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[FlyinJ]

I started playing Dreamfall (the original) on PC last night.

It does hold up pretty well, especially in respects to native controller support and allowing for a ton of resolutions.

However, in the third chapter, holy crap at the "Chinese street merchant". What a ridiculously offensive stereotype.

It seriously felt like something out of 1981.

 

[epmode]

Doesn't he play up the stereotype to sell more of his crap? Like, he knows tourists dig it. Funcom/Red Thread's writers are too smart to put in casual racism or sterotyping.

 

[derFeef]

I started playing Dreamfall (the original) on PC last night.

It does hold up pretty well, especially in respects to native controller support and allowing for a ton of resolutions.

However, in the third chapter, holy crap at the "Chinese street merchant". What a ridiculously offensive stereotype.

It seriously felt like something out of 1981.

He's just acting.

 

[Corpekata]

Wow performance is TERRIBLE in the city.

 

[dreamfall]

What is

Spoiler

Shitbot? I seem to have missed that.

[Spoiler, Europolis section]

Spoiler

Did you check out Pandemonium in Europolis? You're introduced to Mira and Wit, and she sends you on a job to hang out with Shitbot to see what tasks it's capable of handling. What ensues is pure hilarity, and some neat city exploration adventure.

I haven't finished much after this section, just strolling about!

 

[Durante]

Doesn't he play up the stereotype to sell more of his crap? Like, he knows tourists dig it. Funcom/Red Thread's writers are too smart to put in casual racism or sterotyping.

Yeah, IIRC that's what's happening. I thought it was rather clever.

 

[FoneBone]

Was excited to try it out last night, but the results were sorta disappointing:

1. It refuses to detect my gamepad (a generic xinput controller with which I've had no prior issues).
2. Clearly not the only one, but the performance is awful - on all but the lowest settings, the framerate frequently drops into the 20s and even teens. I don't have a top-of-the-line system - playing on a laptop with a GeForce 650M GT - but given the games I've been able to run without a hitch on there, I don't think I should be having this much difficulty.

 

[jrcbandit]

Unity is a crappy engine when it comes to large environments. Only getting around 27-40 fps on an i7 4770k and 970 gtx in the city. Anyone have any idea what SLI profile I should try? I didn't check, but with that crappy FPS I assume SLI is not working.

 

[Broder Salsa]

As someone who never finished The Longest Journey, for some reason despite liking it a lot, is the game good enough at explaining stuff or should i read up on wiki or whatever?

 

[wrowa]

Unity is a crappy engine when it comes to large environments. Only getting around 27-40 fps on an i7 4770k and 970 gtx in the city. Anyone have any idea what SLI profile I should try? I didn't check, but with that crappy FPS I assume SLI is not working.

Damn, I thought the game would run easily even on older systems. Disappointing to hear that even with those specs you won't have a completely smooth experience.

 

[Basileus777]

Unity is a crappy engine when it comes to large environments. Only getting around 27-40 fps on an i7 4770k and 970 gtx in the city. Anyone have any idea what SLI profile I should try? I didn't check, but with that crappy FPS I assume SLI is not working.

That's pretty shocking for that hardware.

 

[ab.aeterno]

Truly disappointing if performance problems are that pronounced, at specs above recommended. I'll add a note at the top of the Spec section tonight about the performance problems in the city.

 

[petethepanda]

Played for just a minute to try it out last night. I'm kind of surprised at how good it feels, movement and interaction and everything (m/kb).

 

[FoneBone]

Truly disappointing if performance problems are that pronounced, at specs above recommended. I'll add a note at the top of the Spec section tonight about the performance problems in the city.

The city seems to be the worst, but it's not the only place where people are having problems (I haven't even gotten past the opening area). And I have a quadcore i7, 8GB of RAM, and a 2GB midrange GeForce GPU - all of which are well above the recommended requirements.

 

[Dimitri2401]

2. Clearly not the only one, but the performance is awful - on all but the lowest settings, the framerate frequently drops into the 20s and even teens. I don't have a top-of-the-line system - playing on a laptop with a GeForce 650M GT - but given the games I've been able to run without a hitch on there, I don't think I shoul gd be having this much difficulty.

Especially since the minimum specs on the store page are really low (HD4000 and Core2 Duo).

I guess there is still room for optimization, and considering how hard they were crunching these last days, they probably didn't have time to fully take care of that.

 

[Slowdive]

The city is pretty much unplayable for me, my PC isn't the best but way above minimum specs, glad to hear it's not just me having problems.

 

[teiresias]

"Fullscreen" also seems to actually be a borderless window rather than true fullscreen so that probably isn't helping performance issues.

 

[TheExodu5]

"Fullscreen" also seems to actually be a borderless window rather than true fullscreen so that probably isn't helping performance issues.

God damnit. That means no GSync here. Though, GSync is already mostly useless if the game can't maintain at least 30fps.

 

[FoneBone]

"Fullscreen" also seems to actually be a borderless window rather than true fullscreen so that probably isn't helping performance issues.

Speaking as a less-than-technically-knowledgeable gamer... how does that affect performance?

 

[Durante]

Allow me a small self-quote from the screenshot thread, just to express my admiration for the graphics/art in this game.

Should still run much better though in terms of performance.

Holy crap this game is beautiful, far more so than I expected. Also runs like shit at 4k

Speaking as a less-than-technically-knowledgeable gamer... how does that affect performance?

Not much. The game just doesn't perform particularly well, regardless of running in borderless fullscreen.

That said, I don't think there are any high-end / large Unity games which perform well for what they do. If they want to go for this level of fidelity (and I love it!) they should have gone UE4. Too bad they didn't have the new licensing deal in place back then.

 

[- J - D -]

Nice shots, Durante. It's a beautiful game with fantastic art design -- but I agree with you and those who say the game doesn't run as well as it should given how it doesn't look like quite the most technically demanding game out there.

On my stout rig (two 780 Ti cards, blah blah blah), I'm getting drastically fluctuating framerates in the Europolis chapter. Between 20-60fps. The game doesn't push my graphics cards very hard, but for some reason they are throttling down while running this game.

(ignore the mem2 reading, it's buggy here but reads normal in afterburner)

Unity is a crappy engine when it comes to large environments. Only getting around 27-40 fps on an i7 4770k and 970 gtx in the city. Anyone have any idea what SLI profile I should try? I didn't check, but with that crappy FPS I assume SLI is not working.

I managed to get SLI working by adding the game's exe to the Dreamfall profile in nvidia inspector. I didn't find that it improved performance tremendously. Still getting 20fps in some spots.

 

[Dynamite Ringo Matsuri]

Finally got this game running on my rMBP and performance is spotty as hell. Never mind that though, I seem to be getting sporadic slowdown in cutscenes and what's really bothersome is I'm getting these strange flickering black squares? What's that all about? Is this the lens flare glitch that I keep hearing about?

 

[Durante]

Flickering black squares? Your GPU is fucked. Call Apple.

 

[Chance Hale]

Game looks way better than it did in screens, although the insane variation on a 780Ti is a bit of a bummer. Going to wait to play more until my RoG Swift comes in tomorrow.

Fake edit: Just saw above that the game doesn't have a true fullscreen option, is that fixable? I want to use gsync.

 

[Kimaka]

[Spoiler, Europolis section]

Spoiler

Did you check out Pandemonium in Europolis? You're introduced to Mira and Wit, and she sends you on a job to hang out with Shitbot to see what tasks it's capable of handling. What ensues is pure hilarity, and some neat city exploration adventure.

I haven't finished much after this section, just strolling about!

Spoiler

I tried but couldn't get into Pandemonium. Looking around the Red Thread Games forums, it looks like whether you get Kidbot or Shitbot is determined by your choice in the beginning. I chose the path that was and got Kidbot. It helped Zoe put synthetic algae in the polluted water at the Propast docks. I don't remember the specifics but it was for school since she went back to get her biochemistry degree.

 

[wanderingprostheyltite]

Sooo

Spoiler

where do I go once in the city? I already bought some sausages from the vendor but when I try to use the call box outside a building by the pier she says she needs to get food. Do I need a specific kind of food to enter? If so where?

 

[Faxanadu 2: Breadaloo]

Finally got this game running on my rMBP and performance is spotty as hell. Never mind that though, I seem to be getting sporadic slowdown in cutscenes and what's really bothersome is I'm getting these strange flickering black squares? What's that all about? Is this the lens flare glitch that I keep hearing about?

Have the exact same problem on my Macbook Air. Granted its not exactly a beast of a laptop but I was definitely hoping it would actually play the game, but the black squares are abundant.

 

[Dynamite Ringo Matsuri]

Have the exact same problem on my Macbook Air. Granted its not exactly a beast of a laptop but I was definitely hoping it would actually play the game, but the black squares are abundant.

Well thank god. Durante's post scared the shit outta me :l

 

[Conezays]

Nice shots, Durante. It's a beautiful game with fantastic art design -- but I agree with you and those who say the game doesn't run as well as it should given how it doesn't look like quite the most technically demanding game out there.

On my stout rig (two 780 Ti cards, blah blah blah), I'm getting drastically fluctuating framerates in the Europolis chapter. Between 20-60fps. The game doesn't push my graphics cards very hard, but for some reason they are throttling down while running this game.

(ignore the mem2 reading, it's buggy here but reads normal in afterburner)




I managed to get SLI working by adding the game's exe to the Dreamfall profile in nvidia inspector. I didn't find that it improved performance tremendously. Still getting 20fps in some spots.

What resolution are you running it at? I have a 780 Ti myself, and wondering what settings are realistic. Currently marathonning TLJ and Dreamfall before starting

 

[Necrovex]

Finished the first chapter, and I am really digging the game's art style and music. Zoe is as awesome as I remember her. I need my Wonkers!

 

[ab.aeterno]

Allow me a small self-quote from the screenshot thread, just to express my admiration for the graphics/art in this game.

Should still run much better though in terms of performance.



Not much. The game just doesn't perform particularly well, regardless of running in borderless fullscreen.

That said, I don't think there are any high-end / large Unity games which perform well for what they do. If they want to go for this level of fidelity (and I love it!) they should have gone UE4. Too bad they didn't have the new licensing deal in place back then.

God damn, the art direction is way stronger than some of their public screens let on. Nice shots, Durante.

I can't help but wonder if there is any amount of optimization that would fix these performance problems, or is it really an engine level problem with Unity? It just seems a bit crazy that such a great looking game would be released in such a seemingly rough technical state.

 

[FoneBone]

Flickering black squares? Your GPU is fucked. Call Apple.

Not sure this is accurate? Didn't encounter it myself, but I see multiple people referencing it on the Steam and Red Thread forums. I doubt their GPUs all failed at the same time with the same game.

 

[Durante]

Not sure this is accurate? Didn't encounter it myself, but I see multiple people referencing it on the Steam and Red Thread forums. I doubt their GPUs all failed at the same time with the same game.

Well, usually "flickering black squares" describes, quite accurately, an artifact which occurs on dying GPUs. The squares are generally small, ~8x8 pixels in size.

Of course, it could be a software thing here.

 

[Waaghals]

Well, usually "flickering black squares" describes, quite accurately, an artifact which occurs on dying GPUs. The squares are generally small, ~8x8 pixels in size.

Of course, it could be a software thing here.

Apparently it is an issue on certain Mac and Linux systems. The just posted about it on the Steam page.

 

[Dynamite Ringo Matsuri]

I've googled the flickering black squares thing and it does indeed seem to indicate issues with the GPU, but I've also replayed the intro several times as I've been trying (to no avail) to pair a Dual Shock 4 to my Mac and every time, the squares always appear in the exact same place. Not sure if that means anything.

 

[dreamfall]

Spoiler

I tried but couldn't get into Pandemonium. Looking around the Red Thread Games forums, it looks like whether you get Kidbot or Shitbot is determined by your choice in the beginning. I chose the path that was and got Kidbot. It helped Zoe put synthetic algae in the polluted water at the Propast docks. I don't remember the specifics but it was for school since she went back to get her biochemistry degree.

Oh my goodness, I had no idea these choices would be reflected in the first book! That is so awesome!

 

[- J - D -]

What resolution are you running it at? I have a 780 Ti myself, and wondering what settings are realistic. Currently marathonning TLJ and Dreamfall before starting

It's not so much that the game is demanding. It's seems rather that it's poorly optimized. People are reporting erratic performance from both low settings to max. I'm currently running the game at 2560x1600 with all graphics options (except motion blur) maxed. I turned off anti-aliasing inside the game and instead used nvidia's AA. Reducing SSAO and resolution to 1080/1200p helps a little overall, but during Europolis (chapter 3) the game still dips to the low 20's. In other chapters, performance is more stable.

I'm hoping there will be a patch of some sort. We'll see.

 

[Conezays]

It's not so much that the game is demanding. It's seems rather that it's poorly optimized. People are reporting erratic performance from both low settings to max. I'm currently running the game at 2560x1600 with all graphics options (except motion blur) maxed. I turned off anti-aliasing inside the game and instead used nvidia's AA. Reducing SSAO and resolution to 1080/1200p helps a little overall, but during Europolis (chapter 3) the game still dips to the low 20's. In other chapters, performance is more stable.

I'm hoping there will be a patch of some sort. We'll see.

Cheers, thanks for the response.

Yeah, I had similar technical issues with Wasteland 2's performance being all over the place too. Hoping I can at least get a smooth framerate at 1080P, sounds like a patch is in order though.

 

[- J - D -]

Red Thread are looking into performance issues and problems with black artifacts on Mac and Linux:

Linux, Mac and performance issues
October 22 - Red Thread Games

Hello all,

We have been following all discussions here on Steam and elsewhere, and we have put together a list of the most critical issues. Here is a quick update about what we're working on for our first update/patch.

We are currently looking into reports of poor performance on some machines. We understand that a number of players with recommended-or-higher spec hardware are still having frame-rate issues, and we will try to address this.

In the meantime, make sure you have the latest drivers installed, and if you are experiencing poor performance, try to adjust the visual settings down. This might not help, but it's a good first step.

The same goes for crashes. Update your drivers and adjust the settings down to minimise memory usage. We will continue to optimise and hopefully solve this issue for everyone, but playing on a lower setting may help.

We are also working to fix the Linux and Mac shader issues (black artefacts on certain configurations, in certain scenes). This is a very high priority task right now, and we hope to be able to fix it very, very soon.

Lastly, we are in the process of updating and uploading the DLC content for Special Edition owners, so look out for that soon.

We will come back with another update as soon as we have more information. In the meantime, feel free to contact us on our official forum or via email with any questions or issues you may have.

 

[Sober]

Damn, the art direction is so good. And so is the writing. I also thought it was a smart choice to just basically explain the one-word dialogue choices so that there is no misinterpretation.

 

[Kimaka]

Oh my goodness, I had no idea these choices would be reflected in the first book! That is so awesome!

And here I was skeptical about the impact of our choices on the plot. Pretty cool that its already noticeable. I'm going to have to replay to see

Spoiler

Shitbot lol

.

 

[Vlodril]

Damn, the art direction is so good. And so is the writing. I also thought it was a smart choice to just basically explain the one-word dialogue choices so that there is no misinterpretation.

i feel a lot of the same things about this game that i felt about secret world (great art, music, story, atmosphere). Thankfully no combat which was the bad part of secret world.

Also i looved shitbot. What a fantastic performance and dialogue (welding!).

I am stuck at getting the wine for now after that part so i am taking a break.

So far totally exceeds my expectations (either all the ks games i backed are a lot better than expected or i clearly set my expectations too low because they are blowing my mind with their quality).

 

[Madouu]

The first part of the game is extremely reminiscent of the secret world, I think it's a great way to introduce the player to the story.

I am not sold on the often binary choices that have been made popular since the rise of the telltale games but I will have to wait and see how that evolves through the game.

Environments, atmosphere, writing is fantastic. It's fun to just wander around Propast and interact with everything and listen to every piece of dialogue. A shame about the audio being a bit drowned out for some merchants dialogue lines or when two or more people are talking at the same time. Also, I'm not much of a visuals person but I must say they've done a really good job with Propast, the diversity of it all is just charming.

Biggest complaint so far is performance and somewhat shallow dialogue options, although the dialogue writing in itself is great as expected. Loving the game so far.

 

[hlhbk]

How important is it to know the stories of the other games before playing this?

 

[~Kinggi~]

How important is it to know the stories of the other games before playing this?

very important.

 

[hlhbk]

very important.

Could I just youtube it or should I play the other 2 games?

 

[~Kinggi~]

Could I just youtube it or should I play the other 2 games?

that would make you a terrible person though, but if you are ok being terrible then i suppose it might work.

 

[SparkTR]

I'm liking the dialogue and atmosphere so far, really interested to see where the story goes. Also I have a 980 with an over clocked 15 3570k and it chugs at max settings, Unity sucks.

 

[Relaxed Muscle]

Could I just youtube it or should I play the other 2 games?

Could I just youtube it

 

[hlhbk]

Luigi would Youtube it.