From Software The Dark Souls Discussion Thread

[Antagonist]

I've read somewhere it has absymal performance, approaching 10fps in places, on consoles as well.

Some patient players narrowed down the FPS problems to pathfinding, that's why it is most apparent in places with complex level geometry (e.g. Lower Blighttown).

 

[Xi]

I've read somewhere it has absymal performance, approaching 10fps in places, on consoles as well.

Some patient players narrowed down the FPS problems to pathfinding, that's why it is most apparent in places with complex level geometry (e.g. Lower Blighttown).

With greater processing from PC CPUs, this may be a non-issue altogether.

 

[Outlander]

Yeah, outsourcing never fails, just ask anyone who played the newest Deus Ex.

I'd rather not have the port done by a bunch of people unfamiliar with the game, they'd be apt to tweak things they think are irrelevant which are, in fact, very important. You're not going to understand how to make a good control scheme for a game you've never played before.

Also, I can't help put facepalm at the reaction people are having to all of this.

"What? They're giving us the same game only with extra content?!? Horrible port! HATE YOU FOREVER."

Yeah, god forbid any game ported to PC isn't automagically 20 times better than it was before.

What are you on? In this particular case, the developers themselves are announcing that their port sucks and the only effort they're putting in is to meet the release deadline.

Nobody claims outsourcing never fails, wtf?? But competent and experienced porting team beats incompetent and unexperienced porting team, right?

 

[codexian reject]

They only said that porting turned out more time consuming than they expected and any extra optimisation work for either console or PC version is not planned.
Not that it will run worse than console versions. Codexers never fail to fail reading comprehension tests.

Using GTA4 performance tests, which was CPU limited as well, you can estimate:
Intel dualcore 2.5GHz = console CPU , quad 2.5GHz = 2x, quad 4 GHz = 3x
Apply these multipliers to reported isolated places with 10 - 15 fps on consoles and this is what you can expect.

 

[Berekän]

I wonder, any of you defending the port have ever played a non-optimized port on PC?

 

[Cynic]

They're small console developer that produced a niche game that became a success... I've read somewhere it has absymal performance, approaching 10fps in places, on consoles as well.
It is probably CPU bound. The game is probably technically unoptimised piece of shit and nothing other than rewrite from the ground could possibly fix it.

It has nothing to do with quality of the PC port. I expect it to be like with GTA4 every PC retard claimed it run worse than on console...
In reality GTA4 has 24fps avg on toyboxes, but could run on release day at 45fps avg without drops below 30fps on 3GHz+ quad core CPU, while looking a lot better with a good enough GPU.
They know it can't run smooth no matter what and started damage control already. I expect it to run like shit but still better than on toyboxes.

As for the m&k controls... they better don't even fucking try too much. Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath is a spectacular example of consoletard developer trying to make m&k controls.
I've wasted money on this piece of shit port. Not only m&k is unplayble, but it is a port from xbox that doesn't support gamepad, WTF !
All I expect from them is to assure that gamepad works exactly like on consoles nothing more.

They shouldn't be punished for being honest. When it get shipped, we'll see if it is worth it despite technical shortcomings...

The game runs very well on PS3 except for ONE place and that is, as he mentioned, Blight Town. All in all, graphics are quite nice and the frame rate only really becomes an issue in that one area. It does dip a little in others but it's not so bad honestly. It's a brilliant game, anyone who dismisses it outright is missing out on one of the best this generation imo.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Excpt they announced no such thing. They said it was harder than expected and they aren't going to be able to fix the problems they thought they would (which were in the console version to begin with) and are focusing on doing a direct port + the new content.

If your definition of a port being awful is 'the game isn't better than the original' you're fucking retarded. Exactly the kind of moron hype was made for. They should have just lied their asses off and said it's the best port ever done, you'd lap it right up. Oh god, yes, use more buzzwords please!

 

[joeydohn]

They only said that porting turned out more time consuming than they expected and any extra optimisation work for either console or PC version is not planned.
Not that it will run worse than console versions. Codexers never fail to fail reading comprehension tests.

Using GTA4 performance tests, which was CPU limited as well, you can estimate:
Intel dualcore 2.5GHz = console CPU , quad 2.5GHz = 2x, quad 4 GHz = 3x
Apply these multipliers to reported isolated places with 10 - 15 fps on consoles and this is what you can expect.

You're simplifying things way too much, the actual CPU model matters too and how the software uses it. For all we know it could be locked to running on a single CPU core, I also doubt it'll utilize 4 cores to a decent amount.

 

[Stabwound]

Regardless of the game not being optimized, don't forget that it's going to stay locked at 30fps max and 1280×720 resolution. You can call it nitpicking, but that's going to be an eyesore and going to result in some extreme butthurt among reviewers and the gaming community. I can't think of a single non-indie PC game released in about 5 years that has such limits. It just doesn't happen anymore and doesn't make sense.

 

[Average Manatee]

They only said that porting turned out more time consuming than they expected and any extra optimisation work for either console or PC version is not planned.
Not that it will run worse than console versions. Codexers never fail to fail reading comprehension tests.

Using GTA4 performance tests, which was CPU limited as well, you can estimate:
Intel dualcore 2.5GHz = console CPU , quad 2.5GHz = 2x, quad 4 GHz = 3x
Apply these multipliers to reported isolated places with 10 - 15 fps on consoles and this is what you can expect.

You're simplifying things way too much, the actual CPU model matters too and how the software uses it. For all we know it could be locked to running on a single CPU core, I also doubt it'll utilize 4 cores to a decent amount.

It almost certainly will support exactly 3 cores, since thats the number on the XBAWKX. Console games have to use multithreading VERY well to run games today, the individual cores are ridiculously weak. This is why you see so many console ports that have horrible stutter on a dual core machine but play perfectly silky smooth on a quad core (*cough* GTA4 *cough*). This is because when you have only 2 cores on a game with 3 equally balanced threads one of the cores has to do double the work, and this decreases your FPS by a factor of at least 2 if not more. So count on wanting a quad core for perfect performance, though a recent dual core is probably OK.

Regardless of the game not being optimized, don't forget that it's going to stay locked at 30fps max and 1280×720 resolution. You can call it nitpicking, but that's going to be an eyesore and going to result in some extreme butthurt among reviewers and the gaming community. I can't think of a single non-indie PC game released in about 5 years that has such limits. It just doesn't happen anymore and doesn't make sense.

Where did you get the information about being locked to a resolution? The only quote I can find is that the game will not support higher resolution textures. And I see no reason why they game would be locked at 30 FPS max, modern games simply don't do that.

 

[joeydohn]

Regardless of the game not being optimized, don't forget that it's going to stay locked at 30fps max and 1280×720 resolution. You can call it nitpicking, but that's going to be an eyesore and going to result in some extreme butthurt among reviewers and the gaming community. I can't think of a single non-indie PC game released in about 5 years that has such limits. It just doesn't happen anymore and doesn't make sense.

I'm pretty sure we've already been over the resolution thing and the guy simply meant no higher resolution textures (as consoles have limited memory), not resolution of the game.

It almost certainly will support exactly 3 cores, since thats the number on the XBAWKX. Console games have to use multithreading VERY well to even run games today, the individual cores are ridiculously weak. This is why you see so many console ports that have horrible stutter on a dual core machine but play perfectly silky smooth on a quad core (*cough* GTA4 *cough*). This is because when you have only 2 cores on a game with 3 equally balanced threads one of the cores has to do double the work, and this decreases your FPS by a factor of at least 2 if not more. So count on wanting a quad core for perfect performance, though a recent dual core is probably OK.

The PS3 has 5/6 CPU cores? How many games other than Supreme Commander and Battlefield 3 (?) are decently multithreaded? Wasn't GTA4 running in an emulator too?

 

[Stabwound]

Okay, actually I was wrong about the resolution, but as of yesterday most people seemed to think that the game was locked at the console resolution, but apparently at E3 someone reported seeing the demonstrator change the resolution to 1080p.

Everyone still seems to be packing over the idea that it's locked at 30fps, though.

 

[Average Manatee]

The PissTree's SPE cores aren't really fully functional CPU cores. They are very specialized for specific functions but pretty sucky for general purpose computing. Think of them as occupying a middle ground between GPUs and CPUs (Sony actually planned to not include a GPU on the PS3 and let the SPE's handle it, but figured out that was fucking stupid near the end and quickly shoved a GPU in). This means you have to do lots of tricks to get it working decently, tricks that don't transfer over to PC CPUs at all and which 95% of programmers probably won't be familiar with. Ergo the usual "PissTree is SO HARD TO PROGRAM OHH SHOOT ME NOW". On the other hand the XBAWKX CPU is much more mainstream and porting code between it and a PC is pretty damn easy.

GTA4 certainly wasn't running in an emulator, otherwise everyone would be getting 2 FPS. It's just as I said: Shoving a 3-threaded game onto a 2-core CPU causes nasty things to happen, and the majority of gamers who drank the "you'll never use more than 2 cores for games" kool-aid got bitten in the ass. The game really does run silky smooth at high settings on even low-end Quad Core processors.

Everyone still seems to be packing over the idea that it's locked at 30fps, though.

Only quote I can find is "It won't be running at 60 FPS". Which should probably be taken to be a comment on optimization, not locking FPS. Seems that jap devs being free to talk openly about stuff + google translators + word of mouth distortion screws up a lot of information people are getting.

 

[Outlander]

Excpt they announced no such thing. They said it was harder than expected and they aren't going to be able to fix the problems they thought they would (which were in the console version to begin with) and are focusing on doing a direct port + the new content.

If your definition of a port being awful is 'the game isn't better than the original' you're fucking retarded. Exactly the kind of moron hype was made for. They should have just lied their asses off and said it's the best port ever done, you'd lap it right up. Oh god, yes, use more buzzwords please!

You one of them Dark Souls fanboys?

Actually, my definition of a port being awful is 'the game is worse then the original'

Here, read something so you can stick your head out of your ass:

http://www.dsogaming.com/news/dark-...or-fps-issues-even-with-nvidia-gtx-6xx-cards/

 

[Average Manatee]

Excpt they announced no such thing. They said it was harder than expected and they aren't going to be able to fix the problems they thought they would (which were in the console version to begin with) and are focusing on doing a direct port + the new content.

If your definition of a port being awful is 'the game isn't better than the original' you're fucking retarded. Exactly the kind of moron hype was made for. They should have just lied their asses off and said it's the best port ever done, you'd lap it right up. Oh god, yes, use more buzzwords please!

You one of them Dark Souls fanboys?

Actually, my definition of a port being awful is 'the game is worse then the original'

Here, read something so you can stick your head out of your ass:

http://www.dsogaming.com/news/dark-...or-fps-issues-even-with-nvidia-gtx-6xx-cards/

EON11-S

laptop

GeForce GT 650M

lolz. People realize that Nvidia makes low-end 6xx series cards too, right? For reference, a GeForce 275 is a good deal more powerful than a 650M. In fact the 650M is barely more powerful than the 8800/9800s, which were released 5 years ago (which reminds me that I could use an upgrade on mine...). So yeah, it looks like if you have a video card barely better than the consoles' you will get barely better performance.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Please show me these 'massive fps issues'. Because all I saw was some short split second stutters at certain points (seemed to be when loading in more enemies when approaching a new area.) Which isn't exactly horrifying considering it's still being worked on. It looked pretty much the same as the original. It had a few tiny hiccups during some of the most intensive fights (like ~8 zombies at once or against the gargoyle pair).

I'd kill for that level of stability playing dota.

 

[Average Manatee]

It's important to keep in mind that Japan is incredibly console-centric. The majority of PC gaming is basically 2D hentai games as far as they are concerned, so their standards of system requirements are a lot different from western developers.

It's entirely possible that the port will still suck. But From Software makes Good Games. Developers who make Good Games are the kind of people you expect to pull through and not release utter trash, so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt until proven wrong. And yeah, I'm probably only slightly less gullible than the D3tards who just got done swallowing Blizzard's load.

 

[SerratedBiz]

Please show me these 'massive fps issues'..

It's Blighttown where the infamous fps drops are most annoying. It's perfectly playable, of course, but also noticeable when compared to how well the game plays overall. Start watching at 4:30, they're apparent then.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Yeah, but those were in the original too. Having the same issue present in the port doesn't make it a bad port. Just not an amazing one. It'd be like bitching about any other part of the game like the balance or lighting. It'd be a nice bonus if they made any of those things significantly better, but it's certainly not something you expect as the default. What you expect is the same game as what was on the original system that runs at the same speeds.

GFWL is the big flaw with the game as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Black]

Having the same issue present in the port doesn't make it a bad port. Just not an amazing one

Oh, god, go to hell. 1:1 port = a bad port. There's so much that can be improved on the pc but apparently a re4 quality port is good enough for some.

 

[Average Manatee]

If you have a shitty laptop no more powerful than consoles you won't get better performance than consoles. Fucking Codex can't into common sense now.

 

[Cynic]

FFS the game doesn't NEED a whole lot of improving. It's awesome as it is. So what, you're all graphic whores now suddenly? The gameplay in this game, is simply fantastic. It's so fucking addictive. It has proper character/class development, heaps of awesome shit to find, hidden areas, a really nice, open fantasy world to explore and a really great way of story telling. Not to mention the really good implementation of multiplayer which is really a crapload of fun especially when you get into PvP (although I think it was a bit better in Demon's Souls).

 

[Murkwater]

FFS the game doesn't NEED a whole lot of improving. It's awesome as it is. So what, you're all graphic whores now suddenly? The gameplay in this game, is simply fantastic. It's so fucking addictive. It has proper character/class development, heaps of awesome shit to find, hidden areas, a really nice, open fantasy world to explore and a really great way of story telling. Not to mention the really good implementation of multiplayer which is really a crapload of fun especially when you get into PvP (although I think it was a bit better in Demon's Souls).

Gotta agree. I think it's a fantastic game. I think a lot of PC players are going to be surprised at how deep this game actually is. Is it a action RPG? Yep. Is it going to scream consolitis when you boot it up? Probably. But it's fucking JUICE.

 

[Achilles]

Saints Row 2 2 incoming.

 

[Black]

Saints Row 2 2 incoming.

What's that mean?