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[Vitor711]

Keep pressuring these guys on Twitter, for some answers. I set up a new message for everyone to retweet, or create your own.

https://twitter.com/Grief_exe/status/446344154788806656

Retweeted for ya buddy.

 

[Metroid-Squadron]

But we haven't seen the PC version outside of some screenshots since TGS

That's the point. PC footage is the same as TGS demo and the Steam page shows post-downgrade screenshots.

It doesn't bode well for the PC version.

 

[Drake]

This was on of the first things I noticed when I started watching ENB's walkthrough on youtube. I was thinking to myself "this game had better graphics in the game play demos then it does now".

At least I;m not going crazy.

 

[DrROBschiz]

That's the point. PC footage is the same as TGS demo and the Steam page shows post-downgrade screenshots.

It doesn't bode well for the PC version.

I thought the steam shots were on par with the TGS demo?!

Ill have to check em out. What about the pc promotional shots they released to the community (like their facebook)

 

[Just_myles]

I understand your plight OP but, I was never in it for the graphics fidelity as egregious as the graphical disparity is between each iteration since April 2013. I do support the calling out of what I wouldn't call a bad business process... ok, it's a bad business process lol.

Remember this is common and developers have been doing this for years with major releases(Bioshock Infinite).

Again I was never in it for the graphics especially demons souls ( have seen it today?). So I personally will give From a pass on this. However, the next gen version (which I am sure will be out in the next 2-3 years) won't.

DS is a gold mine, and I'm sure they don't want to blow it.

 

[SonyToo!™]

What I've taken away from this thread is:-

1) I was wrong to hold FROM in any higher regard than the rest of the AAA industry and worse they with Bamco have been downright dishonest in their efforts to maximise sales.

2) I need to play Kameo

 

[Servbot24]

It's pretty obvious that the question didn't even reach actual game developers.

Actual developers don't promote the game. Namco does.

All FROM has done is release screenshots. Which all look absolutely terrible. Worse than the actual game. The game looks better than what FROM advertised. Worse than what Namco advertised.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

Except they didn't. The game I played was, technically speaking, crap. Fun to play, but complete crap.

Oh come on. Enough with the hyperbole already. The only technical issue I've had was the long loading times, and that stopped being an issue when I stopped dying so much.

Please, fucking Kameo has more advanced graphics than the TGS demo.

This shit again?

The retail game barely looks like a PS2.5 game and the framerate sucks.

The framerate was stable throughout the game for me, and PS2.5, lol, fuck off with the insane hyperbole already.

From has become a lying scum piece of shit. Fuck them.

As I asked previously, any agencies or organzations to which we can send complaints for false advertising?

lol @ all that vitriolic rage. Good luck with your crusade. I'm sure consumer agencies will be so happy to take your complaints and take action against this Japanese video game developer. Are you for real?

By people that have no idea of graphics technology. Kameo had thousands of particles on screen, geometry instancing, interactive water, day and night cycle, parallax mapping...

What does DS2 have? One shadow casting light and the framerate suffers. Amazing.

Dem buzzwords. Except, no. I used the torch all the time and didn't notice the framerate dipping. Have you even played the game?

Come on.

While we're at it... here's a "PS2 game":

Spoiler

http://cloud.attackofthefanboy.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/majula-dark-souls-2-walkthrough.jpg
http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/ta6ZTioqyTI/maxresdefault.jpg

(spoiler-tagged just in case, nothing really that spoilerific IMO though, first is a very early area, the other one is a mid-game boss)

Kameo pictures?

You people have officially gone insane.

Indeed. Again, I understand the disappointment. But the insane rage is just getting funny at this point. And to those who say it detract from the atmosphere... one of the most affected area was apparently

Spoiler

Aldia's Keep

, and let me tell you, this place is goddamn scary, downgrade or not. It's still mega creepy and when you're playing, you're not worrying about goddamn geometry or particle effects.

 

[zephervack]

Oh come on. Enough with the hyperbole already. The only technical issue I've had was the long loading times, and that stopped being an issue when I stopped dying so much.


This shit again?


The framerate was stable throughout the game for me, and PS2.5, lol, fuck off with the insane hyperbole already.


lol @ all that vitriolic rage. Good luck with your crusade. I'm sure consumer agencies will be so happy to take your complaints and take action against this Japanese video game developer. Are you for real?


Dem buzzwords. Except, no. I used the torch all the time and didn't notice the framerate dipping. Have you even played the game?


While we're at it... here's a "PS2 game":



Indeed. Again, I understand the disappointment. But the insane rage is just getting funny at this point. And to those who say it detract from the atmosphere... one of the most affected area was apparently

Spoiler

Aldia's Keep

, and let me tell you, this place is goddamn scary, downgrade or not. It's still mega creepy and when you're playing, you're not worrying about goddamn geometry or particle effects.

DUUUUUUUUUUUUUDE, spoilers!!!!!!!

 

[Horp]

Oh come on. Enough with the hyperbole already. The only technical issue I've had was the long loading times, and that stopped being an issue when I stopped dying so much.


This shit again?


The framerate was stable throughout the game for me, and PS2.5, lol, fuck off with the insane hyperbole already.


lol @ all that vitriolic rage. Good luck with your crusade. I'm sure consumer agencies will be so happy to take your complaints and take action against this Japanese video game developer. Are you for real?


Dem buzzwords. Except, no. I used the torch all the time and didn't notice the framerate dipping. Have you even played the game?


While we're at it... here's a "PS2 game":

Indeed. Again, I understand the disappointment. But the insane rage is just getting funny at this point. And to those who say it detract from the atmosphere... one of the most affected area was apparently

Spoiler

Aldia's Keep

, and let me tell you, this place is goddamn scary, downgrade or not. It's still mega creepy and when you're playing, you're not worrying about goddamn geometry or particle effects.

Jesus, CHILL with the spoilers.

GOD.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

Sorry. I tagged them now. The first screenshot is not remotely spoilerish though, it's very early in the game. Since people have been posting tons of screenshots from far later in the game than those screens I posted, I thought it was fair game. My bad.

Horp, if you're bitching about spoilers why would you quote the screenshots?

 

[Totobeni]

While the downgraded version don't look like a PS2 game, the difference between the two is pretty damn massive.

 

[CountAntonius]

While the downgraded version don't look like a PS2 game, the difference between the two is pretty damn massive.

Reveal footage should stop being compared to since it was never used again and we have had a ton of playable footage from lesser builds for months. The initial reveal has little do do with this controversy.

 

[Grief.exe]

Reveal footage should stop being compared to since it was never used again and we have had a ton of playable footage from lesser builds for months. The initial reveal has little do do with this controversy.

I would agree, the reveal footage is made irrelevant as it never was shown again.

I wish that area was shown during TGS as that build has been quite similar to the existing console version in many ways.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

While the downgraded version don't look like a PS2 game, the difference between the two is pretty damn massive.

Agreed. I'd say the reveal version looks new-gen, the other looks... PS3 gen. lol.

By the way, the reason why I thought posting the screenshots I did was ok is that

Spoiler

this area is much later than those I posted. It's also really mega atmospheric despite the downgrade. So... yeah. *shrugs*

 

[Garcia]

Given the history of the developer (the PC version of Dark souls not supporting resolutions above 720p or framerate above 30fps) it's most likely lack of time for optimalisation and lack of technical know-how that forced these downgrades, not hardware capabilities.

That's how it looks to me as well. The game was just prematurely launched; it could have been much better. Maybe some extra 6 to 12 months in development, no way to know.

 

[koryuken]

After you beat the

Spoiler

Medusa

boss, you take an elevator to

Spoiler

Iron Keep.

I need to take a screenshot of the elevator... words cannot describe how bad it looks. It really looks like an asset from Tomb Raider on the PS1. Just a really really shit poor Alpha Blend texture, that is super pixelated and takes up half the screen. This was the only time I was appalled at the graphics in this game. I don't recall anything that out of place in DS or DeS.

 

[Servbot24]

After you beat the

Spoiler

Medusa

boss, you take an elevator to

Spoiler

Iron Keep.

I need to take a screenshot of the elevator... words cannot describe how bad it looks. It really looks like an asset from Tomb Raider on the PS1. Just a really really shit poor Alpha Blend texture, that is super pixelated and takes up half the screen. This was the only time I was appalled at the graphics in this game. I don't recall anything that out of place in DS or DeS.

I was kind of surprised when I got to the area that people had primarily been complaining about, and it lasted... 15 seconds. Lol. Life is good for gamers when this is the only source of rage they can find.

 

[Metroid-Squadron]

While we're at it... here's a "PS2 game":

Spoiler

http://cloud.attackofthefanboy.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/majula-dark-souls-2-walkthrough.jpg
http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/ta6ZTioqyTI/maxresdefault.jpg

(spoiler-tagged just in case, nothing really that spoilerific IMO though, first is a very early area, the other one is a mid-game boss)

Am I supposed to be impressed by an empty area that runs at sub 30 fps? LOL

As for that boss area, this was in 2005:

 

[Morrigan Stark]

. It really looks like an asset from Tomb Raider on the PS1.

....

 

[Garcia]

After you beat the

Spoiler

Medusa

boss, you take an elevator to

Spoiler

Iron Keep.

I need to take a screenshot of the elevator... words cannot describe how bad it looks. It really looks like an asset from Tomb Raider on the PS1. Just a really really shit poor Alpha Blend texture, that is super pixelated and takes up half the screen. This was the only time I was appalled at the graphics in this game. I don't recall anything that out of place in DS or DeS.

*chuckle* That's exaclty what me and my sister thought when we saw this:

 

[zma1013]

*chuckle* That's exaclty what me and my sister thought when we saw this:

 

[soontroll]

dem boss spoilers. And quoting the images. Great.

 

[DownLikeBCPowder]

Should I be playing Kameo?

 

[Arkanius]

Should I be playing Kameo?

This thread has teached me that Kameo > Dark Souls 2

 

[Ghazi]

Come on.

Yeah, I can't believe The Forest of Giants looks like that either, smh.

Spoiler

Obviously I'm joking

Seriously though, some of the background and ground textures look pretty bad.

 

[tengiants]

This thread has teached me that Kameo > Dark Souls 2

If graphics make a game, why do you play games and not just watch movies?

 

[UrbanRats]

*chuckle* That's exaclty what me and my sister thought when we saw this:

 

[jacksepticeye]

Wow Kameo actually looks amazing

 

[butman]

*chuckle* That's exaclty what me and my sister thought when we saw this:

 

[Funchameleon]

Wow, it looks like an early 360 game. Wow it looks like a PS2 game. Geez, looks like a N64 game. This looks like it's being rendered by the Super FX chip. I've seen better graphics come off the Master System. What the hell, From?

 

[Garcia]

Oh come on. Enough with the hyperbole already. The only technical issue I've had was the long loading times, and that stopped being an issue when I stopped dying so much.

Hyperbole? Just because you got lucky and didn't run into any of the problems I did does not make any of my statements hyperbolic. I'm extremely disappointed at them for having me go through 50+ hours of a beta.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

Hyperbole? Just because you got lucky and didn't run into any of the problems I did does not make any of my statements hyperbolic. I'm extremely disappointed at them for having me go through 50+ hours of a beta.

Uh-huh....

 

[See You Next Wednesday]

I made some tests last night. My current color range settings does change the black colors to be black, but I did another test.

I went back & changed the color range to the correct settings.
I then started a new game & instead started to lowered my TV's brightness so that the black areas on the title screen, the black bars in CGI cutscene & menu load screen were at exact black, stopping at the precise point when the black stops getting shades darker.

The picture now showed black as black & gave the picture way more contrast, but also more detail than what I had with the mixed up color range.
I can confirm that I was indeed using the incorrect color range & was crushing shadow detail.

With that said, my TV brightness was calibrated at the exact black point for my 360, now all my other games & movies will still have black crush, just not as much as having the incorrect HDMI color range settings.

I also deleted the patch to see if that had anything to do with the uncalibrated picture, that did nothing.
I'm going to try setting my 360 color range at Standard & intermediate & change my TV's color range to match to see if that makes any difference from the default picture.

 

[Metalingus5150]

It has nothing to do with the color range or brightness settings.

 

[See You Next Wednesday]

I took screen grabs of different youtube playthroughs.

The top row is what my game looks like when I play at the default settings
The bottom row is what the game looks like in that area when I lower my TV's brightness to correct the black in the title/menu screen.

I'm convinced this is a glitch & the reason why some of the comparisons look so washed out compared to some earlier footage.

 

[See You Next Wednesday]

While the downgraded version don't look like a PS2 game, the difference between the two is pretty damn massive.

Obviously the lighting has changed, but the right pictures looks so bad because it looks washed out.
The shadow on the far background are pure grey, even though there is no light source to give them that look.
The tile on the floor is two different colors like in the original, but looks washed out & almost purely monochromatic.
Lower the brightness to make the parts of the screen that should be pure black will change it to look much closer to the original. It won't have some of the lighting/shadows as in the original, but won't look so heinously washed out & devoid of contrast.

 

[DrROBschiz]

Obviously the lighting has changed, but the right pictures looks so bad because it looks washed out.
The shadow on the far background are pure grey, even though there is no light source to give them that look.
The tile on the floor is two different colors like in the original, but looks washed out & almost purely monochromatic.
Lower the brightness to make the parts of the screen that should be pure black will change it to look much closer to the original. It won't have some of the lighting/shadows as in the original, but won't look so heinously washed out & devoid of contrast.

Dude we have been over this

The one on the left was the Vertical Slice from April

That version of the game was never shown again. It was proof of concept. Super early and no longer relevant for comparison unless we want to daydream about what could have been.

 

[MarmaladeChainsaw]

Why are people posting boss spoilers in this thread, come on guys...

 

[Mkilbride]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkai...broken-on-consoles-before-graphics-downgrade/


Still doesn't explain why the choice to disable the better graphics was made one month before release...

 

[DoctorZ]

Are there any comparison gifs of the network test vs retail. That is what I'm interested in seeing. I didn't play that far into the network test or retail so not sure if any of the posted ones are from it.

 

[DrROBschiz]

Are there any comparison gifs of the network test vs retail. That is what I'm interested in seeing. I didn't play that far into the network test or retail so not sure if any of the posted ones are from it.

Network test is pretty damn close to retail

I would not mind seeing more comparision gifs and videos made though

 

[RK9039]

I remember the network test had better lighting and more particle effects, but again the performance wasn't great which goes back to what was said in the Forbes article.

 

[See You Next Wednesday]

Dude we have been over this

The one on the left was the Vertical Slice from April

That version of the game was never shown again. It was proof of concept. Super early and no longer relevant for comparison unless we want to daydream about what could have been.

The two are identical except for two things, the one on the right is completely washed out & has a missing shadow.
The game still casts shadows from environments, so that lighting feature wasn't removed from the retail game. I just lit up the Wharf in the game & half of the huge cavern now casts a shadow.
The lighting placement was just changed to not cast a shadow on the skeleton/stairway.

All we have left is the extreme washed out effect, which displays black as grey.

This can be fixed by lowering the brightness on your TV. Calibrate it using the black background on the title screen as a reference.

Like this pic is supposed to be shrouded in dimness, you aren't supposed to see the details.

Play Thief or Splinter Cell & jack up your brightness 50% higher on your TV & those games will look the exact same.

 

[JRW]

The two are identical except for two things, the one on the right is completely washed out & has a missing shadow.
The game still casts shadows from environments, so that lighting feature wasn't removed from the retail game. I just lit up the Wharf in the game & half of the huge cavern now casts a shadow.
The lighting placement was just changed to not cast a shadow on the skeleton/stairway.

All we have left is the extreme washed out effect, which displays black as grey.

This can be fixed by lowering the brightness on your TV. Calibrate it using the black background on the title screen as a reference.

I found that if you're playing 360 version changing the default Reference level setting from Standard to Intermediate (dashboard / settings) balances out the black levels "just right" in DS2, I no longer have a washed out look and shadow details are retained.

Not the best pic (cellphone) but DS2 black levels are much nicer now, playing on a Kuro Plasma:

Play Thief or Splinter Cell & jack up your brightness 50% higher on your TV & those games will look the exact same.[/QUOTE]

 

[ElfArmy177]

*chuckle* That's exaclty what me and my sister thought when we saw this:

Holy shit tthat reminds me of kings field 2.....lol

 

[Salcin]

Reveal footage should stop being compared to since it was never used again and we have had a ton of playable footage from lesser builds for months. The initial reveal has little do do with this controversy.

Edit: nvm

 

[Metalingus5150]

I posted this in the other thread. So I think I made a weird discovery and not sure if someone else posted it. The pre-downgrade Looking Glass Knight model is within the games files and glitches through when you're playing the actual game. Was watching "This is how you don't play Dark Souls 2" video and saw it. Went to DSP's channel and made some pics.

 

[CountAntonius]

That's interesting. So was it just a different texture used would that even make a difference in performance?

 

[Owwari]

I posted this in the other thread. So I think I made a weird discovery and not sure if someone else posted it. The pre-downgrade Looking Glass Knight model is within the games files and glitches through when you're playing the actual game. Was watching "This is how you don't play Dark Souls 2" video and saw it. Went to DSP's channel and made some pics.

WTF this is huge!