• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Dark Souls 2 Engine Created with Next-Gen in Mind

Shinjica said:
I dont think pirating is the reason. Probably the PC version is priced less than the console one.
Click to expand...

1242.gif


I can't think of another reason and this such a publisher thing to do.
 
Poetic.Injustice said:
The screens sure don't show it.
Click to expand...
One gen's games aren't gonna magically look like the next generations games just because the engine is somewhat future-proofed. The PS360 hardware still sets restrictions to how the game can look even on PCs.

Steez said:
lol, I don't get GAF's obsession with cross-gen games. It's not like FROM would put in the effort to create a super amazing next-gen version.
Click to expand...
It's not all about graphics, it's just that a lot of people might retire their PS360s or not use them much anymore once they get a console of the new gen. So they'd rather have a PS4 or Xbone version because those are the consoles they more actively use, not necessarily for the graphical upgrades (although, if the game runs like ass on PS360, then of course smoother framerate & higher IQ are huge bonuses).
 
Famassu said:
It's not all about graphics, it's just that a lot of people might retire their PS360s or not use them much anymore once they get a console of the new gen. So they'd rather have a PS4 or Xbone version because those are the consoles they more actively use, not necessarily for the graphical upgrades (although, if the game runs like ass on PS360, then of course smoother framerate & higher IQ are huge bonuses).
Click to expand...


Hmm, I guess that's true, but I just can't shake the feeling that a lot of people here expect too much out of cross-gen titles.
 
I think they should fire whichever person has been taking the horrible screenshots that we've been seeing of Dark Souls 2. Whenever I see a screenshot update for Dark Souls 2 I say to myself "oh no...". Whenever I see it in motion, it looks just fine like Dark Souls 1, just with some better lighting effects.

I really dislike nearly the entire Dark Souls 2 marketing. It feels exaggerated and Holywoodized.
 
Interfectum said:
1403508_567436243329424_1825174174_o.jpg
Click to expand...

I'll have a side of Blighttown-esque frame rate issues to go with that, thank you!

In all seriousness, a game's screenshots matter not to me. The Souls games, in motion -- being played, are a thing of beauty. I don't expect any less from Dark Souls II. That said, I'm curious as to how the PC version of the game will turn out, visually (not just resolution, but frame rate, etc).
 
Dark Souls was like going to church for me, guys. Such a revelation. The day they announce current-gen versions I shall dance like a schoolgirl.

I don't even own my 360 any more so my only chance is my PS4! Here's my hope; I'm currently playing Tomb Raider: DE. I LOVE what they did with the Torch and the light bar in that game. How it'll cast red and yellow light around your room to make the lighting flicker like Lara's torch. I hope they do that when you use a torch or pyromancy in DS2.
 
Damnit. A quick n dirty PS4 port would have been so nice.

Now I'm going to have to resist rebuying a PS3 for this. It really does sound like it's going to be more than a few weeks.
 
Ampersands said:
Truly old school!
Click to expand...

I like how everyone keeps quoting this image. Now compare that image to the other images put out for the game and videos and tell me they all look like that. To me this looks like a early build image with it being devoid of many typical effects such as normals, specular highlites, good lighting etc. and just how plain flat it looks. Plenty of other screens look beautiful and so did DS1 so for everyone to keep taking pot shots from this one screen tells me they weren't much caring to give the game any attention anyway.

Also future proofing the engine has nothing to do with how it looks now, remember Crytek trumpeting how future proof Crysis 2 was, and that games' PC version didn't stand up to that scrutiny for months after it released so they could put in a patch later that still didn't wow many. Guess that means we'll get PS4/Xbone releases of every "future proof" game that was quoted last gen, right? Guess every sheep who bought any game quoted as having a "future proof" engine should have waited for the next gen versions.
 
I think that comment was obviously directed at future Souls games. Similar to how Dice always talked about their new Frostbite engine, for example.

There may well be some port of DS2 at some point but this is in my opinion not the big give-away. Games with "old engines" get ported to PS4/Xbone just fine. If a game runs on PC, you can pretty much port it to these consoles without much hassle. The comment rather hinted at new capabilities of the new engine that we will see in future titles, not so much in DS2.
 
The PC version of Dark Souls (at least on my gaming laptop) played perfectly.

A next-gen Dark Souls 2 would be fantastic

Please Shu, get started on Demon's Souls 2
 
H3XAntiStyle said:
You know, those animations really stuck out to me when I first saw it, but somehow they've grown on me in just the few videos I've seen of the beta. Maybe they'd improved it a bit, but everything looks a LOT more fluid than DS1 or Demon's. Hell in Demon's you looked straight up weightless the way they ran.
Click to expand...

Here is a man that was hollow a lot in demon's....you were supposed to be floating in soul form...that was the whole idea! they even took off the colour and the sound to make it seem like you were floating even MORE.! lol
 
Seance said:
Wut? Dark Souls has some amazing lighting effects, textures and character/equipment models.
Click to expand...

It's funny how people fixate so much on some of the armor and NPC details, while ignoring some of the truly awful terrain/architecture textures that are totally low res and stick out like a sore thumb. They never bothered me while the game was in motion, but I had to keep bringing those up when people make claims about how superior the PC Dark Souls looks. Yep, those 4k+ res screenshots that nobody plays at that go out of their way to show up close battle shots, or character shots that completely omit 80% of the bad textures are how the game looks all of the time...

FROM may have had higher assets just wasting away on the consoles, but they didn't bother to upgrade the really bad assets when porting it to the PC. If these screenshots of the PS3/360 versions are any indication, they are probably going to be doing the same thing again with the Dark Souls 2 PC. You can remove as much aliasing as you want, but crappy textures at higher resolutions are still going to look like crappy textures.
 
Sanctuary said:
It's funny how people fixate so much on some of the armor and NPC details, while ignoring some of the truly awful terrain/architecture textures that are totally low res and stick out like a sore thumb. They never bothered me while the game was in motion, but I had to keep bringing those up when people make claims about how superior the PC Dark Souls looks. Yep, those 4k+ res screenshots that nobody plays at that go out of their way to show up close battle shots, or character shots that completely omit 80% of the bad textures are how the game looks all of the time...

FROM may have had higher assets just wasting away on the consoles, but they didn't bother to upgrade the really bad assets when porting it to the PC. If these screenshots of the PS3/360 versions are any indication, they are probably going to be doing the same thing again with the Dark Souls 2 PC. You can remove as much aliasing as you want, but crappy textures at higher resolutions are still going to look like crappy textures.
Click to expand...

Um, DS2 on PC really isn't very demanding. I'm running it at 1080 with DSFix and getting a rock solid 30FPS. This is on a laptop.

Anyone with a proper gaming PC could easily get it running at 30FPS and downsampled from something nearing 4K. It's not that difficult. For such a bad port originally, performance was amazing.
 
Vitor711 said:
Um, DS2 on PC really isn't very demanding. I'm running it at 1080 with DSFix and getting a rock solid 30FPS. This is on a laptop.

Anyone with a proper gaming PC could easily get it running at 30FPS and downsampled from something nearing 4K. It's not that difficult. For such a bad port originally, performance was amazing.
Click to expand...

Okay, I guess...if you really want to play at 30fps? And who said anything about 1080p? I said people aren't playing at the 4k+ resolutions that the screenshots are taken. Even a GTX 780 on a modern PC can't run the game at a stable 60fps at those resolutions, and would be lucky to never drop below 30fps.

And how are you playing Dark Souls 2 anyway?
 
Sanctuary said:
Okay, I guess...if you really want to play at 30fps? And who said anything about 1080p? I said people aren't playing at the 4k+ resolutions that the screenshots are taken. Even a GTX 780 on a modern PC can't run the game at a stable 60fps at those resolutions, and would be lucky to never drop below 30fps.

And how are you playing Dark Souls 2 anyway?
Click to expand...

You're wrong, at least at default DsFix settings, save for 4k resolution. This insanity was running at 60fps the whole time. Quick and dirty.

http://i5.minus.com/iF3q4jV48f9a0.png
http://i3.minus.com/iCySR0mCI22Jt.png

Everything maxed is about 35~.

Sure, there are a lot of rough areas in this game. You can see some very rough edges in the second shot. But the higher resolutions + 16x AF really does make even the worst assets in the game light years better than the console version.

EDIT: For fun. Here's two nearly identical 8k shots, Default DsFix settings. Had to convert to JPEG because the file sizes were ridiculous.

http://i4.minus.com/ibqHt70vLcPR2t.jpg
http://i4.minus.com/ibmC4yiVi1MvIY.jpg

First one was 23fps, the second was 27fps. Someone used to the 360/PS3 version could play like this just fine.
 
copelandmaster said:
You're wrong, at least at default DsFix settings, save for 4k resolution. This insanity was running at 60fps the whole time. Quick and dirty.
Click to expand...

I'm not even sure what you're trying to say here.


Everything maxed is about 35~.
Sure, there are a lot of rough areas in this game. You can see some very rough edges in the second shot. But the higher resolutions + 16x AF really does make even the worst assets in the game light years better than the console version.
First one was 23fps, the second was 27fps. Someone used to the 360/PS3 version could play like this just fine.
Click to expand...

Why would you ever choose to play at 23 - 27fps if you have the option to play over double that? Can't speak for everyone, but there's a much more noticeable difference to me between playing at 30fps to 60fps than there is jumping up from 1440p to resolutions that look nice in screenshots or standing still where *some* details stand out slightly more, yet you can't possibly tell the differnece outside of AA while the game is in motion and you're focusing on your character.

Anyway, my real point was only that despite there being some nice textures in the game, there's some equally bland, and outright awful textures all over the game world. And because they did that with the PC version of the first game, and many of the static shots of the console versions look really crummy, expect to see a similar amount of low res textures in the PC version of the sequel. Dark Souls PC did not have high assets all throughout. They were mostly on armor, weapons and NPCs with a lot of average terrain textures with a lot of low res on top.
 
Sanctuary said:
I'm not even sure what you're trying to say here.
Click to expand...

I was saying that a stable 4k60fps is possibility at default DsFix settings running on a GTX 780. Just correcting a misconception. If the display hardware was reasonably priced, you'd definitely see a difference in real time.

I get what your original point was, and it is not unfounded. The game is a visual mixed bag. However, If 8k display hardware was available, a good case could be made for playing at "bullshot" resolutions with half the framerate, even if the game's assets are console level.
 
Sanctuary said:
Okay, I guess...if you really want to play at 30fps? And who said anything about 1080p? I said people aren't playing at the 4k+ resolutions that the screenshots are taken. Even a GTX 780 on a modern PC can't run the game at a stable 60fps at those resolutions, and would be lucky to never drop below 30fps.

And how are you playing Dark Souls 2 anyway?
Click to expand...

I meant DS1.

Anyway, as pointed out by others here, running it at 60FPS at 4K isn't a pipe dream if you have a high end GPU. So yes, some people are playing at that resolution with a decent framerate.

And if you're happy to run at 30FPS with no dips, it's even more viable. Since most of the DeS and DaS playerbase are console users who get even below that in terms of performance, I don't think that being 'forced' to go with 30FPS at 4K is that much of an issue.

Some people might prefer that to a 60FPS refresh. Not for everyone, but it's certainly possible.
 
The first thing I noticed were the upgraded lighting and shaders, which look really beautiful in motion. Even so, youtube videos are not a perfect example of a game in motion. I can't wait to see it in person.
On the PC.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Dark Souls Demake - Bit Souls Demastered
1
239
Signalis replied
  • Poll
Are you looking forward to next gen in 2027?
2 3 4
168
1K
InterMusketeer replied
  • Poll
Dark Souls Path Tracing mod, yay or nay?
2 3
123
1K
Gp1 replied
Dark Souls - RTX Remix - Early WIP Test
Trailer Platform Indie 
3
208
skneogaf replied
  • Poll
Will PS6/Xbox next finally offer true next-gen graphics?
2 3 4 5 6
262
2K
RayHell replied
Top Bottom