Are gfx being deliberately dumbed down?

I got the game pre ordered and I'm not a gfx whore but since I watched the latest vaati video on youtube, I'm once again feeling concerned about the overall quality of the game, I've seen some screens before that looked just bad but also gameplay footage that looked quite good but now seeing a video that just shows NO shadows on characters leaves me really confused.

We're dumbing down graphics now? How can you make graphics for stupid people? If anything, you have to make graphics look good for stupid people.

Yes, a game that is coming out on a last generation console, even one that's still going strong at the moment, is going to look kinda bad. I think what I've seen of it looks really, really good, from an aesthetic perspective at least.

@believer258 said:

I'll stand by you on that 100%.

Neither of the Souls games have been graphical powerhouses. Demon's Souls has muddy textures and is jaggy as shit, and while Dark Souls has (marginally) better textures and graphics overall, it suffers for it in performance. Not that Demon's Souls ran exceptionally well either.

It seems that From is aiming for stable performance this time around, which is a good thing, as the framerate actually effects gameplay. Which I spuppose is a really round about way of saying "Yes they are."

Also keep in mind that it's being compared now to games on much more powerful consoles.

I feel that it looks pretty damn good, I have only played on the PS4 once or twice so i've not been spoiled by the graphics yet.

For a ps3 game it definitely looks good.

I think it looks pretty good. Also there was a point about a month ago where it seemed like a new build showed up on the demo circuit and all of a sudden the lighting went insane. I've seen the lighting change at least twice or more during development and that's only what From has shown off, but based on what we have seen already, I think Dark Souls 2 looks incredible.

When I played the network test and all was great ... hardly doubt that the stuff became any worse and logicly things will improve , so there is no fear from my part

I think it kinda just looks like Dark Souls. Which is to say kinda bad but also kinda good at the same time some how.

This is a strange first post.

@korwin: Which is why I'm definitely not clicking that link. :P

LOL seriously? That's beside the point anyway...

@mb: That shot definitely looks great and I saw other footage that looks equally as good but shadows look totally disabled in some places, that's what I was talking about, like at the end of vaati's video. The area in the video doesn't even seem heavy at all and not only the character but also the enemies display no shadows. I don't have a huge concern about graphics but that is something impossible not to notice in a PS3 game and I wonder if it's just bugged or in purpose due to framerate issues. Also I'm wondering if most of the best looking footage is being taken from the pc version because if that's so, I'd rather wait and buy it instead.

...what does this post mean??? How do people see this strange stuff in pre-release material that works themselves into a frenzy?

@extomar: Vaat,i if I remember correctly, said that he got his hands on the final version of the game so I'm assuming what he's showing is final.

How is what I said beside the point? You can't really dumb down graphics, as graphics aren't something that requires mental energy to understand. You just look at them.

Shadows are fairly taxing on hardware. They probably turned them off to keep the framerate playable. It's really not a big deal. Besides, I see shadows in the picture that MB posted. I really don't know what picture you're looking at.

Again, remember, the PS3 came out in 2006. That's ancient as far as computer technology goes.

@tobako: Saw the vid and I say you are bonkers ... there are clearly shadows were they need to be and no shadows were non will occur. You are worrying over nothing.

The game looks great. This topic is silly. I mean look at this, its fantastic!

@believer258: I said it was beside the point because I wasn't necessarily saying the gfx were bad, was just saying shadows looked disabled here and there, and while you tried to imply that I was stupid you called yourself and everyone else in your sentence.

Apologies tough to everyone else, the link I posted isn't working, here's vaati's gameplay video I talked about, beware of little spoilers http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tYOS12UCgg

For the record, I wasn't calling you stupid. I was saying that you cannot dumb down graphics.

Personally I thought the graphics looked better in Demon's somehow. When I booted up Dark Souls for the first time I kept thinking something was wrong with my TV because there was a weird blur effect going on.

Considering the amount of time I've spent playing Nidhogg and Super Hexagon, vs the titles currently available on PS4 and Xbox One, I'm going to go ahead and say that super insane graphics aren't that integral to what makes games like Dark Souls appealing.

Controversy!

Dark Souls is an incredible looking game, all signs point to Dark Souls 2 looking better; but there will probably be some framerate issues since they're pushing old systems to their limit. But I mean if you really want nicer graphics you can just play shitty new console games instead and not worry about Dark Souls for another 2-3 years.

I dunno man, that vista after completing the tuturial looks pretty good from what people are saying.

@8bit_archer: That dude's shield's sword is praising the sun

If they can keep the frame rate from taking a nose dive, I'll gladly sacrifice some graphical fidelity as a trade.

...of course, this is From Software we're talking about, and I don't think they've made a game in the past five years that never tanks in the FPS department. Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, and both Armored Cores all had shitty frame rates in that time period.

That's called upscaling :/

While it's true that they're not graphical powerhouses, their art style does enough to still give them a boost in looking pretty damn fine. That, and they have some great animation work to make up for all of it, with Dark Souls II's animations looking to be even smoother.

@sterling said:

The game looks great. This topic is silly. I mean look at this, its fantastic!

Yo dude cool and all but as a King's Field fan I hate every time some person comes into a Dark Souls thread and makes a joke at it's expense. How easily everyone forgets (or never knew in the first place) the only reason Demon's Souls happened is because Sony went to From Software and said "We want you to make a current gen game inspired by King's Field." Without Demon's there is no Dark, and without King's Field you would have never gotten either. Also King's Field 4 (the game pictured here) is still more atmospheric and in my opinion nails the "tension" better than any of the Souls games.

In other news those concerned about this or FPS problems can always wait for the PC release.

@believer258: In DSIII they will dumb down the sound design. Mark my words.

Ya, we're taking all of the intelligence out of the "GFX" by stopping schooling at an early age and thrusting them into bad neighborhoods where they get hooked on drugs and start stealing form drug (corner) stores to get their next fix.

Damn "GFX" never got a break. This made it easier to keep it "dumbed down".

At least the graphics still look good. Unlike the dumb "GFX".

@karkarov: Explain to me how I was making fun of King's Field 4 exactly? I think you woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.

The goal is to eventually decrease the graphical and audio quality to the point where they can just rebrand the game as Ultima VII Part 3.

Ha! Haha! Hahaha.

I just did the Ryan Creeper Cam laugh when I read this.

We're saying gfx instead of graphics now? Uuuughhhh...

Game looks fantastic. Quit whining.

Hypocritical much? Unfortunately you had nothing intelligent to had to the topic, instead you simply try to make fun of me with some words out of your ass, did it make you feel smarter for an instant? Poor guy.

I'm now aware that the term "dumbed down" isn't really used to refer to "gfx" but hey! not every single person is a native speaker.

Regarding DkS2 the gameplay footage shown looks good and a couple shadows bugged or deliberately removed here and there doesn't concern me THAT much, I just hope it doesn't look much worse on the PS3 because in that case I'd rather wait and buy it later for PC.

@tobako: relax. I was having a little fun with word play. You take things too seriously and take it as an insult to often from what I've seen of your other responses.

You are being overly aggressive. I don't think I've ever seen @believer258 say anything that was meant to come off as an insult, especially not here. You're clearly very new here, but this community isn't looking to rip you apart. Stop acting like they're out to get you.

@generic_username: Perhaps I was too aggressive but considering I'm new I'm not supposed to know who to ignore or take seriously and cracking jokes at someone's expense still is a form of insult in my book.

You're supposed to play it on the PC. Dark Souls at 1080 (downscaled from 2560, even) with advanced ambient occlusion and all the extras at solid 60fps...

Praise the sun.

If it means better performance I don't mind a hit in graphics. Souls games have always been about art design anyway.

I'm all about that stabe frame.

@tobako: Cool down there, cowboy. Poking fun at one another is sort of what we do around here; it's not taking things more seriously than they need to be. And if you feel someone's actually being a jerk, just ignore them. No reason to escalate things further.

Anyway, it sounds like you're just concerned that they may be bumping down the graphical quality a bit for some reason(maybe framerate), but we'll see in the final version. Heck, I bet it will have a big day one patch to boot. Maybe they're not swinging for the fences graphically, but like Demon's Souls and Dark Souls before this, I imagine they're going to focus on style and gameplay over raw graphical quality. We probably won't really know for sure until it's in our living rooms.

@mb: Is that meant to be a screenshot? Ive played that part of the game at a convention and it looked nothing like that, but that was a while ago. Looks more like concept art than actual game!

@bollard: Take a look at the video in this topic, starting around 45 seconds in:

http://www.giantbomb.com/dark-souls-ii/3030-40798/forums/new-dark-souls-ii-video-preview-features-mirror-kn-1469973/

@tobako: I actually don't really think that even the interpretation of "cracking a joke at your expense" is even accurate, but oh well. I'm not really seeing anything in this thread that reads that way. I think you're looking too hard for a fight. No one here is looking for a fight.

Anyways, sorry for derailing this. My intention was to let you know that nobody here is actually trying to treat you poorly, not to treat you poorly myself. Apologies.

@mb: Ohhh I see! On my phone that image ended up looking like something drawn on parchment cause of the colour palette. That seems a little more similar to what I saw, but much more exaggerated. Looks good though.

The game's most likely still going to be great anyway but just look at this IGN gameplay reveal from last year http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_JFDPCtXFY it's hard not to feel slightly disappointed, the game actually looked a lot more polished back then than in the BETA test, I hope they had some things turned off for performance or something and that the actual final version will look just as good as that shown a year ago.

I hope so, Blight Town nearly killed my PS3 judging from the sounds it was making and the frame rate chugging along in what was probably single digits. I'll take a little less graphical fidelity for a steady frame rate any day.

@sinusoidal: That's not what I meant but I also want steady framerate off course. I just think if properly optmized there's no reason for a game like DkS not looking great while having a steady framerate.

I like games for their art direction, not for how well they push the hardware. I thought Dark Souls looked amazing and I suspect Dark Souls II will look better.

Plus, have you seen the latest Vaati video with the torch sequence? I was stunned watching that.