Dark Souls - PC Performance Analysis

An analysis of the performance of Dark Souls: Prepare to Die on PC has been made by Dark Side of Gaming with the following conclusion:

All in all, Dark Souls PC is a quick cash-in and nothing more. Namco Bandai didn’t want to invest time and money on the PC version and that’s precisely why it did not let another studio handle this port. From Software is also to be blamed here, as it doesn’t take much PC expertise to change some global values of your game’s code. This is the same studio that developed the damn game. It’s not like another studio – with no access to its source code – was responsible for porting it. From Software has also used GFWL, a service that was not asked on the Dark Souls PC petition. In fact, a lot of PC gamers asked From Software to avoid using it. The reason why From Software decided to use it is simple – as Capcom’s Sven said a while back, 95% of GFWL system calls are identical to Xbox Live. And hey, why should you rewrite something when you have it up and running by 95%?

More information.

Come on. They were upfront about what they were going to be releasing. Don't whine afterwards.

Personally, I find this kind of odd :

The reason why From Software decided to use it is simple – as Capcom’s Sven said a while back, 95% of GFWL system calls are identical to Xbox Live.

This almost sounds as if they were trying to sell the PC port almost exclusively (extremely put) to already owners of the xbox version of the game ?

Did anyone do the opposite yet ? Port an PC game into an "awful port" towards one console ?

This is one of worst ports that I've seen but as Thaurin said they where at least upfront about it and we knew all problems before game hit stores.I really wish they put more effort into porting but since they didn't I rather have it in this state than not have it at all.

I agree 100% with this article. The fact that someone released a resolution fix a couple days after release shows how little effort they put in. I signed the petition but won't buy it until its less than $10. I would rather send my $40 to the molders that will fix the game over the next months.

I'm hearing a lot of people complain about the $20 price of BGEE being a money grab. They are putting way more effort in to BGEE than from software is putting in to their port and at 1/2 the price. They saw a potential 100,000 sales and wanted to cash in as cheap as possible.

Too many people are giving them a pass because they think the game it's self is great. That may be true but the effort put in to the port was awful.

Bringing this to pc was not a gesture of good will it was a money grab. Their poor effort will result in poor sales and they will blame piracy instead of themselves.

Originally Posted by sakichop
I agree 100% with this article. The fact that someone released a resolution fix a couple days after release shows how little effort they put in. I signed the petition but won't buy it until its less than $10. I would rather send my $40 to the molders that will fix the game over the next months.

I'm hearing a lot of people complain about the $20 price of BGEE being a money grab. They are putting way more effort in to BGEE than from software is putting in to their port and at 1/2 the price. They saw a potential 100,000 sales and wanted to cash in as cheap as possible.

Too many people are giving them a pass because they think the game it's self is great. That may be true but the effort put in to the port was awful.

Bringing this to pc was not a gesture of good will it was a money grab. Their poor effort will result in poor sales and they will blame piracy instead of themselves.

People have given pass to games that where initially in lot worse state.Troubles with DS are nothing compared to problems NVN2,EU3,Sacred,HoI 3(list goes on this are just more notable examples) had or still have.

While what they said about this being a bareboned port is true, it should also be noted that (surprising enough, for such an incompetent job) the game is at least very stable.
No bugs or crashes of any sort.

That said, I swallowed my "PC pride", bought it anyway and I'm enjoying the game immensely. I just hope their next game will be on PC too, and hopefully this time in a better form.

Someone told me that they made saves possible anywhere in the pc version? I hope that's BS, because that was kinda the whole point of the game, and what made it so hardcore for me on the PS3.


-Carn

Personally I love their original resolution and feel that higher resolution takes away from the immersion. If I was the lead designer I wouldn't have bothered with this either.
I have no issue with the game whatsoever. Controls are great, camera is good .. tempering with them would mean making it a dumber version in comparison to the console one

I think the real problem was not higher resolution, but resolution for certain screens… but yeah… not my kind of alley anyways.

Originally Posted by Carnifex
Someone told me that they made saves possible anywhere in the pc version? I hope that's BS, because that was kinda the whole point of the game, and what made it so hardcore for me on the PS3.


-Carn

Saves can only be made at the fires so I think thats exactly the same. Game runs fine on my not too powerfull laptop and the controls are accurate etc. No problems here with this port.

Originally Posted by borcanu
Personally I love their original resolution and feel that higher resolution takes away from the immersion.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

*catches a breath*

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Oh you

To those that said controls are good, are you playing K&M or controller?

Originally Posted by sakichop
To those that said controls are good, are you playing K&M or controller?

I rarely play on gamepad but playing DS is far easier with it at least to me.

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
Did anyone do the opposite yet ? Port an PC game into an "awful port" towards one console ?

Two possible examples from the RPG genre: Risen and Dragon Age: Origins. Both were developed with the PC as primary platform, both received console releases and both console releases were significantly worse than their PC equivalents.

I grabbed this the other day but only played about an hour so far. Personally, I don't think there's a huge difference with or without the resolution fix, but my limited play time might have something to do with that.

I was trying to play with a Logitech dual-analogue (PS3 clone) gamepad, but I think I might give KB & Mouse a try.

Originally Posted by JDR13
I was trying to play with a Logitech dual-analogue (PS3 clone) gamepad, but I think I might give KB & Mouse a try.

Did you have trouble with commands not detecting properly?I had to use xbox gamepad emulator to get my PS3 clone to have same layout as console version(and to get all buttons to work).

Originally Posted by Nameless one
Did you have trouble with commands not detecting properly?I had to use xbox gamepad emulator to get my PS3 clone to have same layout as console version(and to get all buttons to work).

No, it works fine for me, and I think it automatically configured it to use the same layout as the PS3 version.

Problem is, I just don't like it. Especially the attacks being assigned to the triggers on top of the pad. It just doesn't feel natural to me.

All in all, Dark Souls PC is a quick cash-in and nothing more.

Yeah? And? If they wanted to make a full fledged version of Dark Souls for PC then they would have done it at release time. Beggars can't be choosers, guys.

Originally Posted by borcanu
Personally I love their original resolution and feel that higher resolution takes away from the immersion. If I was the lead designer I wouldn't have bothered with this either.

I am not being rude or anything, but are you serious? Have you tried the resolution fix yet to see the differences. The difference is like day and night to me!

Controls are great, camera is good .. tempering with them would mean making it a dumber version in comparison to the console one

Not mouse and keyboard, but I learned to live with them and I am used to them. The camera control with a mouse is the worst I have seen in a PC game so far, but I am also living with it because this game is very clever and well designed.