From Software The Dark Souls Discussion Thread

[Occasionally Fatal]

So, now that i seem to have solved that problem, is it true that the game is best played at 30 FPS?

Well, the engine was kind of designed around that number, and the framerate directly ties into the way the game handles some things. Sometimes jumping (both for you and enemies) and ladders behave strangely at 60 fps, but I don't recall finding anything game breaking. If you can maintain 60 fps and you prefer it, I'd say go with that, but if you're dipping into the 40s frequently, consider just playing at 30 fps.

Also, I'll just leave this here. None of these affected performance appreciably for me. You'll need to turn on texture overrides using Dsfix for these to work.

Here are some must have texture replacements in my opinon:
http://darksouls.nexusmods.com/mods/21 (high res fonts)
http://darksouls.nexusmods.com/mods/8 (better stat icons)
http://darksouls.nexusmods.com/mods/69 (misc UI fixes)

Optional depending on setup:
http://darksouls.nexusmods.com/mods/200 (ps3 interface icons)
http://darksouls.nexusmods.com/mods/41 (keyboard icons)
http://darksouls.nexusmods.com/mods/82 (better 360 icons)

Some other nice to haves:
http://darksouls.nexusmods.com/mods/132 (better anor londo distance textures)
http://darksouls.nexusmods.com/mods/23 (better faces; of debatable usefulness despite being a clear upgrade)

 

[Multidirectional]

So, now that i seem to have solved that problem, is it true that the game is best played at 30 FPS?

You still need to have FPS unlocked or you'll be getting dips to 15 during boss fights, no matter what PC you have. I chose to limit it to 40 FPS because 60 didn't feel quite right, also I was having trouble making some jumps. And avoid sliding down ladders when FPS is unlocked.

 

[DramaticPopcorn]

There is a solution to Low FPS in DkS, it worked for me on my laptop with HD5460 Graphics card.
Basically, what you have to do is enable 60 FPS in DSfix config and then cap max FPS at 30. that way you get smooth 30 FPS at all times. It didn't even dip for me in blighttown. Only during fight with Sif

 

[ghostdog]

I don't think capping it at 30 will make much of a difference. The game run like crap in my pc until I enabled 60fps in DSFix, after that it run smoothly all the time, and my PC is very old (2,66core2duo ATI47xx). Without the FPS fix when I alt-tabbed and checked CPU usage it was at about 50% in both cores and the game was very choppy, when I enabled 60FPS both cores went up to full usage and the game run smoothly.

Also enabling full 1080p resolution has miniscule to none performance hit with DSfix. Basically using all the graphical improvements of the DSfix, makes the game run much better.

 

[trym88]

Once I fell through the ground while sliding down a certain ladder but that was the only issue I had with fps unlocked and 60 fps cap (and I'm not even sure if the fps cap was the reason). I would definitely try to use 60 fps as long as you get no problems with it.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Just found this list of problems for Dark Souls 2:

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/693333-dark-souls-ii/69274402

Is it the same thing for the first one? Right now the game seems to be very playable at 40 FPS. Perhaps i should just leave it at that. But not having played the game before i'm not sure i can tell whether i'm having those issues.

 

[Niektory]

The only issue I've encountered when unlocking the FPS was sliding down this specific ladder (climbing it down normally worked fine):



I don't remember any other problems. If they were there they were too subtle to notice.

 

[ghostdog]

The DS2 PC port is much better. I can run it with decent FPS with my old PC. Also it can handle crashes much better than DS1. The savegames loaded fine after the few crashes in DS2, while in DS there was one time when it became corrupted -lol say goodbye to 90hours of game- Thankfully DSfix had a save game backup thing, which I strongly suggest you enable.

 

[Gozma]

The only issue I've encountered when unlocking the FPS was sliding down this specific ladder (climbing it down normally worked fine):



I don't remember any other problems. If they were there they were too subtle to notice.

Same. I think there is also a place in Blighttown where you can cross a limb bridge thing in one direction but it's almost impossible in the other (and in failing to do so you will fall to your death)

 

[Lyric Suite]

Apparently, i didn't solve shit. The game goes back to sub 20 fps after a while and the only way to fix it is to restart windows. God damn it.

 

[Jasede]

For the genuine console experience, make sure to cap your FPS to 5 in Blighttown.

 

[Raghar]

I don't think capping it at 30 will make much of a difference. The game run like crap in my pc until I enabled 60fps in DSFix, after that it run smoothly all the time, and my PC is very old (2,66core2duo ATI47xx). Without the FPS fix when I alt-tabbed and checked CPU usage it was at about 50% in both cores and the game was very choppy, when I enabled 60FPS both cores went up to full usage and the game run smoothly.

I assume, you disabled Vsync.

 

[ghostdog]

I don't think capping it at 30 will make much of a difference. The game run like crap in my pc until I enabled 60fps in DSFix, after that it run smoothly all the time, and my PC is very old (2,66core2duo ATI47xx). Without the FPS fix when I alt-tabbed and checked CPU usage it was at about 50% in both cores and the game was very choppy, when I enabled 60FPS both cores went up to full usage and the game run smoothly.

I assume, you disabled Vsync.

Yeah, I have it always disabled anyway, due to dual monitors.

 

[Grimlorn]

Expected it to be bad, but not this bad.

I have an Phenom II X3 720, 8gb of memory and a GTX 660 and game runs something between 15 and 30 FPS. I tried both with the game as is and with DSfix installed. Curiously, using the latter to raise the resolution doesn't really make it all that much worse. Whether at original resolution or at high resolution, the game always shifts constantly between 15 and 30 FPS. Unlocking the FPS gets me as high as 45 at best, but constantly dropping below 20 FPS whenever i move around.

Is this how its supposed to be, because in this state the game is unplayable. I would experiment with overclocking my GPU but i doubt it would make a difference. If my specs aren't sufficient there's probably nothing that can be done, unless its a bug of some kind.

I have a i5 750 OC to 3.6ghz and a 460gtx, 4gb of ram and game runs fine. No lag in Blighttown unlike on the PS3 version. CPU is likely the bottleneck.

Are your drivers updated? Are you playing online? Try offline if you haven't already. Maybe internet connection is having an affect.

For DS2 you should install Gedosato mod. Graphics mod. Offers a lot of graphical improvements. Makes things darker and sharper.

 

[Raghar]

Internet connection definitelly has an effect. But there is a question, would he want to have enjoyable offline play, or would he want to get ass raped by playing online? (Or he can stay hollow and just see online hints and spoilers.)

 

[Grimlorn]

Internet connection definitelly has an effect. But there is a question, would he want to have enjoyable offline play, or would he want to get ass raped by playing online? (Or he can stay hollow and just see online hints and spoilers.)

Depends. Personally, I think its better to just play it offline the first time through. You're probably going to be hollow most of the game anyway and a lot of offline messages spoil secrets and stuff even if you don't read them. But everyone is different. Those possible invasions could be fun and challenging if you're human most of the time.

 

[Gozma]

Invasions/invading is probably fun for like the first couple of months after a Souls game comes out, but DS1 at this point you're only gonna "fight" twinks with +5 chaos weapons, 99 humanity, maxed pyro, and probably 99 hacked divine inspirations, that have been playing for years when you haven't killed the Capra demon. But then you're gonna be in soul form all the time anyway. You can PvP at like level 100+ if you still have any interest in the game at that point.

 

[Lyric Suite]

I'm playing offline. Single player fo' life.

I tried googling around the FPS drop thing, but nothing useful came up. Game plays wonderfully for about 10 minutes, then frame rate goes to shit and the only way to fix it is to reboot. At first i thought maybe the PC was overheating but the CPU is fine and the GPU stays around 50-55 degrees, which according to SpeeFan means my GPU is burning up but i think this program is full of shit.

The game is definitely doing something to my computer because the problem persists even if i exit and restart the game or even if i wait a while with all my fans running at maximum, but rebooting fixes everything. This is frustrating because it seems the solution might be an easy one if only i knew what the problem was.

Seriously, i think Big Rigs might be more optimized than this piece of shit port. Very disappointing, since that little i've seen of it makes it look like a quality game.

 

[Jasede]

Take it from someone with good taste, it is. Have you tried the DS Fix mod people talk about?

 

[Gregz]

Quit this game after losing vs. the Capra Demon literally...60 times in a row?

Haven't looked back.

 

[Murk]

Quit this game after losing vs. the Capra Demon literally...60 times in a row?

Haven't looked back.

What the fucking fuck?

 

[Jick Magger]

Quit this game after losing vs. the Capra Demon literally...60 times in a row?

Haven't looked back.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Take it from someone with good taste, it is. Have you tried the DS Fix mod people talk about?

I have the latest version and i already tried all the various tweaks.

BTW, i tried down clocking the GPU, and the game lasted a bit longer this time, 15 minutes or so, and i've been monitoring the GPU temperature and it seems the drop started to occur right when i got close to 50 degrees. Could this really be it? I'm going to play with the power management options on NVidia panel, let's see if that does anything.

 

[Zeriel]

Apparently, i didn't solve shit. The game goes back to sub 20 fps after a while and the only way to fix it is to restart windows. God damn it.

You overclocked. The CPU is probably hitting its thermal threshold and throttling itself on the hardware level.

The thermal threshold on old athlon CPUs is pretty low, you would be surprised what is "safe" for them. You start to run into trouble around 60C, which is considered a cool and breezy temp for GPUs.

In summary, your CPU is really, really old. Get a new one if you want to play modern games without performance issues. (Though Dark Souls 1 IS a bad port, you shouldn't be having issues with games from that era.)

 

[Athelas]

Quit this game after losing vs. the Capra Demon literally...60 times in a row?

Haven't looked back.

Did you try getting rid of the dogs first?