Alan Wake: Microsoft preparing to leave PC gamers behind (again)

[Andrew Lauritzen]

PC version does not support DX9, if I'm not mistaken.

Correct, partially due to not being able to efficiently do the rendering on that platform. It would have to be something like the path that they have for 360 for DX9. Indeed go google some videos of console footage of BF3; it looks fine compared to other console games, but it's not even in the same league as the PC visuals. Not everyone has the resources to write basically 4 renderers (DX11/DX10/360/PS3!), but I think it is one of the very few unique examples where DX11 is actually put to good use. Crysis 2 DX11 is decent, but it definitely still feels tacked-on, whereas BF3 feels designed for DX11 then cleverly ported/scaled-back on other platforms.

These days whether a title uses DX9/10/11 doesn't necessarily tell you much about it's rendering sophistication, except perhaps if it uses DX9 it can't really be super-modern (use compute and other capabilities).

 

[Davros]

although AMD still doesn't support MRTs).

you sure about that
from framebufferobjects.pdf by ATi http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rc...-7poAI&usg=AFQjCNGuKiSG9RfXHQE6B4K8bJwPt4YZ9Q

Using multiple render targets with FBOs is a piece of cake

 

[Grall]

Does anyone know if Alan Wake will require that piece of shit games for windows live or whatever it's called this week...?

 

[Davros]

ps: the quake 4 cayman bug I posted a fix (appeared to work for me)
but no one replied as to wether it worked/didnt for them

In quake4config.cfg

seta image_downSizeLimit "1024"
seta image_ignoreHighQuality "0"
seta image_downSizeBumpLimit "1024"
seta image_downSizeSpecularLimit "1024"
seta image_downSizeBump "1"
seta image_downSizeSpecular "1"
seta image_useCompression "0"

there is also
seta image_downSize "1"
setting it to zero may turn off texture downsizing completely (no need for the 1024 settings)

 

[swaaye]

I decided to play Q4 on my 560 Ti TVPC instead of screwing with the Radeon any further. This is what I did with Rage too. But it's good to hear that there is a workaround.

 

[swaaye]

Does anyone know if Alan Wake will require that piece of shit games for windows live or whatever it's called this week...?

Remedy says they are self publishing and it uses Steamworks. I don't know which is more annoying, but I guess if you buy it on Steam, adding in GFWL is indeed annoying.
HTTP://www.pcgamer.com/2011/12/17/a...ished-by-remedy-will-use-steamworks-not-gfwl/

Another angle to this is that MS probably still doesn't intend to be a PC gaming supporter. Hence the self publishing thing. For them to self publish makes it feel indie and only possible because of the ease of digital distribution.

 

[PowerK]

I'm running metro 2033 on dx11 with everything on very high 1680x1050 (only tesselation and advanced dof turned off) and its 30+ fps most of the time on my geforce 560ti.

Exactly. Not a good example of DX11 game, IMO.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

you sure about that
from framebufferobjects.pdf by ATi http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rc...-7poAI&usg=AFQjCNGuKiSG9RfXHQE6B4K8bJwPt4YZ9Q

Whoops. I was thinking of the wrong thing. I meant driver command lists (DCL).

Regards,
SB

 

[swaaye]

Exactly. Not a good example of DX11 game, IMO.

You have to remember that 2033 is 2 years old now and was developed on the bleeding edge. It would have been nice to see them improve it over time but that never happens anymore.

I actually played 2033 on a 8800GTX and a 3870. It was cool to see them use the DX11 feature levels so DX10 and 10.1 cards could do some neat stuff too.

If you want poor examples of DX11 games, I'd look more towards AVP, Deus Ex, DIRT2/3 and Call of Pripyat. These seemed mostly like cash grabs for people desperate to see their new DX11 cards do something new.

 

[PowerK]

Understood, swaaye.

Watching comparison video for Alan Wake X360 vs PC on Youtube.. the difference seems to be significant.

 

[fellix]

Graphics options menu:

 

[swaaye]

I hope there's some plain MSAA in there too somewhere... And that I can turn off FXAA. And maybe force SSAA (or have AAA/TAA work well) .

 

[I.S.T.]

I hope there's a refresh rate selector. I'm stuck on a CRT.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

You have to remember that 2033 is 2 years old now and was developed on the bleeding edge. It would have been nice to see them improve it over time but that never happens anymore.

I actually played 2033 on a 8800GTX and a 3870. It was cool to see them use the DX11 feature levels so DX10 and 10.1 cards could do some neat stuff too.

If you want poor examples of DX11 games, I'd look more towards AVP, Deus Ex, DIRT2/3 and Call of Pripyat. These seemed mostly like cash grabs for people desperate to see their new DX11 cards do something new.

I wouldn't say poor examples of Dx11. Poor examples of how to use tesselation in game perhaps.

Deus Ex 2 used Dx11 more for perf increases as did Dirt 2 I believe. CoP experimented in different ways with shadows done through Dx11 as well as general cases where they could get better perf. through Dx11.

Certainly not showcases for Dx11 or perhaps even good, but I wouldn't consider them poor. Average at worst, IMO. I'd actually consider Metro 2033 worse as they shacked most of the Dx11 stuff with unreasonably large shadowmaps that didn't have to be tied to Dx11. Then again Metro 2033 as you said is an early title, but I still find it unforgivable that they shacked Dx11 with such a huge performance drain, negating the hope of the vast majority of Dx11 system owners from actually running Dx11 well. If at the time of launch, only the GTX 480 could run it well, and that due ONLY to the shadowmap size, then there's something incredibly wrong with your priorities for Dx11.

Regards,
SB

 

[PowerK]

I hope there's some plain MSAA in there too somewhere... And that I can turn off FXAA. And maybe force SSAA (or have AAA/TAA work well) .

There is MSAA option. (2x, 4x, 8x)
http://forum.alanwake.com/showthread.php?t=7725

 

[PowerK]

IGN gave PC version of Alan Wake a solid 9.
http://pc.ign.com/articles/121/1218682p2.html

 

[fellix]

The mouse controls are very sluggish even at the highest level of sensitivity. It's almost unplayable for me.

 

[swaaye]

Uh oh. Does turning off vsync do anything? (like with Dead Space)

 

[fellix]

No it doesn't.

 

[Argoon]

Please can you tell me is that the retail version or the leaked version? I have read that some guys with the leaked version are experience that problem and has i want to buy it i want to know if the retail version also suffer from bad m&k controls, if necessary reply in a PM.