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Looks like Bioshock demo is out on PSN EU

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davygee

Banned
a Master Ninja said:
I'm a little confused now. Having only "720p" checked will make the image quality better on my 1080p tv and the "1080p" option is making things worse?

The game has been designed to be played at 720p, if you play the game at a higher resolution than that, say 1080i or 1080p, then you are not going to see the game at it's native resolution.
 

Pallaris

Member
As I understand it, a game that 'supports' 1080p (like Bioshock and many others on PS3) do so by scaling the final ouput... and while I believe non-native '1080p' games have a slightly higher horizontal res, the overal performance should be just as good as when running in 720p. Someone might want to chime in but i've noticed negligible difference in performance when running something like Super Stardust HD in 'upscaled' 1080p mode (for my native 1080p LCD tv) vs running the game in 720p.
 

burgerdog

Member
It's been in the works for a long time, problem being that it was going around to different devs. Some were quite rubbish and just couldn't handle it. In the end it went to be handled by 'us' (which is a crazy mix of studios after the 2k reshuffle of 2k boston to 2k boston and 2k marin but it's people who are already intimate with the engine this time).

Yikes, apparently they had too many bugs so they couldn't focus on optimizing the game.
 

Huggers

Member
I'm definitely going to double dip on this one despite having a ridculous amount of software to buy this autumn/winter.
 

65536

Banned
a Master Ninja said:
I'm a little confused now. Having only "720p" checked will make the image quality better on my 1080p tv and the "1080p" option is making things worse?
You should have 480p, 720p and 1080p enabled on your TV. Due to the way it works on PS3, forcing the console to upscale by disabling everything other than 1080p usually results in worse performance and/or image quality.


I've played through the demo twice now, in 720p both times (and then the 360 demo after that) and it has run just as badly each time.

Even without comparing it to the 360 demo, it simply doesn't run that well. No, it's not completely unplayable, but it's never smooth, and I wouldn't enjoy playing through the game like that.

It's not worth avoiding the game, but only if you don't have the opportunity to play it on another platform.
 
strange... some reporters said it looks even betetr than the 360 version... the demo sure as hell doesn't.. and the framerate is visibly having a hard time...

i hope the final game will be better for pS3 owners.. i allready finished the game on 360.
 

TTP

Have a fun! Enjoy!
davygee said:
So if you were running Crysis at the highest resolution and quality settings possible and noticed that the framerate was terrible and it didn't look right, then its a failed game?

Yes if that implies the modification of the resolution on an OS level. If Bioshock allowed me to change the resolution from within the game to get better results (as it is the case with PC games), then I'd have probably tried that. No way in hell I'm gonna touch the system video output resolution just for one game.
 
i loved system shock 1 and 2. I haven't downloaded the demo yet, but if I DON'T like it, is that a good sign I shouldn't buy? In other words, is this a pretty good demo of the game?
 

burgerdog

Member
Always-honest said:
strange... some reporters said it looks even betetr than the 360 version... the demo sure as hell doesn't.. and the framerate is visibly having a hard time...

i hope the final game will be better for pS3 owners.. i allready finished the game on 360.

From that guy who worked on the port, this is what he said after that IGN preview claiming it had better textures.

Erh, what higher resolution textures? It's the same bloody textures everywhere.

really hate when some 'journalist' takes it upon himself to just flat out lie. Isn't it enough that it looks just as good as it did on 360?

There is one thing that may make it look a bit sharper on the PS3 and that's a change in mipmap bias, that makes it use the higher resolution mipmap a bit further away.
 

Surfheart

Member
The end user really shouldn't be concerned with having to change system settings to get the best experience out of a game, it's ridiculous.

Why is it that games, in this instance bioshock, aren't coded to use the most optimal resolution if it's available?
 
burgerdog said:
From that guy who worked on the port, this is what he said after that IGN preview claiming it had better textures.

yeah, i think one even mentioned better AA.........
anyway.. still hope it turns out for the best in the final version. For people with just 1080i screens the whole Rainbow Six Vegas 1(ps3 version) thing was horrible enough.
 

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
Marconelly said:
But to say that this demo is some kind of disaster that should be canceled is very unfair as well. Come on now, if the framerate like it is here makes this deserving of canceling, then tons of others extremely popular games deserved to be too.
I suppose you're right, that was an overly harsh comment. I only made such a comment as this is a very late port of a game that ran beautifully on its original platform. I simply don't see much value in releasing a shoddy port of a game over 1 year later.

I suppose the framerate isn't bad enough to ruin the game (as it is generally limited to constant stutters/dips rather than massive drops), but it makes a once polished experience feel much less so.
 
Ranger X said:
The demo from the US store actually runs in 1080p. (not forced)
But sometimes i get garbage on the right of bottom of the screen. Do you guys have that too?

Right there the first cut-scene when you're underwater, i have a white line on the right and bottom of the screen.


Yeah I noticed that too. I just got a new 1080p LCD and I was under the impression that it ran at 720p. By the way the game looks and plays great.
 

Lince

Banned
dark10x said:
I suppose the framerate isn't bad enough to ruin the game

well this game is all about atmosphere to me, and with such framerate drops/hiccups it ruins the illusion of "being there".
 
Anyone notice that the lighting and sound are a lot better in this version? I was really impressed, will double dip day one.
 

Lord Error

Insane For Sony
Pallaris said:
As I understand it, a game that 'supports' 1080p (like Bioshock and many others on PS3) do so by scaling the final ouput... and while I believe non-native '1080p' games have a slightly higher horizontal res, the overal performance should be just as good as when running in 720p. Someone might want to chime in but i've noticed negligible difference in performance when running something like Super Stardust HD in 'upscaled' 1080p mode (for my native 1080p LCD tv) vs running the game in 720p.
It is pretty much like that. The thing is, in your example, SSDHD, renders at (I think) 1280x1080 when in 1080p mode, so you do get much higher resolution when in that mode, and it will look better than in 720p at all times.

Many other games resort to some weird resolutions like 960x1080, so you are almost always better at just sticking with 720p option.

In the case of this demo, those of you complaining about bad image quality, definitely try deselecting 1080i and 1080p options (that the demo weirdly defaults to...) and try playing it in regular 720p. See if it looks blurry or whatnot then (it looks really great on my TV, so I'm a bit surprised about the comments)
 

LiquidMetal14

hide your water-based mammals
-Winnie- said:
Question: If the demo didn't really WOW me, is there much chance of the full game meeting my expectations?
Outside of the picky bunch on here the game holds up perfectly. The visuals, which are fine, will not hamper the reason that made the game great. Now if the game isn't for you then you will know it. I got the same feel as when I played the 360 demo, it's great.
 

AKS

Member
I played through this a couple of times. It looked bad in 1080i but much better in 720p. It loses a few frames compared to the 360 version and maybe a bit of resolution, but I'll need to see how the final game runs. The footage I saw on Qore looked much better, and identical to the 360 version, which suggests to me this demo code is quite dated.
 
AKS said:
The footage I saw on Qore looked much better, and identical to the 360 version, which suggests to me this demo code is quite dated.
Indeed.

Even the comparison video posted earlier seems to look better than the demo we received.
I'd wait on the retail before jumping to conclusions... but then again, this is GAF.
 
straydog1980 said:
i loved system shock 1 and 2. I haven't downloaded the demo yet, but if I DON'T like it, is that a good sign I shouldn't buy? In other words, is this a pretty good demo of the game?

If anything the demo paints a prettier picture than what you actually get. You get the sense of a game full of tough choices, but it isn't until you're well into it you realize just how little your decisions matter.
 

belvedere

Junior Butler
So the graphical assets are all the same (and in some cases better) but this game suffers from that PS3 "softness" problem that a few other titles suffer from as well?

Rainbow 6 Vegas had the exact same issue. The game would look blurry as hell in any other res than 720p. As far as I know it was never fixed.
 

Lord Error

Insane For Sony
AKS said:
I played through this a couple of times. It looked bad in 1080i but much better in 720p.
I suspected as much. It's really odd that the game would default to 1080i when it most likely has to resort to some resolution hacks in that case.
 

itxaka

Defeatist
Lince said:
Itxaka tío, no te lo tomes a mal pero... qué te has fumao?

15 times? I beat in on 360 twice and went through the PC version a couple of times as well and still it's pretty evident the framerate on PS3 is clearly, I mean C-L-E-A-R-L-Y terrible compared with the smooth experience on the 360... there's nothing wrong with my PS3 before you ask but I definitely envy people here that can't notice these issues because it's a deal-breaker for me.

edit:



can't believe you, if you're watching for it you'll notice right at the start just by panning the camera around IT'S DOWNRIGHT APPARENT! oh well it's like having a mental disorder of sorts I'm seeing things nobody else sees :p


Ni idea, pero no me parece que sea tan claro como dice la gente. Ni mucho menos terrible.


Seriously, so many different opinions is really strange.

Anyway, did someone saw the white bars in the right and low part of the screen? or it's just me?
 

msmma

Banned
I never played this game until now. I played through the US demo last night, and it really looked great on my Bravia 1080p set. No frame hiccups at all.

The only concern I have at this point is the ugly white "artifacty things" that would appear along the right hand side of my screen at times. I can make them go away by pausing, then unpausing, but still.....took me out of the mood/atmosphere everytime it happened.

Anyone else see this happen?

I won't buy the final game unless I know for sure that this wont be present in the retail copy.
 
Tried the demo. I just couldn't get over the framerate. It's not just "inconsistent", it's nearly what I would call choppy almost everywhere. Really disappointed, I don't think I could make it through the whole game without being distracted by it all of the time... and I didn't even think Uncharted had tearing problems that bothered me in the slightest.

Sorry 2K, but I'm revoking my preorder... you pricks, do it right next time.
 

Ranger X

Member
msmma said:
I never played this game until now. I played through the US demo last night, and it really looked great on my Bravia 1080p set. No frame hiccups at all.

The only concern I have at this point is the ugly white "artifacty things" that would appear along the right hand side of my screen at times. I can make them go away by pausing, then unpausing, but still.....took me out of the mood/atmosphere everytime it happened.

Anyone else see this happen?

I won't buy the final game unless I know for sure that this wont be present in the retail copy.

I posted that earlier.

I get garbage at the bottom and also right side of the screen. Really feels cheap / bad QA.

I will certainly not buy the game if the release version is like that.
 

Doc Evils

Member
Just played the demo and realsed how much this game was designed specifically for consoles since I played the PC version. I didn't experience any major frame drops s, but I did get the white artifacting on the right had side and bottom.
 

theBishop

Banned
Doc Evils said:
Just played the demo and realsed how much this game was designed specifically for consoles since I played the PC version. I didn't experience any major frame drops s, but I did get the white artifacting on the right had side and bottom.

A lot of PC diehards gave me crap for that when I said it last year. But it's true. The controls/menus are totally designed around the shoulder buttons. The rumble is executed brilliantly. Even the sound... i know many people have 5.1 setups on their PC, but I really think this game was designed to be a living room experience.
 
Officially canceled now. What were they thinking when they released a demo of this? I'll probably still pick this up someday (I've waited this long) but for no more than $30. I've got enough properly developed software to keep me busy through the holiday season coming.
 

NIN90

Member
I never played this game until now and i just beat the demo...




Holy shit, that was awesome. And the framerate didn't bother me at all. I was just too busy playing this atmosphere oozing game.
 

No_Style

Member
It's a smidge softer, but first time players who've never experienced the original versions have nothing to worry about. I didn't experience any noteworthy framedrops either.

I'd pick up the PS3 version since I traded away the Xbox 360 one, but not until it hits $30 CAD or so. There are just too many games this year.
 

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
dhelfric said:
I never played this game until now and i just beat the demo...

Holy shit, that was awesome. And the framerate didn't bother me at all. I was just too busy playing this atmosphere oozing game.
I suppose this is important to note. While I have a lot of issues with the demo, Bioshock is STILL a great game. If you aren't bothered by the technical hitches and haven't played the game before (with no other means of doing so), it's absolutely worth buying.
 

lunlunqq

Member
i am usually very sensitive to frame rate problems. but i didn't notice it at all this time.

the image is definitely a little blurry. i forgot to check under which resolution it was running. my tv is 1080p and i checked all the resolution options on my ps3.
 

StuBurns

Banned
theBishop said:
A lot of PC diehards gave me crap for that when I said it last year. But it's true. The controls/menus are totally designed around the shoulder buttons. The rumble is executed brilliantly. Even the sound... i know many people have 5.1 setups on their PC, but I really think this game was designed to be a living room experience.
The 360 was the lead SKU, it's no secret, the PC version was made the other side of the world while 2K Boston handled the 360 SKU.
 
plagiarize said:
there is no such thing as 'true widescreen'. bioshock was designed with a restrictive FOV on purpose. it was designed to be played in widescreen and was trailed and demoed in widescreen every step of the way. some people found it too restrictive which is fair enough. others, since the horizontal FOV was the same when running in 4:3 presumed it wasn't 'true widescreen' whatever that means. i guess harking back to when widescreen mode was often an afterthought and just lopped off the top and bottom of the screen.

in bioshock, it was designed to be widescreen and the 4:3 mode was an afterthought.

if you want to play it as the designers intended, leave the option alone. if you find it overly claustrophobic, then unlock the horizontal FOV. but don't unlock it because of how the 4:3 mode was implemented or because of some true widescreen bullshit.

bioshock is meant to be played at 16:9 with the FOV it has by default. they were kind enough to add the option for anyone that didn't like their decisions.


Sorry, didn't know you were going to take it personally. :lol


Thanks for the clarification though.
 

GrayFoxPL

Member
720p = sharp as a razor, beautiful.

Big framerate dip while looking at bare fucking wall = unoptimised build or rush job.
I believe final version framerate will be fine. Love the game.
 

Y2Kev

TLG Fan Caretaker Est. 2009
Confidence Man said:
If anything the demo paints a prettier picture than what you actually get. You get the sense of a game full of tough choices, but it isn't until you're well into it you realize just how little your decisions matter.
Wow, I completely agree with you. Shall we engage in coitus?
 

Lord Error

Insane For Sony
lunlunqq said:
the image is definitely a little blurry. i forgot to check under which resolution it was running. my tv is 1080p and i checked all the resolution options on my ps3.
You should restrick display options to 720p before trying the demo. This demo stupidly defaults to 1080i/p even though it doesn't natively support them.

dhelfric said:
I never played this game until now and i just beat the demo...

Holy shit, that was awesome. And the framerate didn't bother me at all. I was just too busy playing this atmosphere oozing game.
As I think most people actually playing this for the first time will feel like. I get the impression that a lot of people wanted to buy this for the 2nd/3rd time for whatever reason, and have played through it already, so of course every little thing will stick out as a problem to them. It reminds me of the Orange Box situation, except in this case this is actually even much better port.

belvedere said:
They're saying this is definitely an older build at b3d.
Who's saying it, and how do they know?
 
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