Differences between PC and Console versions [?] Locked-BS // mods

Hello Everyone,

Been watching a lot of youtube videos about Dark Souls and I've noticed some small differences between the 3 versions. Namely it seems that people think the PC version has less lag in it. [when you actually end up getting a connection, that is. Which is horrendous at best cause of the GFWL service ]

But another thing that I've been wondering about is the lock-backstab attempts being made in console versions. From what I can tell the way they perform it is to lock on to their target - run at them and have a 'slight' angle diagonally left or right as opposed to running straight forward into them. I've been trying to get this angle to work on PC but the digital input doesn't allow for such precise movement - what happens is you end up either face forward into the target or running past them with a pretty big gap between you and the target. I'm hoping the PC version has less backstab fishers because of this. That or I'm just horrendous at trying it.
The PC version has a modding community with it as well - notably the DSfix and DSCfix as well as DSMfix - these improve the game's quality for PC as the port was pretty terrible. Do these have any impact on players that are not running the mods? I had a message from a guy once that he found me warping all over the place, claiming that it had to do with me running the 60 FPS unlock from DSfix. I suppose this could improve the reaction time the game gets for the person using the unlocked frame rates. Seeing as it is some sort of 'hack'

Would you argue that it's giving you an unfair advantage because you are essentially using a 3th party software with your game?

Hope to see a discussion arise out of this one as I think it's an interesting topic.

hello

i feel the same about the lag. having played the ps3 version before a lot, i see a lot improvement regarding lag. but it may have something to do with where the people are from that i'm playing with: i barely get any japanese on the pc and these used to be the worst especially on the ps3. i'm not saying they were exploiting lag in any way but it was just sometimes almost impossible to play against them. unfortunately lag is still an issue in this game's online mode and will always be, but from my point of view comparing ps3 and pc it has improved.

being an unexperienced online pc gamer i have to say that gfwl is quite alright for me. even without dscfix you can have a decent summon rate when summoning strangers. you get sometimes 3 or 4 (or more ; ) ...) failed attempts, but from what i remember that used to be the same on the ps3. once you have a connection with a certain person everything works fine. same for invading: if you have done your homework forwarding ports or enabling upnp and know the usual sl ranges for the areas, invading works fine.

lock-on bs still work from my pvp experience. i remember when the game came out on pc there were rumours about changes or improvements to the bs-hit box. i don't see that much difference: at least no radical changes to the in-game mechanics were made.....

having played dks for over +1000 hours now, i strongly recommend not to use the 60 fps unlock: the game was made to run @ 30 fps - if you get this frame rate stable that's all you can ask for and this gives you the best playing experience for pve imo. honestly it never came to my mind that you get an advantage in pvp when running the game @ 60 fps.... for anything else dsfix is a must-have: it improves the frame rate, allows real 1080p and is the reason why somehow i can't go back to the console. anyway sorry for long reply and greetings to the netherlands from austria!

Runecreed wrote:I've been trying to get this angle to work on PC but the digital input doesn't allow for such precise movement

Use a controller

kettpower wrote:hello

having played dks for over +1000 hours now, i strongly recommend not to use the 60 fps unlock: the game was made to run @ 30 fps - if you get this frame rate stable that's all you can ask for and this gives you the best playing experience for pve imo. honestly it never came to my mind that you get an advantage in pvp when running the game @ 60 fps.... for anything else dsfix is a must-have: it improves the frame rate, allows real 1080p and is the reason why somehow i can't go back to the console. anyway sorry for long reply and greetings to the netherlands from austria!

I'm solely a PC gamer and I really have to stress how much of a difference 30 FPS is - It's feels unresponsive, sluggish and overall reduces the fluidity of the game by a great amount, pretty much everyone can see and feel the difference when you increase it to 60 FPS - The only problem that occurs when you increase it to 60 FPS is that you potentially could fall through a ladder if you slide down, and the other minor glitch is that you could get stuck at a bonfire if you select in the menus prior to having your character sit down. These are the only bugs I've seen in-game myself, and if that's the only price to pay for 60 FPS I'll GLADLY do it. It's a real shame they didn't just release this game on PC with at least some minor PC standards being upheld. Such as the camera - without the mouse fix it's just a terribly sluggish and imprecise device while it actually shouldn't be at all - if anything it can be even precise than just an analog dual stick.
The biggest problem I've had with the visuals prior to DSfix is that everything just was so blurry and wide; 1080p and the blur removal sort of makes the game look like its a 2012 release; vast improvement and really glad Durante made this. He deserves all the praise.

Hachouma wrote:

Runecreed wrote:I've been trying to get this angle to work on PC but the digital input doesn't allow for such precise movement

Use a controller

I've tried that actually. I do not own a console and my controller is therefor some junkyard 3th party device - It's not supported by default in the game and requires the x360ce plugin [Xbox Emulator].
While it works I can't say it improved my gameplay - I suppose I'm one of those people that don't like to hold a controller - they just don't lay in my hands as well as just sitting there resting my palms on my keyboard. On a side note if you release a game for PC then you should really just make sure the default input devices work for your game. You wouldn't release an Xbox game and add as a disclaimer that the PS3 controller has vastly better response times? It doesn't make much sense to release for a platform without optimizing for that platform.
I was a little disappointed with the release version of DS on PC - though I don't see a problem with it inherently since From Software only released a PC version because of this massive petition that was going on - I'd rather have this than nothing. PC's can mod this thing to all oblivion anyway, but it shouldn't have been up to the community to fix this game, From Software should have invested more into it.

On a side note - does this controller comment mean that it's actually impossible/very difficult to pull off this running pivot BS using the keyboard/mouse?

RenegadeCop wrote:Well, think of it like this.
On a controller, you hold B or O, move the analog stick, and then just press a trigger.
On PC, you have to hold CTRL, press W, A, S and D in a very awkward order, and then click the mouse.
It is overall far easier on a controller to do just about anything.

if you hold CTRL you actually walk instead of run - you have to hold spacebar to sprint - That's a lot easier ;D

I agree that the WASD is a little awkward as input for movement here because it's completely digital - there's no small nuance to be found. It's fairly doable though but the thing is I can't make myself run past them, only straight into them or 20 miles off to their sides. I probably just suck though

ResIsBestStat wrote:

RenegadeCop wrote:Well, think of it like this.
On a controller, you hold B or O, move the analog stick, and then just press a trigger.
On PC, you have to hold CTRL, press W, A, S and D in a very awkward order, and then click the mouse.
It is overall far easier on a controller to do just about anything.

Casul n00b, doesn't know how to use pc, get gud, i mean rly
i played dark souls with mouse and keyboard, no problems, fights are easy too

wutdafuq - chill bro

Honestly Mouse and keyboard work fine for me as well - besides the manual aim with the bow - withouth the DSMfix the mouse just makes jerky movement inputs for the game. With the fix it's fine though, but again it's not really the best of things that the community HAS to implement these unofficial fixes for a game. At the very least they should look into the fixes that are now in place by the modding community and implement then into their game via a new patch. That makes life far more convenient for everyone - it would have been nice if they overhauled the inventory system too - it's not very well optimized for PC; it does its job but there's room for improvement here, especially in the way you need to scroll through the whole thing to find the item you're looking for - that's just not very convenient.

RenegadeCop wrote:Meh, the person I saw playing (my friend) had it the other way around for sprinting and walking. I assumed it to be the default controls. :oops:

That's such a strange setup xD

Playing with the box controller and have no probs backstabbing on the PC.

Also playing on the box and there's a lot more invisible walls on the box version and major fps drops in particulr blight town and the start of new londo.

Have Dsfix but did not activate the 60 fps section, i think it would give a slight advantage over others.

Yes GFWL is a horrid bit of s\w, summoning failed so many times.

I play with DSfix and the FPS unlock (i think its 90) and its just BRILLIANT!
No more lags . . . and the framerate stays constant!

While the PC porting job was decidedly pretty bad, I've got to say that with DSFix and a PS3 controller, my ultimate experience is the same as it was on PS3, or slightly better thanks to texture modding. My PS3 was stolen out of my apartment about a year ago, so my gaming switched to a mediocre laptop. I haven't tried the 60fps unlock, and suspect I couldn't sustain it on my hardware, but since I learned Dark and Demon's Souls on PS3, the PC experience is comfortingly familiar, wonky inventory system and all.

Also, From admitted to having a lot of trouble with the port. Thankfully they are developing Dark Souls 2 natively for PC, so I suspect that the PC version of DS2 will have all the features PC gamers have come to expect!

Pc version is awesome if you get dsfix and a controller.

Fayt wrote:Pc version is awesome if you get dsfix and a controller.

I really didn't like playing with a controller though. Might be me - I don't like the layout if it laying in my hand. Just feels very uncomfortable. Maybe with a proper Xbox/PS3 controller it's different - I'm using a 3th party terrible wingman thing. It does the job but really the keyboard/mouse works fine if you get used to it and use the DSMfix to improve mouse smoothness and responsiveness.

The Souls series always felt like controller type games to me, but that's just my opinion.
As for the locked bs attempts, I remember seeing something about using the 60 FPS mod actually screws with your window of opportunity on bs attempts, I'll have to find the video again before I can tell much more of it though.

The_Red_Drifter wrote:The Souls series always felt like controller type games to me, but that's just my opinion.
As for the locked bs attempts, I remember seeing something about using the 60 FPS mod actually screws with your window of opportunity on bs attempts, I'll have to find the video again before I can tell much more of it though.

Huh, that's sort of strange. If anything it should increase the time you have for doing a backstab as the game allows for more frames and as such smoother gameplay.