Dark Souls PC release has some worrying graphical limitations
By Jess Colwill on August 10, 2012 at 3:08 pm
Pretty soon after it was announced that Dark Souls was coming to the PC, it was also made public that developers From Software were having technical issues with the port – and weren’t altogether experienced with this sort of thing anyway. Unfortunately, it looks as though those issues are going to have a real impact on the playability of the game at release.
Eurogamer got a look at it recently, and said there were still a few complaints. The game’s rough edges have been filed somewhat, but the frame-rate has been capped at 30FPS. The graphical options in general leave a lot to be desired, with an on/off switch for both anti-aliasing and motion blur. Most strangely, Dark Souls appears to use the same 1024×720 internal framebuffer as console versions, regardless of the resolution you pick in the menus – meaning while it’ll play on most monitors, the image quality will remain the same.
Hopefully either the modding community can fix some of these black marks, or From Software are very swift at listening to player feedback, and fix it up themselves. Pleasingly though, Eurogamer’s preview mentions that frame rate issues with areas like Blight Town – a common complaint on the console version – appear to have been solved.
Source: Eurogamer
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Disappointing would be an understatement. I don’t even understand why they would release it in such a state.
Why are the even bothering to port it at all at this rate, it’s insane if you can’t even use a proper resolution.
Eh. No decent PC support, No money from me.
The use of GFWL should’ve been the first warning sign that this would be a shitty port.
Very disappointing… Actually wanted to play this but… Guess I won’t be until somethings done about it.
Wow….. I guess it turns out that it is a good thing that they price jacked this…. The price jacking stopped me buying it, and this just validates my decision…..
But hey… I’m sure that they shit sales for the game will be due to the evil PC gamers pirating the game, and not that they did a less than half arsed job of bringing it to PC and tried to over charge for the privilege………
Regardless I will still be picking it up for PC, I am sure as mentioned either a patch or modder will find a way. GFWL luckily has never caused any issues for me.
Later in the preview they also said:
“This shouldn’t detract from the merits of the extra content, of course, which does appear to be fresh and distinguished enough from what we’ve seen before to make it worthwhile for a fan of the series. Due to the smoother, if limited, frame-rate, the PC version is also looking to be the definitive way to play the game”
I’ll wait.
Bits missed from the article:
Sounds like the new content will be fun to play and explore. If the new content blends nicely with the old then I can’t wait to give it a bash. Feel free to wait for the DLC on the consoles though.
So a smoother overall framerate to be had then? Sounds good.
Already preordered my copy. Just love how GON seems to be going out of their way to dissuade people from buying this. But fine, let’s all just not buy this and send From Software a clear signal we don’t want them developing software for PC.
Is there any technical reason to cap it at 30fps?
As a complete non-programmer (so this may be COMPLETELY WRONG): You can run game logic and timing off a frame count (so “do x every 10 frames” etc), which can work well especially when dealing with low fps on fixed hardware, as it ensures that all events happen when they are supposed to even if the game chugs, everything just slows down. You can also run timing based off delta time, which is basically real time (it divides by the fps, so basically, “do x every 0.5 seconds”), which means things are consistent and you can have any fps you want, but it also means that if you start getting low fps, rather than the game slowing down, it actually keeps pushing ahead and you can miss the timing on game events. I have no idea if that is actually true or not, but I read it somewhere.
I’m pretty disappointed about the resolution and fps limit honestly. I know they always said it would be a straight port, but I was hoping for at least a few PC basics. Still, I’ve got it pre-ordered and it’s going to be better than playing the console version… as long as the multiplayer isn’t hacked… which considering how much effort they’ve put into the other areas, wouldn’t surprise me at all. Fingers crossed that patches are incoming.
Was going to buy it, but not after hearing this!
glad i didn’t preorder this mess
Wow, I saw a large amount of similar articles when I searched ‘Dark Souls’ on Twitter earlier today.
Do you really care? This is one of the best games to come out in recent years, an absolute triumph of RPG gameplay… how is resolution and textures important when the GAMEPLAY is so amazing?
Still absolutely stoked that I preordered it on Steam (before the price lift) and am an ardent fan of GFWL… I am eagerly counting down the days to release while I continue to pound away at my Xbox version.
You should all be terribly ashamed of yourselves, not the least being Jess for not acknowledging the gameplay once, and for once again using ‘console port’ as a term like it held some kind of inherent meaning about the game itself.
If this came out with a PS2 era graphics system that would of been okay to console users I highly doubt it. I can deal with any basic ports of a game including frame rate limiting. I even have a xbox controller for windows for ported games but I won’t play anything that won’t let me run native res. It just doesn’t get any more basic then that.
Murray Hibble,
Glad I’m not the only one disgusted by GON’s coverage of this game. I find it appalling, it’s like they’re begging the community not to buy this game. I’ve yet to read an article on GON saying anything positive about the PC port at all. Even this article – the source material talks it up and then finishes by recommending people buy it. This article lifts all the negative aspects of the source and then backs it with none of the positives. Way to be balanced and objective! >:(
To the naysayers replying: go read other websites and make your own decision. It will do you good, honestly.
Cyrinno, you like to write and talk about games yes? Why would you limit yourself from a game as good as this because of Res? FROM SOFTWARE took the chance on bringing this experience to you and they did it having never done a PC port before. With gameplay this good and with the promise of future support for PC Dark Souls (hell, even without it), you are shooting yourself in the foot for not supporting it.
Wow, okay.
First of all, I instructed Jess to post this piece and focus on those elements because I thought it would be most relevant to the audience. So that’s entirely up to me.
Secondly, when a game comes to PC from console, it’s natural to examine it for things like this. While it’s commendable of From Software to mention earlier that it would be a straight port and be up front about it, from the reaction here, it’s clearly something that is a deal breaker for a lot of people.
We’ve already reviewed the game on GON (although it’s not yet been brought into the new site) and we were very positive about it. The gameplay is already known, so there’s not much point on saying anything about that, only whether or not the transition to PC has (or looks to be) a successful one.
I agree with the statement that we could have mentioned more that some of the frame rate issues appear to be fixed, but it’s entirely reasonable to expect us as PC gaming site to focus on a game’s transition to PC and how well it’s doing that.
Our review, when it goes up – because yes, we’ll be reviewing the PC version – will also mention things like this. They are important to a LOT of our audience and we would be doing a disservice by not mentioning them.
Personally, I don’t give a rat’s about the frame rate, but our audience does, as I think this comment thread demonstrates.
Why should any pc gamer support a straight port even if the game IS good?
30fps is going to look bad compared to native pc games, i am imagining they will use motion blur to cover it up, lots of it…
Not doing the extra programming required to make it use the pc platform advantages just makes them look lazy , and tbh, it is lazy.
The last time i can remember a game running on my pc at that framerate was F.e.a.r, back in what…2005?
They won’t be getting my money until they wise up and leverage what we have in our pc’s now.
People are fed up with substandard console ports, and encouraging them with money is NOT the right direction to improve anything.
I don’t believe in the word ‘console-port’ and think it’s far too often blamed for all the ‘ills’ in the gaming world… despite the fact that we live in the most glorious golden age of gaming (I was there in the 80′s, please believe me when I say games sucked).
I have amended the article’s end to point out that frame rate problems with areas like Blight Town appear to have been solved, I agree that that’s a fair call :)
Precisely
and precisely.
If someone wants to charge me top dollar for a game, I don’t expect one of poor quality.
Without any PC adjustments to the port it feels almost pointless. I was going to purchase the game but since I can’t even run in a native res I am now going to purchase the game on PS3. I am still going to play the game for sure just not on my preferred system. I was holding off buying the game because I heard the port was in the works.
Surely it would be cheaper on PC and, as this article details, look exactly the same (but slightly smoother)?
Either way, good to hear, it’s an amazing experience. I thought it was a hipster bandwagon the way people banged on about difficulty, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.. the customisation, story, combat and mechanics are top class.
Hate to say I told you so!
I said all of this when the partition first hit the interwebs and you all said I was crazy…
pinothyj,
Any why wouldn’t we? Even the worse of ports don’t stoop this low. Excuse us for having hope. :P
Murray Hibble,
You know what? There’s no point wasting your time. Apparently it’s a lost cause, everybody’s already decided that OMG 30fps/fixed res this game will suck. Forget the awesome combat mechanics, the amazing atmosphere and extra content, this game’s gonna suck because you can’t twiddle with a thousand graphic options. Very good, I now wish to divorce myself as a PC fanboy if this is the way one has to behave. >:(
Non Native Res on my PC screen seems to look worse then non native on my TV so the TV will look better. This is the only thing that bugged me about the announcement. The Native Res thing only because it does look worse then the PS3 to me.
vcatkiller,
Oh come now. There is NO excuse in 2012 for having a game which is effectively both resolution AND framerate locked, even if it is the best game in the world. Saying that people are rejecting it because they can’t twiddle with a thousand graphic options is a straw-man argument in the extreme.
The way I see it, developers who put their games out on the PC, whether they’re ported from the console or built ground-up for the PC, need to be aware that there is a rather stiff market out there and people don’t like being treated as idiots who’ll accept any trash you give them. If someone doesn’t buy Dark Souls because the developers didn’t feel the PC audience deserves any respect with a technically decent port, the gamer doesn’t LOSE anything by not buying it because they have tons of alternative games to choose from, and there will be at least a few of them which have all the gravy that a PC gamer expects. Maybe I’m not a “real” gamer for saying this, but I genuinely believe there’s nothing wrong with skipping a game with good gameplay if it’s coded like crap. Plenty of alternatives.
sathias,
No I don’t think so. Give us the ability to change res/framerate, we’ll only complain that we can’t select the level of anistropic filtering. Give us that, we’ll only complain we can only turn anti-aliasing on and off and we want to set the level. Or adjust the bloom levels. Or twiddle with the normal maps. Or reverse the polarity of the neutron flow. How many games have been rejected because one or two features are missing in the graphics adjustment menu?
Personally I think the only valid argument out of all this is the resolution being locked, that’s just silly. However it’s not stopping me from buying the game. Who knows, maybe if enough purchase and complain it might actually convince From Software to release patches? Probably a lot more convincing than convincing them to patch a game nobody bought to begin with…
It was from a Dev who has zero experience with PC gaming whose uni courses, considering the HEAVILY-weighted console gaming culture in Japan, probably did not even cover PC gaming and what is and is not important. Who is only ported the game over because of consumer pressure not because it was what they were comfortable completing the task.
Most games on the PS3 when launched were WOEFUL because no-one knew how to code (effectively) for the cell broadband engine. Multiply that by the fact that FromSoftware are only a (relatively) small company and you are essentially getting sparkies to install plumbing.
It should have stayed as the hauntingly beautiful console game and left at that. Now it will, as predicted, be an amazing game that will be forever tarnished with the impending brush of mediocrity.
Hell, I would not even wish that upon EActivisoft…
I do not understand how ” and what is and is not important.” even made it there.
No edit ftl…
http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/184/961/tumblr_lnvvueuSsj1qcj56b.png?1318394475
And to think I signed that bloody petition and waited ages for a PC version only to find out that it won’t run differently from its console counterparts. I should’ve bought this for the PS3 in the first place then
30fps.. what.
I know where i’m “buying” this from.
Was gonna buy it for $30 from gog. not even worth that. 3rd world countries have better resolutions on their phones.
shlaimon,
Pirating makes you worse than any company, even EA. Yeah, i said it.
The devs bring it on them selves, make shit games people wont buy it. Simple really.
shlaimon,
That’s fine, just don’t play it. Simple.
shlaimon,
Either buy it and play it, or don’t buy it or don’t play it. No dev ever deserves piracy, no matter how good or bad they are.