Frames Per Second
Street Fighter 4 runs at 60 frames of animation per second. The frame data for the characters shows how many frames of animation their moves take.
For example, Ryu's Standing Hard Punch when done up close has a total of 38 frames of animation, which means it takes 38 of the 60 frames per second to execute the entire move.
This information is valuable because you can compare all of a character's moves to see which does the most damage, has the quickest recovery, etc.
How to read frame data
Here's what the text on the frame data pages means.
Move: The name of the attack you're using.
Startup: The number here represents how many frames of animation take place before this move is capable of hitting your opponent.
Active: Short for Active Frames. The number here shows how many frames of animation a move is capable of hitting for. For example, Ryu's Standing Hard Punch when used up close has 7 active frames.
Recover: Short for Recovery Frames. This number shows how long it takes you to finish off the animation for a move before you can input another command.
Total: Total number of frames before the move's animation is complete and you can do another action.
Frame Adv. Block: Short for Frame Advantage after Blocking. A number with a + before it means how many frames faster than your opponent you will recover if they block your attack. Negative numbers mean how much faster your opponent will recover than you after blocking it.
Frame Adv. Hit: Short for Frame Advantage after Hit. A number with a + before it means how many frames faster than your opponent you will recover after successfully hitting them with this attack. Negative numbers mean how much faster your opponent will recover than you after being hit.
Block stun: If your attack is blocked, this number shows how many frames of animation your opponent will be stunned for.
Hit stun: If your attack lands, this number shows how many frames of animation your opponent will be stunned for.
Damage: How much damage an attack does. Numbers with a * (asterisk) in front of them are the next hit of a move. For example Ken's Hard Punch Shoryuken is listed as doing 70* 40* 30 damage.
This means it does 70 damage on the first hit, 40 on the second and 30 on the third and final attack.
Numbers in parentheses are based on when the attack hits your opponent. For example, hitting with the early part of Ken's Light Punch Shoryuken does more damage (120) than hitting with it later in the animation (80).
Stun: How much stun each move does if it hits. The syntax is the same here as for damage. A * (asterisk) means the additional hits, while numbers in parentheses are how the stun can vary depend on where you hit.
Meter Gain: The Super meter you gain for having an attack that's block or hits.
If two numbers are listed with a / in between, the first number is how much Super you gain if the attack was blocked, the second if it hit.
Block: Indicates how you can block a move. H or High, L for Low, HL for both High and Low.
Chain, Special and Super: An X in these columns indicates the move cannot be used to Chain, cancel into a Special or Super. An O in this column indicates the move can be used to Chain, cancel into a Special or Super.
Cancel Ability: Shows which moves you can Cancel with. All of the indicators are separated with an * (asterisk).
C - Short for Chainable or Chain. Indicates that you can Chain this move into others to do a Chain combo.
Sp - Short for Special Move. Means you can Cancel this attack into a Special Move.
Su - Short for Super Move. Means you can Cancel this attack into a Super Move.
