Dark Souls port specs disappoint PC fans

Dark Souls will be a "faithful port" on PC, which means no higher resolution textures or increased frames-per-second.

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From Software and Namco Bandai are finally bringing their special brand of brutality to PC with Dark Souls: Prepare to Die. The PC port is fulfilling a long-time request of PC fans, but more and more it seems like a very direct port -- and that's upsetting fans who see more potential in the game.

In an interview in Famitsu (via DSO Gaming), director Hidetaka Miyazaki stated outright that the game wouldn't be seeing upgrades to its resolution or FPS. "Yes, It's basically a faithful port," he said. "There's no change to the resolution. The frame rate won't be 60 FPS." To be clear, the resolution bit refers to upscaled assets, not monitor resolution sizes.

Obviously, the PC version would be capable of much more, but From Software doesn't seem keen on taking full advantage of the hardware. PC fans have been registering their displeasure at the news, but this may be difficult to change. While the developer recently indicated it was receptive to changing from GFW Live after PC fans complained, higher resolution textures and FPS is a larger time and money investment. Unless From expects hefty sales from the PC port, it might not be worth their while.

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    April 20, 2012 8:15 AM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, Dark Souls port specs disappoint PC fans.

    Dark Souls will be a "faithful port" on PC, which means no higher resolution textures or increased frames-per-second.

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      April 20, 2012 8:26 AM

      Frame rate and "upscaling" are pretty easy efforts.

      There's not upscaling - it's just less compression - pretty easy. I mean - it's ridicolous.

      Frame rate cannot be lower "not putting effort to the PC version" - that indicated frame rate will be capped - which means artificial max limit.

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        April 20, 2012 8:31 AM

        I dunno... I think PC users were lucky to even get this game....

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        April 20, 2012 8:34 AM

        Er... you are confused. The developer was saying that they would not be creating a new higher resolution set of textures for the game... and that makes sense it would be a HUGE amount of effort to do unless they had already created the textures at a higher resolution and then down scaled them for the PS3 release... but why would they have done that?!? You will be able to play at a higher monitor resolution, but the textures will be the same as on the PS3... and they will look FINE!

        The game looks great, it plays great... stop bitching you stupid internet!

        They are giving us real PvP/multiplayer which is sooo much more important that having higher texture resolution...

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        April 20, 2012 8:34 AM

        We've had this discussion (about the 'ease' of effort) for the last two days. I was hopping it would not be brought up again, and instead we could talk about a different subject.

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        April 20, 2012 8:40 AM

        You are like the gloomy gus version of valcan_s.

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        April 20, 2012 2:03 PM

        Less compression? What the fuck are you talking about?

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        April 20, 2012 3:14 PM

        do you just not like gaming?

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        April 20, 2012 5:20 PM

        [deleted]

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        April 20, 2012 5:50 PM

        i amazed at how much insider information you have about the industry. What company do you work for?

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      April 20, 2012 8:38 AM

      Save this headline, Steve. You can reuse it several times a week. "<X> disappoint PC fans."

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        April 20, 2012 8:46 AM

        So true!

        I'm a PC fan, but man PC fans are self entitled whiny bitches huh?

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          April 20, 2012 8:48 AM

          [insert anything here] are self entitled whiny bitches...

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          April 20, 2012 3:59 PM

          Wrong. And you're idiots for buying into what the publishers are feeding you.

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          April 20, 2012 10:34 PM

          Yeah, how dare they desire a quality product tailored to their specific platform? How dare they! /rage

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        April 21, 2012 1:14 AM

        It's a disconnect between ego and reality.

        From a business point of view the PC is the smallest, least important, most pirated platform. So it often gets treated as you would expect.

        But PC gamers have in their heads this Glorious PC Master Race concept that they are by far the most important gaming platform, and expect to be treated like royalty.

        This is why you have the rants and petitions.

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          April 21, 2012 1:26 AM

          Also many PC gamers are pro-piracy and view actually buying a game as a "favor" rather than an obligation.

          So if developers don't bend over backward to satisfy their every whim, they don't "deserve" the "favor" of PC gamers actually paying for the game. This is how they view it.

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            April 21, 2012 6:29 AM

            Really.... Cause a quick scan of the well known torrent distribution sites lists console games just as much as PC games.

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              April 21, 2012 8:21 AM

              I think it is pretty well-accepted that the piracy rate is considerably higher on the PC than on consoles, regardless of what is "available" on torrents.

              Modchips, soldering, risking permanent bans from Xbox Live or PSN. None of this is necessary to pirate PC games.

              What percentage of console gamers do you think have a hacked/modded console, compared to the numbers of people who have illegally downloaded a PC game? The evidence suggests it's not even close.

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                April 21, 2012 8:33 AM

                Don't get me wrong, I love PC gaming. That's why I'm so critical of those who do everything in their power to send the message to publishers that the PC isn't worth the trouble.

                From a realistic perspective PC gamers should be the ones wooing the game makers, not the other way around. But again, there is this disconnect.

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          April 21, 2012 1:26 AM

          Also many PC gamers are pro-piracy and view actually buying a game as a "favor" rather than an obligation.

          So if developers don't bend over backward to satisfy their every whim, they don't "deserve" the "favor" of PC gamers actually paying for the game. This is how they view it.

    • reply
      April 20, 2012 9:00 AM

      I'm happy that they're releasing it on PC, since almost no Japanese developers release PC games that aren't MMOs. Hopefully they can patch in a 60 FPS lock option later, but first, get it on PC. Hopefully it starts a trend of some quirky Japanese games making it to PC.

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        April 20, 2012 9:15 AM

        Same. If we buy it on PC maybe they will put more effort into the next release. See: Borderlands

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        April 20, 2012 5:47 PM

        Im hoping for Dragon's Dogma to be good/ported

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        April 20, 2012 7:21 PM

        THIS seems like a sane response...the level of butthurt and rage over this just confounds me.

        If its really that bad people can just NOT BUY IT. This is the sort of game that generally isn't brought out on the PC to begin with. Its fine to point out its issues...but people on the internet have to be all gross about it and go fucking nuts like its Hitler to the power of Stalin times over 5000.

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      April 20, 2012 9:10 AM

      As much as I hate Capcom, their PC ports are awesome. DMC4, RE:5 and SSF4:AE all look incredible on the PC.

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        April 20, 2012 3:18 PM

        Great ports because it has an easy engine to port, that and they started to handle their own ports. Look at RE4 or DMC3 for perfect examples of shit ports.

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          April 22, 2012 10:19 PM

          They didn't port RE4 or DMC3 because they weren't natively made on PC and they didn't want to expend their own resources to port it. DMC4, RE5 and all other modern Capcom games are made on the MT Framework which is a natively PC engine. They now make all their games for PC first and then port to console, which is why all their games starting in 2007 have been released on PC, by them.

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      April 20, 2012 9:14 AM

      so the game will be locked to 30fps?
      woah thats seriously disapointing...
      ill just have to pass the game then, unless theres a way to unlock it.

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        April 20, 2012 9:55 AM

        I don't even get why they would lock it at 30fps. Why not just add a vsync option and be done with it???

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          April 20, 2012 2:54 PM

          Variable frame rate engines are more difficult to write than fixed-step engines. Physics and animation blending in particular can have unexpected results at different frame rates. It could be that their code was written to assume a 66.6ms timestep between frames, and they did not bother to fully decouple rendering from input processing and world step. That would be perfectly normal when developing a console-only title.

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            April 20, 2012 5:00 PM

            I can't math. 33.3ms = 30fps.

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      April 20, 2012 9:21 AM

      is this the lightning rod project that PC gamers will tee off with? are people applying the same sperglord rage to other PC ports?

      it's kinda funny that multiplatform titles often get a pass, like BLOPS, which was an awful port. or perhaps Borderlands, which had a lot of shortcomings on PC.

      then there's a title that didn't even exist on PCs at all, and people have a fucking demand list.

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        April 20, 2012 9:30 AM

        PC gamers obviously care a shitload more about Dark Souls than BLOPS.

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        April 20, 2012 9:42 AM

        BLOPS was an awful port?

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          April 20, 2012 9:51 AM

          Yeah I was gonna say, all the CoDs have been pretty excellent ports as far as I've seen.

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            April 20, 2012 4:11 PM

            MW2 and MW3 were terrible ports. Not the worst ports out there, but pretty bad considering how well CoD4 was ported and how well Blops was ported as well.

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              April 21, 2012 1:25 AM

              I thought MW2 was a great port. Ran fantastically. Of course, no PC-specific options but I was OK with that.

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              April 21, 2012 3:25 AM

              I think with CoD 4 they were still at the point where the PC version was considered equal. It's after that that they became "ports".

              Remember, CoD started as a PC-exclusive franchise.

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          April 20, 2012 9:53 AM

          Blops was an awful port in the same world where Borderlands got a pass, I imagine.

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            April 20, 2012 9:55 AM

            Seriously, there was tons of Borderlands backlash, more so than I've seen with this game so far. At least they're lowering our expectations first.

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            April 20, 2012 11:16 AM

            Blops was an awful GAME.

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          April 20, 2012 10:00 AM

          Yes, it was completely awful. I had to run it at 720p with everything on medium just to run, it was a joke. MW3 is fine though, Treyarch strike again I guess.

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            April 20, 2012 10:50 AM

            Hmm. Ran perfect for me with max settings. All of the COD games have.

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              April 20, 2012 12:37 PM

              Yeah...CoD games aren't exactly the kind of games that bring your PC to it's knees.

              Maybe below average hardware?

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                April 20, 2012 12:50 PM

                It was mentioned in this thread, I do remember there being some weird issues when if first came out on PC that were patched pretty quickly.

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                  April 20, 2012 12:59 PM

                  The patches never fixed it for me, yet they did improve performance for dual core users a few months after launch. I was on a Q8200.

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                April 20, 2012 12:56 PM

                Something was busted in there. It ran a lot worse than both CoD4 & MW2 for me and wasn't graphically superior in any way. Worse than any other PC game I had, many which should have been a lot more demanding.

                Yet I'd gain 20-50 FPS in XP compared to Windows 7. I tried tweaking everything for that game and booting up my old OS was a last ditch effort to see if it was playable. Oddly enough I had the same problem with World at War so the only conclusion I could reach was that it was something Treyarch did to the engine, and probably not on purpose.

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            April 20, 2012 7:17 PM

            I had the opposite experience. I couldn't stand MW3...but BLOPS was fine for me and I ran it at the resolution I desired with no problem.

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          April 20, 2012 11:18 AM

          Blops was broken for a lot of people on release. Terrible performance and stuttering on adequate and monster pcs, they patched it up though.

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            April 20, 2012 7:27 PM

            In all fairness, BF42 and Tribes 2 were horribly broken for a lot of people on release and those were fairly well regarded in retrospect by many people.

            Hell my brother STILL can't manage to play BF3 on his machine.

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        April 20, 2012 10:52 AM

        Borderlands got a pass?

        With BLOPS, I think people were used to less than stellar ports with the franchise already so expectations were low.

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        April 20, 2012 11:01 AM

        i would be pretty irritated if i were working on the port. talk about a thankless job.

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        April 20, 2012 11:24 AM

        [deleted]

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        April 20, 2012 2:59 PM

        [deleted]

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        April 20, 2012 3:11 PM

        what world do you exist in where there wasn't rage over Borderlands.

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        April 20, 2012 5:58 PM

        the borderlands rage around here was severe. it still come up all the time. i think part of that is because shackers had a pretty personal connection with it, especially those of us who have been around awhile. we trusted a certain someones word and got shit upon

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        April 20, 2012 7:06 PM

        If the rumors are true, this would set a new low bar for PC porting. Lower than the games you listed.

    • reply
      April 20, 2012 11:43 AM

      [deleted]

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      April 20, 2012 1:57 PM

      I don't know, this game looked pretty damn great on my 46" TV on the 360... I think it will still look pretty good on the PC. PC gamers should just be happy to get the game because it's truly awesome!

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      April 20, 2012 2:17 PM

      [deleted]

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        April 20, 2012 2:43 PM

        Is this a 360 issue? I never had any problems on the PS3.

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          April 20, 2012 2:49 PM

          Same here, never saw an fps drop on PS3, Demons Souls had that problem a few times though, specifically when the dragon in 1-1 kills those archers on the bridge.

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            April 20, 2012 2:50 PM

            Blighttown and Lost Izalith had minor slowdown issues on my PS3, but I hear it was a bit worse on the 360.

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            April 20, 2012 7:45 PM

            You guys are fucking high. The PS3 slows down quite a bit in that area, I mean its not even a matter of opinion, it is a fact that it slows down. You can go there, and record it with a camera or whatever and see that it slows down.

            • reply
              April 20, 2012 10:18 PM

              Yeah the framerate, especially as you moved towards Quelaaq got very choppy, actually almost any time you had to walk in the sludge (even with the gear to neutralize it)

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          April 20, 2012 3:01 PM

          [deleted]

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          April 20, 2012 3:24 PM

          [deleted]

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          April 20, 2012 6:14 PM

          [deleted]

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        April 20, 2012 8:28 PM

        yeah I basically quit the game because of that zone pissing me off so much.

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        April 24, 2012 11:23 PM

        [deleted]

    • reply
      April 20, 2012 3:04 PM

      I'm warming up the petition as we speak.

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      April 20, 2012 4:49 PM

      I WILL NOT BUY CONSOLE PORT CRAP PERIOD!

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      April 20, 2012 5:15 PM

      GFWL is my only problem. Reusing low res console textures is fine because they're just trying to save on costs. There are technical reasons for locking a game at 30 fps (good examples are LA Noire's facial capture tech or physics bugs that can appear at high frame rates) so that's fine too. I thought I heard the game was going to be locked at 720p resolution and that's bad and it didn't make sense to me but that appears to be a misquote or mistranslation. I'll still buy it even if it has GFWL but I'll do so grudgingly and on sale. They really should replace GFWL with Steamworks. I think it will be better for the game's reception, reputation, and sales in the long run.

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      April 20, 2012 5:56 PM

      hmmm this troubles me. the only 2 things I really wanted were higher frame rates and higher resolution.

      I think I will still buy this, unless there are some ungodly technical issues, and assuming it is priced appropriately. If its higher than 39.99 I wont bite until a steam sale. i think 29.99 would be more fair though.

      i want the next D Souls to come out properly on PC, and that wont happen if this sales badly.

      I love these games and want to support them (and a proper PC version for future installments) so much I will accept a degree of bullshit for this port. but I have my limits.

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      April 20, 2012 7:47 PM

      dark souls pc port flops, piracy blamed. <<< give it 6 months after release for the dev to blame piracy.

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      April 20, 2012 9:41 PM

      I never asked for this.

      Actually, I did.

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      April 20, 2012 10:32 PM

      Pretty lame on their part. Potential purchase canceled. But in fairness, I've not been all that thrilled with their games anyway...

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      April 21, 2012 8:52 AM

      I think the biggest tragedy is that console players won't have the option to purchase this new content. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you.

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      April 21, 2012 1:48 PM

      [deleted]

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      April 22, 2012 10:29 AM

      In 12 months Hidetaka Miyazaki will join the long list of people in the business blaming piracy for PC sales of their game. Sure piracy is a problem but there are many people who do not pirate but at the same time they will not purchase a poor port. Make a freaking decent port that supports BASIC PC capabilities (keyboard mapping, mouse sensitivity, ect) It will increase sales. This should be Business 101 for these people.

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      April 22, 2012 10:15 PM

      Anyone complaining should just be quiet. Once upon a time the PC wasn't even going to get Dark Souls. just be happy we're finally going to be able to play it. This is one port I really don't care about getting all the PC bells and whistles. Don't listen to the PC elitist idiots, Namco. Thanks for taking the time to port it.

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        April 23, 2012 4:56 AM

        You're right. If I order a 5-star dish and they bring me a shitty hamburger, I should just shut up and not complain because they brought me SOMETHING. I could have starved, after all.

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      April 23, 2012 12:52 PM

      they are really bad coders if they can't even uncap their framerate. Stop hardcoding values lol.

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      April 25, 2012 2:30 PM

      Why even bother, then?

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