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Dark Souls II - Graphics Comparison - PC Preview

Kamina

Golden Boy
"amazing"? I mean a turd would look good in 4k, but those hardly look amazing to me.
Aside from the sea shots, that water looks sweet.


What in the hell is this?
I like how they suddely stop with the stone texture and have it turn to that endlessly repedetive and flat grass.


  1. Denial - PC version won't look that shitty, they said it's developed for PC this time.
  2. Anger - It fucking better not be downgraded or people will just boycott them. PC can handle the lighting ffs. I'm not supporting lying devs.
  3. Bargaining - If the PC version has lighting in-tact then it'll sell well. In fact if it's not downgraded I'll buy two copies.
  4. Depression - Guys, please tell me the rumors are all untrue and it'll still look like it did in the demos. Please? Anyone? FROM? Namco?
  5. Acceptance - It looks better than the console version, but nothing like the demos.
I seem to have jumped some of these and also added a 6th.
i went from 1 to 2 to 3 and I'm now at: "Boycott - Never will i buy a higher-res version of a game I already own" (which is not actually true, but for DS2)
 

Anteater

Member
Apparently there are, he said he also has a ton of screenshots for us as well.

798220-20animated_gifu9sug.gif


Cool, can't wait :D
 

Vazra

irresponsible vagina leak
Those already playing the PC version can I get a link of your gallery to link on the PC OT of the game? (PC OT comes out on April 18)
 

LiquidMetal14

hide your water-based mammals
"amazing"? I mean a turd would look good in 4k, but those hardly look amazing to me.
Aside from the sea shots, that water looks sweet.


What in the hell is this?

I was just thinking the same thing. That looks far from amazing other than the "4k" high resolution clarity.

Matter of fact, almost all the shots look poor other than resolution. Even the ones a few posts up are not highly impressive.

I wanna say that if the game was just being judged on graphics this would be a 2/10 considering the kind of rep this series has been building. It's more than disappointing even on those "stunningly" high resolution shots. If Namco/FROM put the money or whatever to make the game really stand out then they may have some kind of success that a game like Skyrim enjoys. Visually disappointing beyond reprieve.
 

eot

Banned
You can find areas where Dark Souls looks like absolute shit too, but I guess the weird DoF helps hide some of that stuff.

Yeah, that specific background is just nasty. Really ugly stuff. I can't imagine why they thought it looked OK.

Who says they did? They probably just prioritised something else. That's how it always is.
 

Durante

Member
You can find areas where Dark Souls looks like absolute shit too, but I guess the weird DoF helps hide some of that stuff.
Absolutely. You can find those in almost every game. Maybe not Witcher 2 :p

I wanna say that if the game was just being judged on graphics this would be a 2/10 considering the kind of rep this series has been building.
I couldn't disagree more. It's a better-looking game than Dark Souls 1 -- and what other reputation would the series have been building?
 

LiquidMetal14

hide your water-based mammals
Absolutely. You can find those in almost every game. Maybe not Witcher 2 :p

I couldn't disagree more. It's a better-looking game than Dark Souls 1 -- and what other reputation would the series have been building?

The sales and ardent following warrant a better effort. There is no excuse after the mistakes made with the first PC port. Good love 'em for the rep they've built on the core game but visually, this isn't stunning other than the art. Let's not delude ourselves.


The art is the games strength visually. The devs should hire some good help to make this more than just an "up-rezzed" console port.
 

Vazra

irresponsible vagina leak
The sales and ardent following warrant a better effort. There is no excuse after the mistakes made with the first PC port. Good love 'em for the rep they've built on the core game but visually, this isn't stunning other than the art. Let's not delude ourselves.

Ehhh those are opinions man. Some people do find the game stunning as it is despite some shortcomings on some areas.
 

Durante

Member
Arguing about this without actually being able to post everything I could to argue about it is excruciating, so let's pick this up again tomorrow.
 

Alo81

Low Poly Gynecologist
Alright fuck.

This thread is starting to become spoiler city. Games out in less than 10 days.

I'll check the article out, but this thread be unsafe.
 

LiquidMetal14

hide your water-based mammals
Ehhh those are opinions man. Some people do find the game stunning as it is despite some shortcomings on some areas.

My best friend thinks 16 bit games are more artistic visually and finds the games more impressive. Of course it's subjective but outside of the art, this looks nothing like something like say, The Witcher 2.

The merits of the games core game play are not at question. The visuals are fully on display and can shine at any point but as a whole, I'm left even more disappointed considering the issues we had with the first PC port.

I think FROM can have success like an Elder Scrolls franchise if they handled the series right. But eh, this is just visuals we're discussing here on an enthusiast forum so it's all in jest.

Arguing about this without actually being able to post everything I could to argue about it is excruciating, so let's pick this up again tomorrow.

I'm sure we will see some more flattering shots in 4k but this is already a taste of what to expect and I'm sure there will some more pleasing visual areas but the texture work and visuals on display as it stands are still disgraceful given the growing praise slapped upon the series. It's time to care about the visuals a little more as they seem to have the game play down pat.
 
Excited to read the article as I'm wondering what words could make the screenshots magically look great :p Game definitely has gorgeous areas, but the pc shots so far only drive home how inconsistent the game is for me visually.
 

creyas

Member
Just went through the screenshots, looks better than i expected. General texture quality looks pretty damn good, sure some really rough spots but a nice amount of genuine greatness here. I'm hype.
 

d00d3n

Member
120fps was just not really playable. When sprinting on any inclines you would move even slower than if you were walking. Rolls could end up being REALLY short.

It basically changes from buggy to broken, when a fundamental thing like "running" doesn't work properly, and rolling being almost useless in some spots.

Thanks. Yeah, that sounds really bad.
 

erawsd

Member
I'm sure we will see some more flattering shots in 4k but this is already a taste of what to expect and I'm sure there will some more pleasing visual areas but the texture work and visuals on display as it stands are still disgraceful given the growing praise slapped upon the series. It's time to care about the visuals a little more as they seem to have the game play down pat.

It looks good enough to me, I see nothing "disgraceful" about it. We don't need another developer that gets a taste of success then decides to burn up its entire budget on improving visuals and adding spectacle.
 

nbthedude

Member
I'm sure we will see some more flattering shots in 4k but this is already a taste of what to expect and I'm sure there will some more pleasing visual areas but the texture work and visuals on display as it stands are still disgraceful given the growing praise slapped upon the series. It's time to care about the visuals a little more as they seem to have the game play down pat.

Translation: Nah nah nah. I can't here you. My mind is made up. Any evidence you provide is moot.
 
I just want to say, I am absolutely excited for the most mundane of things:
The armor.
The one thing I didn't like in Dark Souls was how many of the armors behaved, particular around the leg area. But I snuck a peak and noticed that they now have actual cloth physics!!! Yes!!! You guys have no idea how much that excites me. Seriously.
 

martino

Member
I just want to say, I am absolutely excited for the most mundane of things:
The armor.
The one thing I didn't like in Dark Souls was how many of the armors behaved, particular around the leg area. But I snuck a peak and noticed that they now have actual cloth physics!!! Yes!!! You guys have no idea how much that excites me. Seriously.

ho yes i do and i spoiled my face and watch hours and hours of gameplay on twich because of it
 

Holdfing

Member
I just want to say, I am absolutely excited for the most mundane of things:
The armor.
The one thing I didn't like in Dark Souls was how many of the armors behaved, particular around the leg area. But I snuck a peak and noticed that they now have actual cloth physics!!! Yes!!! You guys have no idea how much that excites me. Seriously.

Right there with ya. My character can now wear a fabulous dress, and it won't look shit in motion :)
 

Garcia

Member
There's like 40 screenshots in that link and that is probably the worst one of them all.

Oh boy... You guys better get ready for some nasty surprises while you play it. 4k and all, you will find a lot of locations that will make you cringe. It's still a very fun game, but you will finally understand why plenty of us claim it is so visually inconsistent.

I have to agree with some who say that the most notorious improvements have to do with the armor sets. They shine, they're detailed, they look really good and they have a subtle glow.

It's been almost a month since I last played the game for PS3 so it will feel quite fresh to jump back and finally explore to my hearts content without any loading times or nasty bugs.

Excited to read the article as I'm wondering what words could make the screenshots magically look great :p Game definitely has gorgeous areas, but the pc shots so far only drive home how inconsistent the game is for me visually.

Precisely.
 
I thought the first Dark Souls had widely inconsistent visuals as well.

It did but Dark Souls II really takes it to another level in some areas in terms of ugliness. Complete lack of lighting, endlessly repeated textures, etc. When contrasted to certain areas that are easily the best looking in the series and some of the best visuals on the consoles it's much more scattershot to me.

Still, looking forward to smooth 60 FPS if nothing else.
 

LiquidMetal14

hide your water-based mammals
It looks good enough to me, I see nothing "disgraceful" about it. We don't need another developer that gets a taste of success then decides to burn up its entire budget on improving visuals and adding spectacle.
Even a little more tlc would be good. The west has basically given this series life as it doesn't make the impact even in Japan so they should really start considering catering to our needs as we're the ones who've supported them and made the franchise into what it is thanks to word of mouth and even support for shoddy port jobs like DS on PC.

Translation: Nah nah nah. I can't here you. My mind is made up. Any evidence you provide is moot.
You win :p
 
Yikes 4K Edition.

The rest looks amazing tho.

*barf*

As always, the issue here isn't that the game looks worse than DS1, it probably doesn't - it's that the demoes promised something on a completely different level, leaving many of us (me included) very disappointed to see what ended up in the finished product. Oh well, ought to remind me to not get my hopes up about stuff pre-release.
 

Gvaz

Banned
"amazing"? I mean a turd would look good in 4k, but those hardly look amazing to me.
Aside from the sea shots, that water looks sweet.


What in the hell is this?

You know, I don't think they expected a lot of people to go up that way.

Also the game needs a LOT of AO I think, as well as higher res textures for everything that isn't player/enemy models. Some of it is just bad.
 

Gvaz

Banned
It's just really weird how inconsistent everything is. You have a bunch of things that look nice and a recurring statement of "that looks okay" and then a "what the fuck is that?" at least twice an image.
 

Ysiadmihi

Banned
I don't really put a priority on textures and geometry so this looks pretty great to me. I would definitely say it's not "modern" looking though.
 

Creamium

shut uuuuuuuuuuuuuuup
It's just really weird how inconsistent everything is. You have a bunch of things that look nice and a recurring statement of "that looks okay" and then a "what the fuck is that?" at least twice an image.

That's mostly the consensus for the console release as well: some areas in this game look incredible, others look like they're lifted from a PS2 game, like Shaded Woods. In general every forest area in the game looks like shit.
 

SargerusBR

I love Pokken!
That's mostly the consensus for the console release as well: some areas in this game look incredible, others look like they're lifted from a PS2 game, like Shaded Woods. In general every forest area in the game looks like shit.

FROM can't do forest areas in general, period.
 
That's mostly the consensus for the console release as well: some areas in this game look incredible, others look like they're lifted from a PS2 game, like Shaded Woods. In general every forest area in the game looks like shit.

Shaded Woods? More like N64 Woods. :D
 

Gvaz

Banned
It's more important that the game is mechanically running good and stable than actual graphical elements but it's just weird

Like this:


Looks great except:

high res leaves on the left, but other textures that look like a low res photograph of a forest floor. Why is the textures not higher quality if they're very clearly photographed? It's like getting out of bed and stopping just outside your door.

Right next to it is a low as fuck res 2D sprite vine.

Everything looks really flat in general, but the player model looks great.

Looking at the sword hilt, something is fucked up about the DOF in that it doesn't have the halo of the console versions, but it's still not correct.

Also look at the horrible banding on the skybox.

literally everything in this shot wouldn't be so bad if there were more shadows.
 

Grief.exe

Member
It's more important that the game is mechanically running good and stable than actual graphical elements but it's just weird

Like this:



Looks great except:

high res leaves on the left, but other textures that look like a low res photograph of a forest floor. Why is the textures not higher quality if they're very clearly photographed? It's like getting out of bed and stopping just outside your door.

Right next to it is a low as fuck res 2D sprite vine.

Everything looks really flat in general, but the player model looks great.

Looking at the sword hilt, something is fucked up about the DOF in that it doesn't have the halo of the console versions, but it's still not correct.

Also look at the horrible banding on the skybox.

literally everything in this shot wouldn't be so bad if there were more shadows.

Sometimes the details are best left at 600-700p ;)
 

nbthedude

Member
This really nails it in. I feel like crying :(

It's an entire pallete color and tonally mood change. I don't get the part about people being upset. It seems arbitrary and stupid.

Yes the original version is more of a technical accomplishment. But it isn't like the second version is just a downgraded version. The washed out pallet clearly indicates a different tone and feel. It's not just like they removed some effects. They changed the tone and feel of the area. That's an artistic decision as much as a technical one.

It's pretty blatantly obvious that the transition from a sepia tone to a grey tone is not a technical one. It's a choice.
 
It's an entire pallete color and tonally mood change. I don't get the part about people being upset. It seems arbitrary and stupid.

Yes the original version is more of a technical accomplishment. But it isn't like the second version is just a downgraded version. The washed out pallet clearly indicates a different tone and feel. It's not just like they removed some effects. They changed the tone and feel of the area. That's an artistic decision as much as a technical one.

It's pretty blatantly obvious that the transition from a sepia tone to a grey tone is not a technical one. It's a choice.

The original version looked great... this version looks like ass. It looks nothing like an artistic choice, it just looks like all the colour was removed.

I'm still super hyped about this game, and pretty pleased with the quality of the PC port. But I still hold out hope that there's some way to mod back in some of the lighting.
 
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