Dark Souls - PC Details @ VG247

[Tuco]

That framerate is not an issue for this type of game, and I'm not even sure why it keeps getting mentioned. 30fps is fine for a 3rd-person action-RPG.

No it's not.
30 fps is not "fine" in any way, it's just the bare minimum to make the game playable, but I can't see a reason to lock the framerate at that point if you have a better hardware.

Many PC gamers will be fine with 720p resolution.

What? I dropped "720p" on PC in 1999.

 

[GhanBuriGhan]

Does it shock you guys that my PC and monitor are 7 years old now (upgraded the GPU though), and that I generally run games at 1024 x 768?

 

[vurt]

30 FPS is certainly playable, but not optimal. The 360 version run at less than 30 FPS in many places.

720p sounds like a really stupid idea and i doubt they'll go through with that, on PC people play on LCD's, most of which arent natively 720p, it will look really washed out on most people's screens, and the game already is quite lacking in the texture department, it would look terrible..

GhanBuriGhan: Not really, you're on a RPG forum if this would've been a forum for modern FPS games etc, then yes.

 

[Couchpotato]

Does it shock you guys that my PC and monitor are 7 years old now (upgraded the GPU though), and that I generally run games at 1024 x 768?

No. I have two older computers computers along with my latest one. Also some of the older games I play cant be run in larger resolutions.

 

[JDR13]

30 fps is not "fine" in any way, it's just the bare minimum to make the game playable, but I can't see a reason to lock the framerate at that point if you have a better hardware.

That's nonsense.. 30fps is quite smooth for a lot of games. We're not talking about Quake here. Although I do agree that it's odd they would lock the framerate for the PC release.

 

[Thrasher]

Locking the framerate takes one VERY large variable out of the porting problem. Designing all elements of gameplay, visuals, sound, and control inputs to scale at higher frame rates rarely comes for free.

 

[jhwisner]

No it's not.
What? I dropped "720p" on PC in 1999.

Read the two posts below yours. Also consider laptop users.

My point was that each of these things considered individually is not nearly as bad as all of them. I was not trying to judge the relative unappealing nature of each. Was not saying it wasn't a bad decision - was saying that making all of these decisions together seems geometrically more self-defeating than any individual one of them. I suppose that it would help if I clarify that when I say minor I mean with regard to marketability to platform users as a whole - whether a particular point is minor to a specific user is another matter and highly variable. None of them alone could have quite the impact on that as all of them together and they seem to have managed to create the shortest list of absent general features that would -at least slightly - turn off the largest number of users.

 

[basharran]

We'll have to see what the exact implementation of all these possible negative sides will be. It would be too much to hope on a demo I guess?

30 fps when constant would be more than enough for such a slow paced action RPG. also please don't confuse FPS with refresh rate of your monitor which is indeed 58-60 hz on most TFT screens (as in refreshing a maximum of 60 times per second making a constant FPS higher than 60 a waste of effort).

 

[CountChocula]

UPDATE: Since there is one hell of confusion about it, Miyazaki was obviously reffering to the game’s assets when he was talking about the resolution. Sure, Dark Souls PC might not support all kinds of aspect ratios, but you’ll be a fool to think that it will be simply locked to a 1280×720 resolution. No, it will have a nice choice of resolutions, that’s for sure. The game even uses GFWL which means that it HAS to support resolutions up to 1080p. Common sense is common sense. However, the game’s textures will remain the same (aka, same resolution as the console versions, which translates to no HD textures). Our biggest gripe is with the 30fps lock. Let’s not forget that we informed you about this awful lock that was present in NFS: The Run, The Force Unleashed 2 and L.A. Noire. And that is that

Well that is at least something of a relief

 

[ToddMcF2002]

I may have to revise my flippant attitude. Non configurable key mappings? that's like 30 minutes of development! Geez

 

[Tuco]

Read the two posts below yours. Also consider laptop users.

I couldn't care less?
Custom resolution is a given standard in 3D games for PC since the late '90s.
I don't consider acceptable a game shipping today without it.

Anecdotal evidence about people using a Stonehenge monitor doesn't mean anything to me.

 

[GhanBuriGhan]

I couldn't care less?
Custom resolution is a given standard in 3D games for PC since the late '90s.
I don't consider acceptable a game shipping today without it.

Anecdotal evidence about people using a Stonehenge monitor doesn't mean anything to me.

Well, this time read the post two above yours.
But don't you insult my monitor!

 

[Tuco]

Well, this time read the post two above yours.

I was already aware of it, thank you.
We were talking about a "what if" scenario, anyway.