1.4-1.5, you can determine the exact version by checking for trophies. Version 1.5 is PS3 exclusive; if you are on Xbox 360, you have version 1.4.

Versions 1.1 and 1.2 no longer exist and will likely never be found, so you don't need to be concerned with these versions. If you believe you have one of these, join the Discord and ping me.

A couple people have asked recently about how the rules apply to different glitches and mods. This is meant to clarify that.

Starting today, a new IL category has been added, tentatively named "Glitched". In short, this new category allows any and all glitches, regardless of how they affect gameplay. Please note this category does not allow mods, only the glitches available in the game.

Outside the Glitched category, the rules are simple: no mods or glitches that affect gameplay are allowed. The one exception is runs without traffic, which have a designated category. Following changes in 12/2021, any damage may be used provided the type of damage (or value, if modded) is provided.

When it comes to mods or glitches that don't affect gameplay, i.e. visual mods, they are allowed. These rules are not meant to stop you from using a neon purple car.

If you have any questions, please reply to this post or, even better, ping me on the Burnout Discord, available at the link in the sidebar.

Hey everyone! After a good week of redoing things, the categories have been overhauled with a license-based structure, new names and clearer rules. You can see the exact changes by comparing the BP and BPR pages, and recommendations on further changes are always welcome.

With that done and new players starting to speedrun, now's a great time to create some new categories! A BSI "All Collectibles" category has already been added and I'll be doing a run soon; ILs have also been split into traffic/no traffic. We'd like to hear more of your suggestions - what's a category/ILs you think would be a great fit?

There's been a lot of talk in the Discord lately about 1.0 being cheating, so here's an "official" post asking for input on a new system that would satisfy everyone equally. I haven't thought about the main categories yet, so we'll stick to ILs for now.

First thing we need to do is actually understand what's wrong. The game has three major versions: 1.0 - Initial release 1.6 - ==The Ultimate Box. Nerfed vehicles to be more "noob-friendly". Made events easier. The PC game is this version. 1.9 - Current version. Allows online play, which enables lots of glitches. Added the Street Rod (best car for road rules by far). Increased the Cavalry's and SI-7's acceleration significantly.

With this in mind, we'll take the Cavalry Burning Route as an example. Say there are 3 runs - a 48s, 38s, and 45s. They were all near-perfect runs taking the same route, on the same platform, so how are they so different? Easy: the car is different, because of the game version.

In this situation, there are three options: make three cross-platform categories for each version and remove the PC/console categories, ban 1.0 and 1.6 from consoles and keep PC separate, or leave it and let people bicker in their disappointment.

Personally, I'd lean towards the first option. It would look something like this on each IL: 1.0-1.5 1.6-1.8 (PC) 1.9 Bikes

If possible, 1.9 would be added to all road rules but only the Cavalry and SI-7 Burning Routes. Not sure if speedrun.com allows for that kind of thing though.

Any thoughts? Ideas? Comments?