[Megasoum]

You can choose chapters from the main menu, but you will have to do them from the beginning. So maybe wait until you get into a new chapter - quit and restart it with the new difficulty from the main menu.

Awesome, I stopped playing at the beginning of Chapter 2 so I'll just restart that!

[brain_stew]

I heard it referred to as 'linear' so many times that I thought it was going to be a corridor shooter. I turned the hud off and have spent most of the game so far in large forested areas wandering around. It is linear in that there is only one way to go, but it isn't a Call of Duty situation where you are running down a hallway with dudes popping out right in front of you.

Its linear in the same way Half Life 2 is linear. There's only one correct way through the game but the quality of the level design never leaves you feeling that you're walking along a cleverly disguised corridor.

I'm upto chapter 3 now and its been fantastic so far. If the texture resolution was increased and the game supported dynamic tesselation of the environment to smooth out the harsh edges and disguise the LOD pops, I think I'd be confident enough in saying it was the best looking game around at the moment. As it stands, its certainly in that upper echelon with the SSAO, dynamic shadows and volumetric lighting being as good as anything else out there and the integration of high quality FXAA as well as correctly implemented MSAA in a deferred rendered game is much appreciated. It does antialiasing better than Crysis 2, Battlefield 3 and The Witcher 2 which all stand as the best looking games of 2011, so its not something to be brushed aside, Remedy created a proper PC port here.

I'm so pleased I waited for the PC release, the game simply was not built around the restraints of the 360 platform. This is not only the definitive version but the true vision of the game.

[I should be doing hw]

I hope American Nightmare comes to PC sooner than it took AW. I want to see how much they improved the engine because the IQ on the 360 is much better than it is for the original game.

[Angry Fork]

So I have everything maxed out except that filtering thing that goes up to 16x I only have it on 2x because it demolishes my framerate. Right now it's at 30fps, I wish it could be 60fps but right now I prefer the great visuals. It goes down to 20-25 when there's tons of lights/driving stuff going on but that's still playable for me. Video card is the main culprit for low fps.

I can get higher fps if I lower AA and turn off stuff like SSAO but fuck that. Game looks and plays so good I beat it last night and am on the signal now. Specs are phenom 2 quad core 3.2 ghz, 4gb ram, radeon hd 5770. Someone on here said earlier that this was a shotty port I have no clue how you could think that. A lot of love was put into this and it runs great, everything is responsive, no glitches for me or weird stuff. Excellent PC version.

I lost 7 hours of gameplay (which I raged about earlier here) because the computer restarted during the game and with AW steam doesn't update the cloud storage until you leave the game normally.I got paranoid and every time I finished a long part I would exit the game so Steam could upload the save lol and then go back in. I loved the game but it didn't beat Max Payne 1/2 for me. I thought they could've done a lot more with the weather and I'm surprised they didn't. They could've had times where snowstorms would be thrown at you, lightning hitting trees and breaking them, they could've done a lot more visually with the setting but I suppose they can leave all that for the sequel.

[Felix Lighter]

So I have everything maxed out except that filtering thing that goes up to 16x I only have it on 2x because it demolishes my framerate. Right now it's at 30fps, I wish it could be 60fps but right now I prefer the great visuals. It goes down to 20-25 when there's tons of lights/driving stuff going on but that's still playable for me. Video card is the main culprit for low fps. I can get higher fps if I lower AA and turn off stuff like SSAO but fuck that. Game looks and plays so good I beat it last night and am on the signal now. Specs are phenom 2 quad core 3.2 ghz, 4gb ram, radeon hd 5770. Someone on here said earlier that this was a shotty port I have no clue how you could think that. A lot of love was put into this and it runs great, everything is responsive, no glitches for me or weird stuff. Excellent PC version. I lost 7 hours of gameplay (which I raged about earlier here) because the computer restarted during the game and with AW steam doesn't update the cloud storage until you leave the game normally.I got paranoid and every time I finished a long part I would exit the game so Steam could upload the save lol and then go back in. I loved the game but it didn't beat Max Payne 1/2 for me. I thought they could've done a lot more with the weather and I'm surprised they didn't. They could've had times where snowstorms would be thrown at you, lightning hitting trees and breaking them, they could've done a lot more visually with the setting but I suppose they can leave all that for the sequel.

What do you have AA set to? I think I would rather max out AF and maybe knock AA down a bit. I think good texture filtering makes a bigger difference, then say 8x MSAA vs 4x, I'd probably turn of FXAA if it allowed me to increase AF. I'm surprised that AF would be affecting your performance so much.

[PowerK]

You can choose chapters from the main menu, but you will have to do them from the beginning. So maybe wait until you get into a new chapter - quit and restart it with the new difficulty from the main menu.

That is a good tip. Thanks!

[Dennis]

35 fps in this scene at 2560 x 1600 with 8xMSAA, no FXAA.

I have SLI enabled but I guess that doesn't do anything.

[Angelus Errare]

Looks hot, anyone attempt some OGSSAA on AW? If so how was the performance?

[JaseC]

35 fps in this scene at 2560 x 1600 with 8xMSAA, no FXAA. I have SLI enabled but I guess that doesn't do anything.

If I'm not mistaken, SLI isn't yet officially supported, and while you can force it using other profiles, this will result in visual artefacts.

So, in other words, the red shoe is on the green foot. ;)

[Angry Fork]

What do you have AA set to? I think I would rather max out AF and maybe knock AA down a bit. I think good texture filtering makes a bigger difference, then say 8x MSAA vs 4x, I'd probably turn of FXAA if it allowed me to increase AF. I'm surprised that AF would be affecting your performance so much.

I'll try that, I don't know what the filtering thing does so I just left it off. It doesn't feel like the AA does much though, at least not as much as other games. I'll knock it back and increase filtering to see what happens.

[scitek]

I'll try that, I don't know what the filtering thing does so I just left it off. It doesn't feel like the AA does much though, at least not as much as other games. I'll knock it back and increase filtering to see what happens.

Increasing the anisotropic filtering will make the textures off in the distance look clean instead of a blurry mess.

2x


16x

[TucoBenedictoPacifico]

I was just noticing that the game is on top of Steam sales since it launched... Which doesn't tell us much about how good are sales, especially in a time windows with virtually no new release competing for the spot, but at least this suggests that the game isn't going completely ignored.

[PowerK]

Yeah, the grass being drawn 3 meters in front of your feet looks just horrible. And I have LOD distance as well as draw distance set to max. I wonder if there's cvar to fix this.

Markus @ Remedy acknowledges the grass draw distance issue.
http://forum.alanwake.com/showthread.php?t=7874

The grass draw distance is not affected by the slider. It was a bit more complicated operation to do, as the grass is generated on the fly, so it will require also more CPU power. We may consider adding it in a future patch.

I think what Markus meant was that at one point during production they had to decide how far from the camera the grass would be displayed at. Since the grass draw distance isn't set by the draw distance or LOD sliders, it means the value is the same for all players. And they certainly decided to set it quite low so it would work well with most CPUs...

[Megasoum]

I was just noticing that the game is on top of Steam sales since it launched... Which doesn't tell us much about how good are sales, especially in a time windows with virtually no new release competing for the spot, but at least this suggests that the game isn't going completely ignored.

Wonder if that counts the GMG keys...probably not.

[scitek]

I was just noticing that the game is on top of Steam sales since it launched... Which doesn't tell us much about how good are sales, especially in a time windows with virtually no new release competing for the spot, but at least this suggests that the game isn't going completely ignored.

Hopefully they're good enough to get New Nightmare on PC. I'm holding off on the 360 version because Remedy would self-publish on PC and they'd get a bigger cut of my money that way.

EDIT: Especially because of stuff like this

Markus @ Remedy acknowledges the grass draw distance issue. http://forum.alanwake.com/showthread.php?t=7874.

It's only been a couple of days, but they've been incredible with their support, from giving launch commands to addressing practically every issue mentioned in their forums that people have brought up directly with a reply.

[PetriRMD]

Update from Markus:

Hey all,

Wanted to write a quick summary post here as we just don't have the time to respond to every post or thread here... otherwise we won't have time to actually look at fixing the problems

This is a non-exhaustive list of things we are looking at, and I can't promise that we can find a fix to all of these. But we hope to support Alan Wake PC the best we can.

* NVIDIA & Tree Flicker. We as well as NVIDIA are looking into this. Turning VSync On or using D3DOverrider as described in a thread here may alleviate the problem.

* Alt-tab crashes some folks have been seeing.

* Launch issues some folks have been having.

* Controller vibration not working (there is apparently a workaround that works for some - using keyboard to enable the vibration... odd, but if it works for now...)

* Mouse "acceleration" - there is no acceleration and feel this is how Alan Wake should feel like, but we can relate that some people want 1:1 directness in their controls, and aim to provide a mode/fix for those folks.

* Remembering camera side preference after cutscenes

* SLI - we'd love for NVIDIA users to get SLI as well. We know about what needs to be done but it's a bit larger task.

Longer term we will hope to look at things like improving Stereo3D, grass draw distance and offering Latam Spanish localization.

Thanks for the great support we've received and apologies for those who have had problems with the game!

//===

Latest here: http://forum.alanwake.com/showthread.php?t=7759

[Angelus Errare]

Hopefully they're good enough to get New Nightmare on PC. I'm holding off on the 360 version because Remedy would self-publish on PC and they'd get a bigger cut of my money that way.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012...ake-interview/

[plagiarize]

thanks for the update Petri. i hope those improvements to stereo 3D will roll over to the AMD side too. issues seem about the same on both families of graphics cards. if you could patch in true quad buffer support, that'd be the best, but i'm not holding out hope there :)

[PetriRMD]

A lot of love was put into this

Yeah, glad to see it shows.

[cyberheater]

Is this a DX9 only game?

[Felix Lighter]

Always good to see developer representatives posting in these threads with specific, useful information.

[cyberheater]

@ PetriRMD

Is there any plans to improve the stereoscopic 3D in this game? Seems that the lights and shadows are quite right in 3D mode. A fix would be great as this game would look fantastic in 3D.

EDIT. He already commented that they are going to improve the 3D.

[plagiarize]

Is this a DX9 only game?

it is yeah, but it's not really important in this case. the lighting solution is compatible with MSAA. about all i'd want to throw at the game would be some tesselation on the models perhaps... but all the other effects look great. the api isn't really important unless it's holding you back in some way (no AA due to deferred lighting techniques which could be solved with DX11, for example).

[Spookie]

Update from Markus: <Snip>

Thanks for taking time to post it for those of us who missed it. :)

[cyberheater]

it is yeah, but it's not really important in this case. the lighting solution is compatible with MSAA. about all i'd want to throw at the game would be some tesselation on the models perhaps... but all the other effects look great. the api isn't really important unless it's holding you back in some way (no AA due to deferred lighting techniques which could be solved with DX11, for example).

I'm amazed how good this looks for DX9. Maybe the best looking DX9 game ever.

[Felix Lighter]

It does look great but I'd say the Witcher 2 is the best looking DX9 game, actually in my opinion, it may be the best looking game I've ever seen, period.

[Zaraki_Kenpachi]

So is this GFWL then or what protection?

[jet1911]

So is this GFWL then or what protection?

Steamwork

[FGMPR]

It does look great but I'd say the Witcher 2 is the best looking DX9 game, actually in my opinion, it may be the best looking game I've ever seen, period.

W2 wins due to those amazing textures. Other than though, its pretty close imo (that probably sounds pretty dumb, but even with the sometimes dodgy texture work in AW, the dark tone of the game hides a lot of it).

[TheLucifer]

Played AW for the last two days, I'm around the end (I guess) of the third episode. Loving every minute, the atmosphere is one of the best out there, plus the enviroment is simply amazing.

So is this GFWL then or what protection?

Thankfully, no, GFWL isn't there.

[Corky]

Yeah, glad to see it shows.

Really you guys have made a great PC game. Calling this a port would be a disservice considering what constitutes a console -> pc "port" nowadays. I loved AW on 360 and I'm enjoying several times more now on my pc.

[Zefah]

It does look great but I'd say the Witcher 2 is the best looking DX9 game, actually in my opinion, it may be the best looking game I've ever seen, period.

Agreed.

[Zaraki_Kenpachi]

Steamwork

Really? Sweet. Wasn't this a microsoft studies game though? Surprised no GFWL.

[plagiarize]

Really? Sweet. Wasn't this a microsoft studies game though? Surprised no GFWL.

it was... but think of it more as Microsoft just being the publisher. Remedy kept ownership of the rights, so after a while were able to self publish this PC version. Microsoft presumably gave them a greenlight to do so (as they continue to work together on American Nightmare) but from that point on, it was Remedy's call what happened. the timing is pretty clever actually. riding the coat tails of all the marketing being done for American Nightmare has no doubt helped the sales on PC to no end.

[Corky]

it was... but think of it more as Microsoft just being the publisher. Remedy kept ownership of the rights, so after a while were able to self publish this PC version.

Hope the same goes for other AW related rights, i.e American Nightmare.

[Zaraki_Kenpachi]

it was... but think of it more as Microsoft just being the publisher. Remedy kept ownership of the rights, so after a while were able to self publish this PC version.

Cool, I wasn't sure if Microsoft was just the publisher or had more involvement than that.

[plagiarize]

Hope the same goes for other AW related rights, i.e American Nightmare.

i presume so. Remedy made a good amount of money selling the Max Payne license to Rockstar, so I presume they'll continue building characters and brands that they own, and only handing that over to publishers if the pubs stump up a large amount of money.

if they do sell it, i'm sure we'll hear about it.

[Erasus]

Really? Sweet. Wasn't this a microsoft studies game though? Surprised no GFWL.

Remedy self published it after MS let them.

They wanted it on PC all along :(

[daxter01]

35 fps in this scene at 2560 x 1600 with 8xMSAA, no FXAA. I have SLI enabled but I guess that doesn't do anything.

[Lord Error]

I'm so pleased I waited for the PC release, the game simply was not built around the restraints of the 360 platform. This is not only the definitive version but the true vision of the game.

What was not built around it? If anything, people argued that it was these restraints that made them reimagine the game as more linear instead of completely open world. Other than that, which is unchanged on PC, and lower resolution on console (with 4xMSAA though) they didn't skimp on anything in the X360 version. Framerate was fairly good too.

[Mr_Zombie]

If anything, people argued that it was these restraints that made them reimagine the game as more linear instead of completely open world.

People are stupid.

Other than that, which is unchanged on PC, and lower resolution on console (with 4xMSAA though) they didn't skimp on anything in the X360 version. Framerate was fairly good too.

But the lower resolution, horrible tearing and low-res shadows really damaged the game's visuals. The PC version let the game's graphics finally shines.

[plagiarize]

What was not built around it? If anything, people argued that it was these restraints that made them reimagine the game as more linear instead of completely open world. Other than that, which is unchanged on PC, and lower resolution on console (with 4xMSAA though) they didn't skimp on anything in the X360 version. Framerate was fairly good too.

we'll see what an Alan Wake game built entirely for the 360 looks like next week, but i still maintain that if the game had started out as a linear game designed for the 360, that the environments wouldn't be as expansive as they are, and that the game wouldn't have run at such a low resolution on the 360.

[PetriRMD]

i still maintain that if the game had started out as a linear game designed for the 360, that the environments wouldn't be as expansive as they are

This is correct.

[plagiarize]

This is correct.

i am bookmarking this post now. thanks Petri :) you wouldn't believe how many times i've got into arguments about that.

[scitek]

we'll see what an Alan Wake game built entirely for the 360 looks like next week, but i still maintain that if the game had started out as a linear game designed for the 360, that the environments wouldn't be as expansive as they are, and that the game wouldn't have run at such a low resolution on the 360.

I think the primary reason American Nightmare runs at native 720p is because of the advent of FXAA. It no longer has MSAA, which was costly as all hell in the first game.

[derFeef]

i am bookmarking this post now. thanks Petri :) you wouldn't believe how many times i've got into arguments about that.

Me too, but people believe what they want, so it won't matter, sadly.

I think the primary reason American Nightmare runs at native 720p is because of the advent of FXAA. It no longer has MSAA, which was costly as all hell in the first game.

I am not sure MSAA was removed.

[JaseC]

Hope the same goes for other AW related rights, i.e American Nightmare.

All but confirmed.

[plagiarize]

I think the primary reason American Nightmare runs at native 720p is because of the advent of FXAA. It no longer has MSAA, which was costly as all hell in the first game.

i don't think full 720p and no MSAA has been confirmed, but it looks to have a lot less alpha, which is going to help a lot too.

[Corky]

Me too, but people believe what they want, so it won't matter, sadly.

Even the most cynical people will have to concede their preconceptions at the point where one of the devs himself chimes in.

All but confirmed.

Splendid.

[scitek]

I am not sure MSAA was removed.

Yeah, probably not. Forgot they said MSAA has to be on with the engine. which is awesome