How to increse dark souls one performance?

[cats_Paw]

Hi guys,

I have been playing this game for around 260 hours and I am still hooked to it.
My problem is that the performance is crap.
I know its a bad port etc, but some people have managed to play it at a decent 60 fps, and most times it would only lag for them on blightown.

I am not that lucky.
I play on a laptop, i5-2430M/8gb ram/570M.
I chose on nvidia panel the "high performance profile" manually for dark souls, but it only helped in areas that were already lag free.

Any idea how to tweak the game to use more CPU resources? (setting high priority helps but very little).

Also,
Anyone knows if the 60 FPS unlocking can get you banned form GWL?

 

[woworwow]

Do the usual stuff. Lower settings, lower resolution, close background apps

 

[Vynavill]

I believe there was an unofficial patch somewhere, dark souls fix, dsfix or something. As far as I know, it works wonders and shouldn't get you banned.

If you aren't using it already, I suggest looking up for it. It's relatively easy to find on Google.

 

[Rationale]

I believe there was an unofficial patch somewhere, dark souls fix, dsfix or something. As far as I know, it works wonders and shouldn't get you banned.

If you aren't using it already, I suggest looking up for it. It's relatively easy to find on Google.

DSfix is helpful for several reasons (like uncapping the resolution), but it doesn't improve performance.

 

[Vynavill]

Meh, I just played DS2 on PC, so I dunno. I thought it could impact performance as well 😛

 

[40s]

download DSfix and turn resolution down to 720p

 

[Rationale]

download DSfix and turn resolution down to 720p

The resolution without DSfix is already 720p. That's what it's locked at by default.

 

[cats_Paw]

I am using Dsfix, game companion (thou full screen mode, as far as i know windowed or pseudo-windowed gets an increse).
I get the same exact FPS with 1080p and 720p. Same goes for textures, sweetfx as antialiasing and HDR.
Im quite sure its not a graphics power problem. I wonder if there is a way to keep the CPU at its higher clock rates rather than the IDLE.

I think i heard something about that (in fact a game like starcraft 1 stresses the CPU more than dark souls).

 

[Rationale]

I am using Dsfix, game companion (thou full screen mode, as far as i know windowed or pseudo-windowed gets an increse).
I get the same exact FPS with 1080p and 720p. Same goes for textures, sweetfx as antialiasing and HDR.
Im quite sure its not a graphics power problem. I wonder if there is a way to keep the CPU at its higher clock rates rather than the IDLE.

I think i heard something about that (in fact a game like starcraft 1 stresses the CPU more than dark souls).

Dark Souls has some odd performance, which often doesn't make much sense. I should know, I played it on the PC for 300 hours. For one thing, fog gates seem to murder the fps, and the game seems to like flipping the cap down to 15 fps to avoid judder or stutter when the hardware is overtaxed. It doesn't leave the CPU at idle though, not last time I checked. My old one hits near 75% load consistently when the framerate dropped in Blight Town (haven't tested it since I got my better i3). My old CPU was a Phenom II 955 quad-core, so 75% would be maxing 3 cores. I haven't seen a tri-core optimized game in a while (last one I remember was Dragon Age Origins), and I suspect it's due to Dark Souls 1 being a straight 360 port (Xbox 360 has 3 active cores).

Dark Souls 1 is extremely CPU-heavy from all the background saving and stream loading. The game running the same at 720p as 1080p effectively means it's a CPU bottleneck (which it looks like you already knew).

You can try going into your Windows power management options and setting the minimum and maximum processor states to 100%. It'll probably drain the battery faster, but it should ensure the CPU is devoting as much performance as it can to games. If it doesn't help, change it back.

Just so you know, Dark Souls 2 is actually much easier to run. They really improved the quality of the port, and Dark Souls 2 will run at playable fps on ultra, on a PC made of potato peelings. Both great games, imo.

 

[cats_Paw]

Thx Rationale,
Yes, I was guessing the problem correctly (probably) but i wanted to know if there was any way around it that people might have stumbled upon.

I have googled about 7 hours of this matter and so far I have gotten a small increse in performance by setting GPU to max performance, but the fog gates, sitting at bonfire and some explosions (stray demon) seem to drop FPS effectivly.

I belive this is because this is a CPU task in the console but normally would be a GPU task in the PC. If so, Probably getting a better PC will solve it, but its a hit and miss.

On dark souls 2, I will probably buy it when the price drops, but I saw a lot of its gameplay and I was dissapointed (especially by the graphics drop from the teasers).

Basicly I read and saw enought of Dark Souls 2 to know that what I Loved in Dark Souls 1 will be bearly present in the second part, so I dont feel like paying the full price for it. 😀.

 

[Rationale]

Thx Rationale,
Yes, I was guessing the problem correctly (probably) but i wanted to know if there was any way around it that people might have stumbled upon.

I have googled about 7 hours of this matter and so far I have gotten a small increse in performance by setting GPU to max performance, but the fog gates, sitting at bonfire and some explosions (stray demon) seem to drop FPS effectivly.

I belive this is because this is a CPU task in the console but normally would be a GPU task in the PC. If so, Probably getting a better PC will solve it, but its a hit and miss.

On dark souls 2, I will probably buy it when the price drops, but I saw a lot of its gameplay and I was dissapointed (especially by the graphics drop from the teasers).

Basicly I read and saw enought of Dark Souls 2 to know that what I Loved in Dark Souls 1 will be bearly present in the second part, so I dont feel like paying the full price for it. 😀.

I don't share most negative opinions about DKS2. I found that 95% of what was great in DKS1 is back, plus some new things. The only part I really didn't think was as good was the mandatory quick travel in a few spots, but Dark Souls 1 had that as well, in the Painted World and in Anor Londo.

I'm also not a fan of reading reviews about a good series and deciding it sucked because of other people's opinions. Like Mass Effect 3, for example. I went into that with the impression from the reviews that it was a horrible game, and I almost didn't buy it. But it turned out to be my favorite game of the series.

I've missed out on a lot of great games because of bad reviews, and I've played a lot of really awful games because of good reviews, so now I don't let bad reviews stop me from buying games from developers I trust. And I'll also never let another good review lure me into buying a Battlefield sequel.

 

[cats_Paw]

Probably I am more negative or perhaps expect too much.
For example, I also disagree on mass effect 3 with you.

Its not that the game was crap (its certainly better than many games out there), but I felt like mass effect 3 was more empty than the previous 2. I felt like it was combat after combat after combat (In mass effect 2 and 1 I had a lot of thigs to see and explore, talk etc, and in some areas there was more combat, in some less).

For me, that variaty in the previous games gave me a choice to decide if I wanted to explore it or not ( I like to see 100% of what a game has to offer in the first run, for example keeping everyone alive in ME2, then the second playthrou I did a more badass careless approach).

Mass effect 3 felt like I could not do that. I had to be fighting almost constatly to get any traction to the story. Obviously this is how "I" saw it.

I will not talk about the ending to not derail this thread even more 😀.

On the Dark souls side, whenever DS2 is great or not Ill decide when I buy it, but im not very optimistic.

For me DS1 had 3 key factors that make me return ot it:

1- Brutal Difficulty (DS2 is noticeably easier).
2- Artwork: Whenever this will be good in DS2 for me or not, time will tell, but the graphics seem rather similar and in a way more mainstream. The HUB-Travel system in DS2 also is something im not a fan of, but I can live with it.
3-Grinding: I like to have the option to fight with a underpowered character for a challenge or to grind to get myself the right character for a more fun approach (especially for helping others with co-op).



NOW.... back on topic... you said dark souls tasked 3 CPUS? The I-5 i got in my laptop is actually a dual core, 4 threads. It is Possible that its not powerfull enought.
Ill have to try with my desktop, since its a Q6600. Its slower in terms architecture but faster in raw power.... Interesting testing will be done today 😀.

 

[cats_Paw]

Ok, I actually got it.

Unlocking FPS and setting a cap increases performance in almost every area of the game.

😀.