Dark Souls 3 - PC Performance Breakdown

[JDR13]

It's ok, but I prefer the PS4 controller. I have a steam controller, I might try that next.

Anyway, I got the ps4 controller to work on my PC with DS4 Windows

For whatever reason under the special action tab was a disconnect controller box that was checked. I unchecked and it works perfectly now. I also checked hide DS4 controller in the settings that was recommended by someone on the internet but it didn't work until i unchecked the box under special actions.

That's through the USB cable though, right? What version of Windows?

 

[sakichop]

That's through the USB cable though, right? What version of Windows?

windows 10, usb.

 

[JDR13]

Looks like I've got a choice to make. Either way, my Dualshock 3 is getting old, and the only other controller I have is a cheap Logitech dual-analog gamepad. The Dualshock 4 seems pretty nice, but I hate having button icons that don't match the controller.

I reinstalled DS1 last night and played for little while. Even with the DSfix and DSMfix mods, the K+M controls are still pretty rough compared to most games. I played up to the Taurus Demon and killed him on my 3rd try. Oddly enough, it only took me 2 tries to beat him back when I first played.

I find some of the moves easier to pull off with K+M, but the camera is way smoother with a controller. Not faster or more precise, but definitely smoother.

What's the trick with backstabbing? I seem to be able to perform one about 1/3 of the time if I'm directly behind an enemy, but it's been pretty random for me.

Also, that Black Knight in Undead Burg is wiping his ass with me every time I try to go toe to toe with him.

 

[sakichop]

Looks like I've got a choice to make. Either way, my Dualshock 3 is getting old, and the only other controller I have is a cheap Logitech dual-analog gamepad. The Dualshock 4 seems pretty nice, but I hate having button icons that don't match the controller.

I reinstalled DS1 last night and played for little while. Even with the DSfix and DSMfix mods, the K+M controls are still pretty rough compared to most games. I played up to the Taurus Demon and killed him on my 3rd try. Oddly enough, it only took me 2 tries to beat him back when I first played.

I find some of the moves easier to pull off with K+M, but the camera is way smoother with a controller. Not faster or more precise, but definitely smoother.

What's the trick with backstabbing? I seem to be able to perform one about 1/3 of the time if I'm directly behind an enemy, but it's been pretty random for me.

Also, that Black Knight in Undead Burg is wiping his ass with me every time I try to go toe to toe with him.

Yes, that's true. the camera is very sensitive with mouse look and is not smooth at all. Moving the mouse can even feel jerky at times. I'm so used to it though I don't even notice but when ever some ones watching me play they will remark on it. If a smooth camera is important to you then the controller is the way to go.

As for backstab, just keep practicing. It's not random there is a small hit box to trigger it. It's been a long time since I've played but if memory serves me you want to be slightly off center to the left. So your weapon is pretty much in the center of the enemies back. It takes some practice and it never (at least for me ) becomes a 100% thing but I probably had it at 95%. You also need to be on the same plane, for example backstabbing on steps is near impossible and not all enemies can be backstabbed. I would also recommend practicing parry and riposte it can devastate even tough foes. It was my go to move and made areas that many struggled on easy. Again not all enemies can be parried either.

FYI, Black Knights can be both backstabbed and parried.

 

[JDR13]

Yeah, parry and riposte is an extremely powerful combo. It kills most non-bosses in 1 move if you can pull it off. I'm having a lot of trouble with the timing though.

Other than dying, how do you figure out which enemies can't be parried?

 

[Pongo]

Is anyone having a problem with bugs in DSIII?

I started as a warrior and got as far as the Firelink Shrine, but I wasn't happy with my build so started again with a mercenary. Now the game is crashing regularly when I get to a bonfire... probably 75% of the time I get near one it is kicking me out of the game. Looking at the Steam forum this seems to be a common problem for some folk, but not everyone. I've put it down for the minute, I'll try again later (maybe with a different class, seeing as the problems only started when I restarted with a mercenary) but if it is still doing this I'm putting it aside until its been patched a few times.

 

[JDR13]

Now the game is crashing regularly when I get to a bonfire… probably 75% of the time I get near one it is kicking me out of the game. Looking at the Steam forum this seems to be a common problem for some folk, but not everyone. I've put it down for the minute, I'll try again later (maybe with a different class, seeing as the problems only started when I restarted with a mercenary) but if it is still doing this I'm putting it aside until its been patched a few times.

I stumbled across this a little while ago.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1206824

 

[Pongo]

Thanks JDR13! Much appreciated. That seems to have fixed it - I've run past the bonfire several times now without a crash.

Phew - now I can get back to enjoying the game....

 

[Moriendor]

That's what I have.

Unfortunately, I haven't had the same luck with it. It might be a difference between the PS3 and PS4 controllers, or it might have something to do with Windows 8.1

A tip if you have problems with the PS4 controller. After the device has been discovered, it may turn off again so you should press Share + the PS button immediately for the controller to work, i.e. do it like this:

1) Make sure the ASUS BT400 and its drivers are installed correctly
2) Click on the BT icon in the taskbar and click 'Add a device'
3) Hold down Share + PS on the controller (make sure the controller is on )
4) When the controller shows up, click 'next'
5) Now you may notice that the controller (light bar) turns off... this is when you want to immediately press Share + PS another time to make sure it configures properly
6) Play!

 

[JDR13]

Thanks for the tip.

I stopped by a store today and was messing around with their Xbox One and PS4 displays so I could feel the difference between the controllers. There's no doubt that I like the DS4 more, and I'll probably purchase one within the next week or so. It doesn't seem like it's much of an improvement over the DS3, but that's ok.

I've never liked where the analog sticks are positioned on Xbox controllers, and I also prefer the shoulder buttons of the DS4. Overall, Sony's gamepads are just more comfortable for me.

On top of that, the Xbox One controller is a bit of a rip-off. They want $75 for the version with the rechargeable battery and another $25 for the wireless adapter for Windows. No thanks…

 

[Moriendor]

True that. When the wireless dongle for the Xbox wireless controller became available, they should have just bundled it with the wireless controllers at no additional cost in my opinion and sell the standalone dongle for $9.99 max.
But $25 is crazy. Also, it is Windows 10 only so those of us on older OS are screwed anyway.

I also don't like that you have to pay extra for the play & charge kit. Sure, you can dump the entire PS4 controller once the built-in battery pack goes kaput but unless you're an insane hardcore gamer... when is that going to be? In a decade? Or two? It'll definitely last years and years for an average gamer.

Now, all I wish is that you could buy skill with a controller because I have to admit that I SUCK totally when using it. I recently tried to play Uncharted (bundle came with my PS4) and I was actually laughing at myself how retarded I was navigating poor Mr. Drake through the early game. I mean I barely made it alive off that boat in the opening scene. How the hell do people aim properly with that damned thing?

 

[Thiraury]

Played until the hub area and performance is great so far. Playing with Keyboard and mouse at High settings on a i7-6700K, geforce 980, 16 gb ram and windows 10.
Hope it stays this stable throughout the game.

 

[fadedc]

Performance has been good for me so far. Figuring out M&K Controls is another matter entirely, though that's nothing new and it might be a little better than previous DS games. There are some actions I still haven't figured out how to do though. For example I've never gotten a jump attack to work on M&K, even though I've tried pressing the key that corresponds to the controller button they tell me to use. I've also never gotten weapon arts to work, in fact I'd appreciate some help on figuring that out if anyone has had better luck than me.

 

[sakichop]

I had no problems up until the hub area. Since then I've had two stutters lasting about 2-3 seconds, fortunately not during combat though. Other than that I don't dip below a constant 60. 2 Titan x ( haven't tried sli though) i7 5930@4.5, 32 GB ram, win 10, installed on SSD.

What is annoying though is when I go to hub area ( firelink shrine) to level up or what not I will get lock in by a fog gate. Even after leveling up it will stay for a good 15-30 second while I sit and wait. Very annoying. A quick Google search says something about it being a saving issue. Not sure what it could be saving on an SSD that takes over a minute.

Other than that I'm loving it. Difficulty seems to be rising after a very easy pre-firelink shrine area, which is good.

Finding it hard to get the timing on parries down. Don't know if they shortened the window or what but I've always been very good at it in the previous games. Conversely backstabbing seem much easier. Seem like there's a big hit box to activate it.

 

[sakichop]

Performance has been good for me so far. Figuring out M&K Controls is another matter entirely, though that's nothing new and it might be a little better than previous DS games. There are some actions I still haven't figured out how to do though. For example I've never gotten a jump attack to work on M&K, even though I've tried pressing the key that corresponds to the controller button they tell me to use. I've also never gotten weapon arts to work, in fact I'd appreciate some help on figuring that out if anyone has had better luck than me.

As far as I can tell for weapon arts you need to 2 hand the weapon and then use the strong attack button. For example with the bandit knife when I do that I get a dash very similar to bloodborne dash.

As for the jump attack, I've never had good luck with that. I get about 60% success rate on K&M and on controller, doesn't seem to matter. I don't use it much anyway. Anyway it's w+regular attack button.

 

[Pongo]

Yeah I'm getting a good performance now the bug has been resolved (this seems to affect some Nvidia cards and is resolved by setting lighting effects to Low). I haven't noticed stutters outside of that yet.

Thanks for the tip about weapon arts - I hadn't worked that out either.

It definitely starts ramping up the difficulty after the Firelink Shrine. To be honest, I spent a comic amount of time last night just running around the shrine and trying to work out where the hell to go next. Worked it out in the end…. I'm clearly just not the sharpest crayon in the box!

Edit: yeah the fog gates are hanging around for me as well, which is a bit annoying.

 

[sakichop]

Yeah I'm getting a good performance now the bug has been resolved (this seems to affect some Nvidia cards and is resolved by setting lighting effects to Low). I haven't noticed stutters outside of that yet.

Thanks for the tip about weapon arts - I hadn't worked that out either.

It definitely starts ramping up the difficulty after the Firelink Shrine. To be honest, I spent a comic amount of time last night just running around the shrine and trying to work out where the hell to go next. Worked it out in the end…. I'm clearly just not the sharpest crayon in the box!

Did you go to the left of firelink shrine entrance? Up the path and up some stairs in front of a door is an undead guy ( I'm assuming) with what looks like a Uchigatana . He keeps crushing me. 1 hit many times, I think I could kill him if I perfected my parry skill but as I said it's taking a while this time. I probably spent an hour last night fighting him over and over. I'm sure I'm way to low of a level but I have to kill him, it's personal now!:lol:

 

[Pongo]

He killed me a few times, and then one time I got lucky and he fell off the cliff. I'm claiming it as a win. He is indeed carrying an uchigatana.

 

[sakichop]

Nice!, now I'm on a mission. well, right after work of course.

 

[fadedc]

Backstabbing is definitely easier. I was horrible at in previous DS games, but now even my heavily armored herald wielding a battleaxe regularly gets backstabs off.

I don't think I've ever succesfully parried, but I've been bad at that in every version of the game.