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[Zeliard]

General impression:

Dark Souls 2 on PC is a massively improved effort compared to its predecessor. It renders at any resolution a given system supports, its framerate varies smoothly up to 60 FPS, it performs well even on modest systems—more on that topic later—and it comes with a wealth of graphical options.

Asset quality:

In short, everything indicates that the 5 GB difference is caused by higher quality asset data, and a preliminary analysis of the content of these archive files confirms this assumption.

Performance:

With all in-game settings maximized and rendering at 2560x1440, I never noticed a single drop below 60 FPS on my PC (equipped with a Core i7 920 CPU and Geforce GTX770 GPU). In fact, the GPU was generally below 60% loaded in order to maintain that framerate. Even medium-range systems should easily maintain a solid framerate, particularly at the more common 1920x1080 resolution.

Conclusion:

While it is not quite the (almost generational) leap which was initially shown in previews, Dark Souls 2 on PC is a better experience and a more beautiful game than even a fully modded Dark Souls 1, and it also performs well on a wide range of hardware. It adds effects which greatly enhance the visual impact of some scenes, such as dynamic godrays, improves the resolution of environment textures, greatly improves shadow resolution and filtering, and maintains the highly detailed equipment models, textures and ambient specular reflections which were a hallmark of the original Dark Souls’ graphics.

Plenty more in the full article, including a closer look at each of the graphical settings.

http://www.pcgamer.com/uk/2014/04/17/dark-souls-2-pc-port-mod-god-durantes-verdict/

Looks like a very solid port, and a considerable departure from the state of Dark Souls 1's PC port. Framerate is no longer limited to 30 (albeit capped at 60), higher resolution textures are included, kb/m support is superior, and the graphical settings you'd expect are generally included. This means there will be far less of a focus with modding on getting the game up to an acceptable baseline, and modders can instead concentrate their efforts elsewhere. Well done, From.

Images courtesy of Durante:

 

[SolidsnackooFoxhound]

http://www.pcgamer.com/2014/04/17/dark-souls-2-pc-port-mod-god-durantes-verdict/


Enjoy. From our very own.

 

[LiK]

You so best

 

[SargerusBR]

Reposting this beautiful image from Durante's article

 

[Durante]

For the record

"Dark Souls 2 PC port: mod god Durante's verdict"

Did you come up with that title yourself dude?

Of course not.

My title was "Dark Souls 2 Technical Report".

Probably not something you would expect a publication for the general gaming public to run unmodified

 

[jacksepticeye]

It's beaaauuutifulll

Edit: someone already got that sexy shot in I see

 

[LiK]

For the record

Of course not.

My title was "Dark Souls 2 Technical Report".

Probably not something you would expect a publication for the general gaming public to run unmodified

Glad they changed that. lol

 

[Morrigan Stark]

Durante so best

Fixed

Interesting write-up. I think this sums it up quite nicely:

Dark Souls 2 on PC is a better experience and a more beautiful game than even a fully modded Dark Souls 1

Can't wait to double-dip!

 

[Orayn]

Sounds like a great port even if the super-great lighting from the early showings is no longer with us.

Question for Durante: Do you have any further comments on the quality of the mouse controls? Does it feel like there's any weird acceleration applied, or is it pretty much 1:1?

 

[phantomspiker]

It's beaaauuutifulll

Edit: someone already got that sexy shot in I see

It deserved to be posted twice!

Reading that article made the wait even harder, 1 weeeeeek!

 

[SargerusBR]

Durante did you had the opportunity to test if dll injectors still works in DS2?

 

[Neiteio]

Excellent article, and now I'm looking forward to the PC release.

 

[Krusenstern]

Reposting this beautiful image from Durante's article

That looks pretty. But that's one of the best looking areas in the game I suppose.

 

[KePoW]

For the record

Of course not.

My title was "Dark Souls 2 Technical Report".

Probably not something you would expect a publication for the general gaming public to run unmodified

Honestly their title is better, lol

 

[SolidsnackooFoxhound]

Of course, we wouldn’t be PC gamers if we were not always looking to get even more out of our games. In future articles we will look at some tweaks using generic tools in order to further improve Dark Souls 2’s graphics, and later on investigate its technology in more depth to determine what else might be possible with game-specific modifications.

. This is why i love PC gaming.

 

[Gbraga]

I love that shot too.

This part pleases me:

Before jumping into the options, a quick word on performance. I originally intended to provide measurements and graphs here, but Dark Souls 2 generally performs so well on my system that there’s no need. With all in-game settings maximized and rendering at 2560x1440, I never noticed a single drop below 60 FPS on my PC (equipped with a Core i7 920 CPU and Geforce GTX770 GPU). In fact, the GPU was generally below 60% loaded in order to maintain that framerate. Even medium-range systems should easily maintain a solid framerate, particularly at the more common 1920x1080 resolution.

Seems like I'll be able to keep it downsampled, just like it should be.

Durante's in his heaven.

Locked at 60fps is a bummer though, understandable when you consider what happened at 120fps in Dark Souls 1, but still a bummer.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

I demand to see a glorious Durante gallery!

 

[TheLetdown]

Well-written article that hit all of the points I wanted to know... I can't wait for the articles to come from the based "mod god."

Now, to decide if I need to make the jump from my 560ti to a 770/780 soon...

 

[-MD-]

investigate its technology in more depth to determine what else might be possible with game-specific modifications.

I am excite.

 

[Sickbean]

Thank you again based Durante.

 

[SolidsnackooFoxhound]

Well-written article that hit all of the points I wanted to know... I can't wait for the articles to come from the based "mod god."

Now, to decide if I need to make the jump from my 560ti to a 770/780 soon...

I really do not think you will need to jump. 560 ti should be perfect for Dark Souls II.

 

[Orayn]

I guess I had a second question: Is it possible to enable downsampling through in-game settings?

Well-written article that hit all of the points I wanted to know... I can't wait for the articles to come from the based "mod god."

Now, to decide if I need to make the jump from my 560ti to a 770/780 soon...

If Durante's GTX 770 was at <60% load at 2560x1440 and max settings, you're probably fine.

 

[Ogawa-san]

YMMV, it seems.

 

[Havel]

I am excite.

Yeah, the potential for mods here is getting me really excited.

 

[Nonentity]

Super excited that it runs great.

 

[Nibel]

Based Durante

I trust your word - it seems like Dark Souls 2 PC seems to be a much bigger leap than expected. I for one can't wait to spend one hour in the options menus to create my perfect DS2 experience

 

[ryushe]

mother of God.

 

[Odrion]

Praise be to Duranete, praise be to Dark Souls, praise be to the PC.

 

[Grief.exe]

His conclusion.

While it is not quite the (almost generational) leap which was initially shown in previews, Dark Souls 2 on PC is a better experience and a more beautiful game than even a fully modded Dark Souls 1, and it also performs well on a wide range of hardware. It adds effects which greatly enhance the visual impact of some scenes, such as dynamic godrays, improves the resolution of environment textures, greatly improves shadow resolution and filtering, and maintains the highly detailed equipment models, textures and ambient specular reflections which were a hallmark of the original Dark Souls’ graphics.

YMMV, it seems.

That area was cherry picked from the console version as well, looks just as bad.

 

[Orayn]

YMMV, it seems.

IIRC this is a very isolated thing, a "vista" that's only visible from a single walkway in a single area.

I've heard people say the rest of the game is still kind of uneven in terms of asset quality and visual design, but generally not this bad.

 

[TUSR]

Bought.

 

[impact]

Dark Souls 2 on PC is a better experience and a more beautiful game than even a fully modded Dark Souls 1

I hope that will silence all the dummies spreading bullshit like "OMG LOOKS LIKE PS1 GAME"

 

[Durante]

The biggest improvements graphically over DS1 PC fully modded are, in my opinion:

• The dynamic god rays, they really add a lot of ambiance, particularly in outdoor scenes.
• The cloth physics, they make the already awesome equipment on characters look even better.
• The shadow resolution and filtering, both for environmental and character shadows. This is something I tried to fix in DS1 but didn't manage to without issues.
• The water surface rendering. Water in DS1 was pretty weak.

Question for Durante: Do you have any further comments on the quality of the mouse controls? Does it feel like there's any weird acceleration applied, or is it pretty much 1:1?

They felt very solid to me, but I have to admit I spent the vast majority of my game time so far (~12 hours) playing with a DS3. >250 hours of reflexes trained on DS1 and Demon's are more valuable than more exact controls

 

[feel]

Thank you Durante!

Reposting this beautiful image from Durante's article

My favorite shot in the article, just lovely.

 

[Nokterian]

Based Durante! I am going to pre order it next week when my salary is here. And by the looks of it From did a terrific job of making a good pc game.

 

[akira28]

BASED Durante.

Praise Him.

This went from wait and see, to buy immediately. Mmph.

 

[Dr Dogg]

Great work Durante. One thing I did notice was this.

Both of these settings, and some higher-quality alternatives, will be discussed in more detail in our upcoming Dark Souls 2 tweak guide.

Are you having a hand in that or is it part of PC Gamers coverage?

 

[Gaz_RB]

Looking forward to it. Thanks for the write up, D

 

[ComputerMKII]

Thanks a lot, Durante.

 

[UnrealEck]

Maybe they're learning bit by bit how to do a PC game. Next game should hopefully look like a PC game through and through. But then they'll also probably be working with better console specs for that one anyway.

 

[Odrion]

Will the game be compatible with the Dualshock 4?

 

[NEO0MJ]

Nice info. Glad I waited for the PC port.

 

[FaidSint]

Really cool Durante! Very interesting and a pleasure to share the same community as you!

 

[Durante]

About that YMMV screenshot: Yes, there are areas where you can look at parts of levels which could absolutely use some more clutter, instead of an endlessly repeating texture. Those aren't really technical issues as much as oversights in the level design, IMHO, but they do make the visual experience more uneven.

I do not think that Dark Souls 2 is unique in that though, it happens to most games that aren't "AAA" or focused on tiny or linear areas. The same was true e.g. for DS1.

 

[-COOLIO-]

wow, great article! well done, sir.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

This might be a dumb question, but I was wondering... does the PC version fix the equipment clipping (or any kind of clipping)? When I mix and match armour pieces, sometimes it looks fine until I check it at a certain angle or move around a bit, then the hood clips horribly into the chest piece, or the chest piece and skirt clip into each others, and so on. (This was a problem in previous games too, mind you.) I've even had a helm's plume clip into my large club. XD
I'm guessing that the PC version won't change that, as it's probably nothing to do with resolutions or texture assets, but I wonder...

 

[Bob White]

Good work, Durante. Very good article.

 

[VandalD]

I've been hoping that Dark Souls 2 performs better on equivalent systems than the first game does with DSfix. My computer is puny and weak.

Thanks for all the work, Durante.

 

[syko de4d]

Sounds awesome, is DS2 maybe even more modable than DS1?

 

[SolidsnackooFoxhound]

Will the game be compatible with the Dualshock 4?

Not native but you can get it to work using other software.