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Dark Souls 2 Lighting changes/Downgrade

nbthedude

Member
My picture made 4chan lol

8VaDhBL.jpg

Link to original image?
 

doomquake

Member
Someone with console version should find these places in the steam screenshots and do some comparisons. and if the character is holding a torch..hold a torch in the console version please.
 
I am particularly interested at the highlighted areas further down.
The walls seem to have some sort of parallax occlusion mapping, and also this moisture-effect that even mirrors the torch-flame. ...very similar to the old build videos.

fUOVfV4.jpg

Because it's an old image.
 

MilkBeard

Member
I am particularly interested at the highlighted areas further down.
The walls seem to have some sort of parallax occlusion mapping, and also this moisture-effect that even mirrors the torch-flame. ...very similar to the old build videos.

fUOVfV4.jpg

That stuff exists in the console version, in certain environments.

EDIT: Now that I look at it a second time though, the variety of brightness in the reflection is more advanced than what I've seen, but it looks close to that in some reflective/textured surfaces.
 

MilkBeard

Member
REALLY?! Not bad, thanks for the Info!

If you come across one of these, can you post a pic?

I added something to my post, that on further inspection that might be a little more advanced lighting, although it's hard to tell without motion. But there are some rare instances in the console version where the lighting looks about like that. Mostly in the lower, darker areas where the light sources cause reflections on wet surfaces, although there's not dynamic shadows. Some areas do have it, like when you use a torch or when you go to certain bonfires, like in Blue Cathedral.
 

Kamina

Golden Boy
ss_bad237171bd5ca612b57215da778b18748d91ada.1920x1080.jpg


Well it has occlusion shadows. Either the PC build does have improved lighting, or this is a build that exists somewhere between retail products.
Can someone with the Console versions try to make a similar picture so we can see how the consoles are holding up compared to this?
 

MilkBeard

Member
Can someone with the Console versions try to make a similar picture so we can see how the consoles are holding up compared to this?

I can tell you right now that nothing in the game looks as good as that shot. Well, there are spots that come close but it's clear that the textures and detail are a bit higher in this shot. PC maybe?
 

Kamina

Golden Boy
I can tell you right now that nothing in the game looks as good as that shot. Well, there are spots that come close but it's clear that the textures and detail are a bit higher in this shot. PC maybe?
Thats what i think too. It could be prove that the pc version is indeed an upgrade other than 1080/60.
 
ss_bad237171bd5ca612b57215da778b18748d91ada.1920x1080.jpg


Well it has occlusion shadows. Either the PC build does have improved lighting, or this is a build that exists somewhere between retail products.

I bet this is just from the demo build. Completely different from any retail build we're going to get. Not even PC will look like this.
 

hey_it's_that_dog

benevolent sexism
Now that I'm actually playing and enjoying the game, the real technical crime in my eyes is the awful performance on PS3. Sure, the downgrades are substantial, but the game still looks okay a lot of the time, except for how it's constantly chugging and even menus are laggy when loading. It's a real shit show and it's not at all clear why.
 

jimmypython

Member
Now that I'm actually playing and enjoying the game, the real technical crime in my eyes is the awful performance on PS3. Sure, the downgrades are substantial, but the game still looks okay a lot of the time, except for how it's constantly chugging and even menus are laggy when loading.

yep....for a moment I even thought the optical drive went shit on my PS3....
 
But that area looked a whole lot different in the Demo.

Then I'm mistaken.

What I can bet my left nut on is following though: The game will look the same on PC as it does on consoles. Only difference will be higher rendering resolution and bigger textures etc.
Nothing like the pre-release footage we've seen.
 

Fuz

Banned
Those screens are pretty ugly.
I hope the PC version is still the same as showed before.

Still, I don't care much as long as the gameplay is the same as DS and the storytelling isn't too dumbed down and semplified.
 

Krakn3Dfx

Member
Then I'm mistaken.

What I can bet my left nut on is following though: The game will look the same on PC as it does on consoles. Only difference will be higher rendering resolution and bigger textures etc.
Nothing like the pre-release footage we've seen.

I doubt it, they developed the game on the PC first, and then no doubt dialed back texturing/effects/lighting on the console to maintain performance on that hardware. I'd bet $5 the PC version will have most if not all of the features of the demo we've seen previously, whether it's on the surface or has to be fleshed out by clever gamers with the ability to do that. I doubt they would take the time to pull the code back out completely, more likely they would just sort of comment that stuff out.
 
Well, for one, that screenshot doesn't seem to have any SSAO, while the initial footage had very prominent SSAO. I think both that and my work in DS1 has shown that SSAO fits the Dark Souls (1 and 2) art style well, so if the final PC version ships without an AO option (or a very basic one) it could be worth it to improve that.

And downsampling is always nice for overall quality of course.

And... pause? Pause please? =)

Looks like the area we have now in the console version with some features added on top. Completely different color palette. I wonder if that says anything about the lighting.

I wish they had someone competent taking their screenshots....
 

george_us

Member
How can you say this when your only 8 hours into the game? Coming from someone who is about 25 hours in DS2 has a way better art direction than the first. The atmosphere in some of the later parts are amazing. Are people forgetting the last 1/4 of Dark Souls was so drap and boring.

You guys forget how awesome looking Lost Izalith looked?? Yeah didn't think so.
So far I've seen
Things Betwixt, Majula, Forest of the Giants, Heide's Tower, Lost Bastile, and No Man's Wharf
and outside of
Majula
the game looks flat out awful. Terrible texture work and horrendous lighting all over the place. DS2 is probably the worst lit game I've played all generation. I'd take Lost Izalith any day of the week and twice on Sunday over the areas I've been to. Dark Souls 1 obliterates it in every technical and artistic category you can think of.

Thank God the game is fun though.
 
I doubt it, they developed the game on the PC first, and then no doubt dialed back texturing/effects/lighting on the console to maintain performance on that hardware. I'd bet $5 the PC version will have most if not all of the features of the demo we've seen previously, whether it's on the surface or has to be fleshed out by clever gamers with the ability to do that. I doubt they would take the time to pull the code back out completely, more likely they would just sort of comment that stuff out.

Everything points to the existence of different builds:
- a retail build, the one that looks like the fucking alpha we have now on consoles and will also be getting on PC
- demo/showcase build which all pretty footage is based on but was never meant to actually look like that in the final game.

The final game has more differences than simply lighting.

Missing torches and different textures:

Lack of light sources and less furniture and other details:

Entirely different textures. Looks like another game:

Different day time, greatly reduced the amount of dragons and a competely different castle:

Again completely different scenery in the same area:

Some mod has to edit the title. There is more going on than just the lighting.
 
Now that I'm actually playing and enjoying the game, the real technical crime in my eyes is the awful performance on PS3. Sure, the downgrades are substantial, but the game still looks okay a lot of the time, except for how it's constantly chugging and even menus are laggy when loading. It's a real shit show and it's not at all clear why.

I'm having the same problem on PS3. Bought the digital version and it runs even worse than DS1 =(
 
All that time people were cursing the poor person releasing screenshots that looked like shit but were an accurate representation of the game.

They must of been all like
iwprxxsSHCFaF.gif
 

Lucent

Member
I've been playing the game on PS3 for about 15+ hours now. I can say that it definitely doesn't look as crazy as the demo builds, but it definitely isn't horrible looking. To me, it looks at least as good as the original Dark Souls on PS3, if not better. The characters look really nice close up. The armor and all that is pretty detailed, too. And the lighting isn't too bad. Lit areas still look pretty cool. The shadows aren't as detailed/complex as demo build, but they still mirror your character.

Overall, I think they did a good job with what they had. It looks and feels like a Souls game to me. Of course I would've liked the whole game to look like the demo build, but as the game is now I don't think either console could've accomplished what they were aiming for. At least not from them.
 
All that time people were cursing the poor person releasing screenshots that looked like shit but were an accurate representation of the game.

They must of been all like
iwprxxsSHCFaF.gif

Still looks pretty good in motion.

Although I was really hoping for dark areas with torch being integral part of the gameplay. Kinda bummer.
iwprxxsSHCFaF.gif
 

Raide

Member
Watching the ENB playthrough and there is certainly going to be some areas that look better just due to having better textures on the PC version. the SSAO will also help in that regard but this does seem like a very different game, looks wise, than it was first shown as.

Still waiting on the PC version before I jump in.
 
People talking about the Watch Dogs downgrade should see this first. Holy crap.

Is there anychance that the 'good' version is the PC/Next-Gen version? I'm not following this game too closely.
 

Sinthor

Gold Member
Well, I guess I'll throw my two cents in. I'm pretty disappointed myself. I'm curious to see how areas I played during the beta look now. From all indications, it will be completely different. I had no performance issues during the beta and thought it looked really good. Was pretty shocked when I loaded up DS 2 retail for the first time. I mean, it looks fine...although overall I'm struggling to be able to say that it even looks as good as DS 1. My character doesn't seem to anyway, but that could be the armor I have at the moment (only been playing a few hours).

In any case, why did what worked during the beta get stripped out of retail? The menu buttons even lag. That's the main thing I've noticed so far. My character feels heavy and sluggish compared to DS1. Didn't have that during the beta. Lighting was pretty awesome too, so it's a bummer it's not like this now. When the first trailers came out I figured it was just PC or vertical slice stuff, but after seeing so many trailers and demo and especially beta play, I really thought that was what we were gonna get. Guess I should have known.....somehow. Oh well!

Still enjoying the hell out of this game and I'm sure it will PLAY great. That does count more in the end. Still the whole dark and torch dynamic was something I was looking forward to in order to make the game even more nerve wracking and to force more compromises...kind of like the Tomb of the Giants in DS 1.

Has anyone seen the areas that were in the beta yet to compare how the retail game looks compared to that? Sorry if posted earlier....if this was, I missed it.
 

Sinthor

Gold Member
People talking about the Watch Dogs downgrade should see this first. Holy crap.

Is there anychance that the 'good' version is the PC/Next-Gen version? I'm not following this game too closely.

I really don't think there WILL be a next gen version. Next gen development is supposedly very close to PC development, so if they're doing a PC version right off the bat, seems they would have done a next gen version as well at least in the same time frame. No, if there IS a next gen version, will probably have to be a port by another team. So I'd guess that would take at LEAST 1-2 years. We'll see.
 

Jack cw

Member
People talking about the Watch Dogs downgrade should see this first. Holy crap.

Is there anychance that the 'good' version is the PC/Next-Gen version? I'm not following this game too closely.

We dont know. I dont think that the PC version has completely different assets, lighting engine, polycount, effects, alphas, etc. I wish though. And I still doubt a PS4 version is in the making.
 
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