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Dark Souls internal rendering resolution fix (DSfix)

M

mr_nothin

Banned
zephervack said:
Yeah I used to get this a lot at the beginning, you gotta push through, if you are getting one shot killed then you are probably going the wrong way, if it seems like you have a chance if you play strategically then just carry on.
Click to expand...

Yea, that's what I've been doing. The game throws so many powerful looking enemies at you at once sometimes though. I just beat a boss and around the corner I'm hit with 1 hit that takes down 80% of my health (I just replenished my health right before too!). Then I move along only to see these other group of guys and I'm like wtf and then right after that there's more! I love it lol.

The game really encourages you to explore and not "just go forward and kill stuff". If you do that, you'll just keep dying but then the next time you get to that area, you examine it a little more and something clicks and you're like "OMG SO THATS WHAT IM SUPPOSED TO DO". But then the next encounter takes you through all of that again. Really makes you second guess yourself and I'm loving that about it. I'm about 3 - 5 hours in.
 
L

Ledsen

Member
mr_nothin said:
This game scares the crap out of me. I hate turning a corner to see a guy that I know I cant beat, just by looking at his armor and weapon. I proceed to go another route only to hit a corner to see another guy but this time I'm so freakin close that he's chasing me and then he chases me into another guy that I know I cant beat.

It freaks me out so much and I'm not even that far into the game. But this is what I miss from games!!! Reminds me of being ammo-less and ribbon-less (which means no saving) in the early Resident Evil games.
Click to expand...

So you're at the Burg/Parish facing skeletons with armor and capes I'm guessing? They're actually very easy, you can block all their attacks and they get staggered.
 
C

Carm

Member
This is unrelated to the mod, but figured I'd ask a tech question in here. Does the game start in window mode for everyone then pops into fullscreen? Is there anyway to stop that?
 
A

Arksy

Member
Is an unlock to the 30fps setting on the horizon or possible at all? Just want to know if waiting for one is going to yield nothing and should just get it now anyway.

Thanks.
 
S

StarCreator

Member
Arksy said:
Is an unlock to the 30fps setting on the horizon or possible at all? Just want to know if waiting for one is going to yield nothing and should just get it now anyway.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

I believe it's been confirmed that game logic is tied to framerate, so increasing it beyond 30 is likely beyond reasonable expectations.
 
D

Durante

Member
Arksy said:
Is an unlock to the 30fps setting on the horizon or possible at all? Just want to know if waiting for one is going to yield nothing and should just get it now anyway.

Thanks.
Click to expand...
Unless someone smarter than me invests more time than me (which would basically be a full-time job) into it -- or From releases a patch of course -- it probably won't happen. It could always be that someone finds the magic variable that controls game speed relative to framerate in the game's memory of course, but I wouldn't get my hopes up.
 
E

Eusis

Member
Arksy said:
Is an unlock to the 30fps setting on the horizon or possible at all? Just want to know if waiting for one is going to yield nothing and should just get it now anyway.

Thanks.
Click to expand...
In addition to the above, it WAS immediately unlocked but would run at double speed at 60 FPS, and who knows how ridiculous it'd look at 120 FPS or whatever. It's best to resign yourself as making 30+ FPS work is going to be way harder than unlocking the resolution.
 
A

Arksy

Member
I guess I'll pick this up now then. 30fps isn't ideal but at least it will look good on this monitor. Thanks again and well done for doing this for everyone Durante. :)
 
D

drizzle

Axel Hertz
Durante said:
I fell into a hole, lost 12k souls, 3 humanity and got cursed on top of that :/
Click to expand...

Everybody says that being cursed is a pain in the ass...

I wouldn't know, as I went through The Depths and didn't get cursed once.

Blighttown, however... Goddamn poisoned arrows or whatever the fuck are those. Good thing I farmed Dark Root Basin by accident and had a shitload of moss clumps...
 
M

mr_nothin

Banned
Ledsen said:
So you're at the Burg/Parish facing skeletons with armor and capes I'm guessing? They're actually very easy, you can block all their attacks and they get staggered.
Click to expand...

Exactly where I am. I mean, I'll figure them out and get past it. It was just scary as hell not knowing how much damage they could deal. Especially after I didnt mess with the 1st one, only to explore more and run into another one out of nowhere who made me get confused and run into another one and then they ganged up on me lol. All of this right after beating a boss and seeing that big Boar with armor.
 
P

Perkel

Banned
Durante said:
dump011__oldrendertar5vjmo.png


Now, that may not look as nice as most other screens in this thread, but I'm finally getting somewhere in understanding how the game does its rendering. (It only took dumping every single buffer at every single step during one frame, filling about 5GB of HDD space)
Click to expand...

I want to play like that :D
 
D

Durante

Member
DSfix 0.9

This release should fix some reported bugs:

- Save backups should now be correctly limited to the amount specified
- Language override is more resilient in case of crashes (original settings will still be restored at the next shutdown) and cleans up the registry once it restores the original settings

It also introduces 2 new features:

- HUD-less screenshots can be taken with F5. (This is a bit slow and only does bmp right now, I’ll fix that when I have time)
- The big one: SMAA integration.

SMAA is integrated correctly with the rendering pipline. Compared to using an injector, this means that (a) you can combine it with any amounts of downsampling (or up) as desired and (b) only the rendered image is processed. You can select the level of SMAA in the ini, from one of the predefined quality presets (off, low, medium, high and ultra).
 
S

Shiden

Banned
Shiden said:
Is it possible to add an option to select which monitor the game displays on? For example, my main monitor is 16:10 native where as my TV which is a bit smaller is native 16:9, but I don't want all apps and my desktop main to display on my TV..so...monitor override?
Click to expand...

I have to wonder if a single fuck was given to what I had to ask. :|
 
M

MvmntInGrn

Member
HUD-less screenshots is a great feature, I'll be taking more of them as I play for sure. SMAA is great as well, but I am curious if I should enable it if I'm currently playing with 4xMSAA at 1080P (want to stay at 1080 for AO).
 
D

Durante

Member
Shiden said:
I have to wonder if a single fuck was given to what I had to ask. :|
Click to expand...
I try to consider all the 5000 things people ask of me, but I can't do them all at once. In my spare time.

And what you want should already be possible anyway. Just use windowed mode, drag the window to the display you want it on and press F8.
 
Jackben

Jackben

bitch I'm taking calls.
Shiden said:
I have to wonder if a single fuck was given to what I had to ask. :|
Click to expand...
Come on, man. That's a bit rude. He answered anyway.

Durante said:
DSfix 0.9

This release should fix some reported bugs:

- Save backups should now be correctly limited to the amount specified
- Language override is more resilient in case of crashes (original settings will still be restored at the next shutdown) and cleans up the registry once it restores the original settings

It also introduces 2 new features:

- HUD-less screenshots can be taken with F5. (This is a bit slow and only does bmp right now, I’ll fix that when I have time)
- The big one: SMAA integration..
Click to expand...
Man it just keeps getting better and better. Thanks again dude.
 
Z

Zzoram

Member
What is SMAA? If we turn that on, for us Radeon users, do we still have to force 2xAA in drivers to get proper performance?
 
S

Sullichin

Member
Durante said:
DSfix 0.9

This release should fix some reported bugs:

- Save backups should now be correctly limited to the amount specified
- Language override is more resilient in case of crashes (original settings will still be restored at the next shutdown) and cleans up the registry once it restores the original settings

It also introduces 2 new features:

- HUD-less screenshots can be taken with F5. (This is a bit slow and only does bmp right now, I’ll fix that when I have time)
- The big one: SMAA integration.

SMAA is integrated correctly with the rendering pipline. Compared to using an injector, this means that (a) you can combine it with any amounts of downsampling (or up) as desired and (b) only the rendered image is processed. You can select the level of SMAA in the ini, from one of the predefined quality presets (off, low, medium, high and ultra).
Click to expand...

Thanks Durante!
 
Z

zephervack

Member
Shiden said:
I have to wonder if a single fuck was given to what I had to ask. :|
Click to expand...

Shiden said:
Seems like my FPS display request was pretty silly considering all the programs out there that can display a FPS counter. Well I have an even better request Durante! Possible to add an option to select which monitor the game displays on? For example, my main monitor is 16:10 native where as my TV which is a bit smaller is native 16:9, but I don't want all apps and my desktop main to display on my TV..so...monitor override? :D

Great work btw, if I had a job would totally donate to ya. It's the thought that counts!
Click to expand...


I have this same scenario, no need for Durante to do anything, just set your TV as your primary screen and thats it, if you find it annoying to do, just create a profile for your Nvidia control panel or AMD CC profile.

I press CTRl+F1 to play on my monitor, and Ctrl+F2 to play on my TV.

Problem solved.

BTW I have 5 screens connected to my PC and using profiles with hotkeys is way easier than anything else.

--------------------------------------

How does the SMAA stuff work? Should I get a SMAA tool somewhere else?

Nevermind, just read the release notes, shame on me :)
 
D

Durante

Member
By the way, I had never used SMAA before, but it really convinced me. It still can't escape the fact that it's a postprocessing method, but among those it seems like the best choice.

Zzoram said:
What is SMAA? If we turn that on, for us Radeon users, do we still have to force 2xAA in drivers to get proper performance?
Click to expand...
SMAA is a post-processing AA method similar to FXAA in principle, but better. It will increase your GPU load so in a way it should accomplish something similar to forcing AA (but this one will also increase image quality!).
 
Quote

Quote

Member
Hm, installed 0.9 and now the game doesn't launch at all, my name turns green on the friends list in Steam as if i'm in it, then it just goes back to blue. Dark Souls doesn't show an icon in my taskbar but it shows up in Task Manager. If i "delete local content" from Steam, will that remove my saves too?
 
Z

zephervack

Member
Quote said:
Hm, installed 0.9 and now the game doesn't launch at all, my name turns green on the friends list in Steam as if i'm in it, then it just goes back to blue. Dark Souls doesn't show an icon in my taskbar but it shows up in Task Manager. If i "delete local content" from Steam, will that remove my saves too?
Click to expand...

Does it launch without the fix?

Also consider backing up your saves with Gamesavemanager before you do anything.
 
D

drizzle

Axel Hertz
Isn't SMAA the Anti Aliasing that's not made in the image rendering section of the frame creating, but just a post-effect filter that blurs everything?

Screw that!
 
Quote

Quote

Member
zephervack said:
Does it launch without the fix?

Also consider backing up your saves with Gamesavemanager before you do anything.
Click to expand...
Wait i'm sorry. With the fix it shows it launches per my name color in friends, but nothing ever happens. If I remove the fix, the game launches per my name color and in task manager. In either case it never shows on up the task bar.
 
O

Orayn

Member
drizzle said:
Isn't SMAA the Anti Aliasing that's not made in the image rendering section of the frame creating, but just a post-effect filter that blurs everything?

Screw that!
Click to expand...

It's a compromise between traditional AA techniques and post-processing ones. While it is more performance-intensive than FXAA, it hurts the IQ a lot less and, if I understand correctly, Durante has it implemented in a way that doesn't affect 2D UI elements.
 
Z

zephervack

Member
Quote said:
Wait i'm sorry. With the fix it shows it launches per my name color in friends, but nothing ever happens. If I remove the fix, the game launches per my name color and in task manager. In either case it never shows on up the task bar.
Click to expand...

You sure you are not getting the steam message saying "the game is already running" or something like that???

If not, then maybe you need to verify your cache, but backup your saves to another folder before you do anything, im not sure though so dont blame me for anything lol.
 
M

MvmntInGrn

Member
Does anybody else experience FPS drops when using the binoculars? Wanting some pictures without my character I've started using them but my FPS will drop to 15 sometimes, its always consistent (example when zooming in on the statue at firelink shrine) or at a certain area of land. My FPS during all other times (even bonfires, but maybe not the dragon bridge) is 30.
 
D

Durante

Member
drizzle said:
Isn't SMAA the Anti Aliasing that's not made in the image rendering section of the frame creating, but just a post-effect filter that blurs everything?
Click to expand...
It is a post-processing method, like FXAA and MLAA, but it's the best of those. Saying "it just blurs everything" is a bit dismissive of the great work that has gone into it. You know what "just blurs everything"? The built-in "AA" of the game ;)

Really, I'm as skeptical of post-processing AA methods as they come, but SMAA is not bad at all, especially combined with some mild downsampling (which, by nature of being an ordered grid "AA" method, doesn't deal well with edge angles that are really nicely handled by SMAA).

Orayn said:
It's a compromise between traditional AA techniques and post-processing ones. While it is more performance-intensive than FXAA, it hurts the IQ a lot less and, if I understand correctly, Durante has it implemented in a way that doesn't affect 2D UI elements.
Click to expand...
Yes. It's done before the UI is rendered.
 
Quote

Quote

Member
zephervack said:
You sure you are not getting the steam message saying "the game is already running" or something like that???

If not, then maybe you need to verify your cache, but backup your saves to another folder before you do anything, im not sure though so dont blame me for anything lol.
Click to expand...
Used GameSave Manager. I'll try that. No worries!

Edit: didn't work. Deleting local content with my fingers crossed.
 
O

Orayn

Member
Durante said:
It is a post-processing method, like FXAA and MLAA, but it's the best of those. Saying "it just blurs everything" is a bit dismissive of the great work that has gone into it. You know what "just blurs everything"? The built-in "AA" of the game ;)

Really, I'm as skeptical of post-processing AA methods as they come, but SMAA is not bad at all, especially combined with some mild downsampling (which, by nature of being an ordered grid "AA" method, doesn't deal well with edge angles that are really nicely handled by SMAA).

Yes. It's done before the UI is rendered.
Click to expand...

As someone with a modest video card (GTX 260) that can only run the game around 1.5x native res, SMAA sounds absolutely perfect for me! I'll test it out as soon as I'm able and let you know if it crashes or does anything strange.
 
D

Durante

Member
Corky said:
Not here chief, crashes on all smaa settings, works well without.
Click to expand...
Did you put the "dsfix" folder into the "DATA" folder of the game (the same loaction as the dll)?
If so, try launching the game directly from explorer (DARKSOULS.exe).
 
C

Corky

Nine out of ten orphans can't tell the difference.
Durante said:
Did you put the "dsfix" folder into the "DATA" folder of the game (the same loaction as the dll)?
If so, try launching the game directly from explorer (DARKSOULS.exe).
Click to expand...

Well that's odd, for some reason it didn't crash when I booted it straight from explorer.
 
C

Corky

Nine out of ten orphans can't tell the difference.
Durante said:
That's not odd, that actually confirms my suspicion ;). Will fix ASAP, thanks for testing.
Click to expand...

Haha hopefully it wasn't just something my dumb ass attributed to then :3

Man this is so cool, the level of AA from the downsampling and SMAA has pretty much reached the pixeldensity of my screen I bet I wouldn't be able to notice further AA

Ultra SMAA @ 6400x3600 resolution, Original version

Resized version :

screenshot_2012-09-04vqonr.png
 
R

rybrad

Member
I am having issues in my game where things that emit light in dark places (flowers in the forest) or dark shadows (looking down into the pit in Blighttown) in general have like rings of translucent light around them that look washed out. Does anyone know if there is a way to change that? I know this doesn't have anything to do with the mod but all the PC geniuses seem to be in this thread. My setup is all default settings (nothing changed in inspector) except using double my res in DSfix.
 
S

Sullichin

Member
rybrad said:
I am having issues in my game where things that emit light in dark places (flowers in the forest) or dark shadows (looking down into the pit in Blighttown) in general have like rings of translucent light around them that look washed out. Does anyone know if there is a way to change that? I know this doesn't have anything to do with the mod but all the PC geniuses seem to be in this thread. My setup is all default settings (nothing changed in inspector) except using double my res in DSfix.
Click to expand...

Make sure that the resolution setting in the game is set to 32 bit and not 16 bit. That's just a guess though
 
S

scitek

Member
Corky said:
Haha hopefully it wasn't just something my dumb ass attributed to then :3

Man this is so cool, the level of AA from the downsampling and SMAA has pretty much reached the pixeldensity of my screen I bet I wouldn't be able to notice further AA

Ultra SMAA @ 6400x3600 resolution, Original version

Resized version
Click to expand...

So you have the game set to 3200x1800, then are internally rendering at 6400x3600? So you're downsampling twice?

I have a GTX 670, too, but I can't seem to maintain a steady framerate like that.
 
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