Game settings (your choices)

[Ragnaman]

First of all, game runs fine for me (i dont use those blur or ssao things, its rpg after all);

So, I wanted to hear your thoughts on how the game should be played settings-wise

My current settings are:
- Japanese audio (from your experience is eng dubs worth it ?)
- Old maps (New ones are clean, but old ones seem more artistic, is this true or are new maps worth it ?)
- New UI (no questions here, crisp clear compared to old)
- Blurred character textures (filtered)...i am not sure about this, i like crispy sprites but i see some tearing on them, while filtered ones do not tear...what do ?


Wanted to hear your tips / tricks (im totally new to Disgaea as I never owned console past SNES)

thanks

[〘 Xemidan 〙]

Do you have Japanese audio with English sub? Or just full-on Japanese? If you got ♥♥♥ dub with Eng Sub, mind telling me how you managed to get that? :o

Edit: I'm blind. Didn't notice the voice settings...

[KarmaTheAlligator]

English audio (I'd say they're worth it), filtered sprites (looks better to me on PC, while the pixelated ones would be better on a smaller screen), new maps, new UI. Everything else off, because I don't need the game to blur things for me, my eyes already do that on their own. That's just my preference, though.

Originally posted by Xemidan:

Do you have Japanese audio with English sub? Or just full-on Japanese? If you got ♥♥♥ dub with Eng Sub, mind telling me how you managed to get that? :o

Can't you choose the language in the settings?

[Ragnaman]

Originally posted by Xemidan:

Do you have Japanese audio with English sub? Or just full-on Japanese? If you got ♥♥♥ dub with Eng Sub, mind telling me how you managed to get that? :o

In settings i just changed to japanese audio...nothing special

[Ragnaman]

Hmm, the first area where Laharl awakens the new maps are of lower artistical quality (while more blurry)...that is why i was wondering whether to use new or old maps.


old maps (notice the colours and art)
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=632225053

new maps (cleaner, but something feels cheap)
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=632225127

[KarmaTheAlligator]

Originally posted by Ragnaman:

Hmm, the first area where Laharl awakens the new maps are of lower artistical quality (while more blurry)...that is why i was wondering whether to use new or old maps.

It's a matter of preference, really. I prefer the new maps, others like the old ones.

[〘 Xemidan 〙]

Originally posted by KarmaTheAlligator:

English audio (I'd say they're worth it), filtered sprites (looks better to me on PC, while the pixelated ones would be better on a smaller screen), new maps, new UI. Everything else off, because I don't need the game to blur things for me, my eyes already do that on their own. That's just my preference, though.

Originally posted by Xemidan:

Do you have Japanese audio with English sub? Or just full-on Japanese? If you got ♥♥♥ dub with Eng Sub, mind telling me how you managed to get that? :o

Can't you choose the language in the settings?

I'm blind. Didn't see the audio settings...

[Moga CMDR]

regarding the new tiles, its hit and miss. The old ones sometimes have better details, even if they are lower resolution. Sometimes the new tiles add details that never existed, which may or may not look good depending on your preference.

Overall I prefer to stick with the old because it matches the characters a lot better.

[Pangolin Legends: Arceus]

I don't like the new UI: it's too hi-res compared to the rest of the game. The new map tiles are not as jarring, resolution-wise but they do seem to have more nasty texture seam issues than the old ones. Character smoothing/blurring, end of map blurring, depth of field all make the game look worse to me.

The normal mapping is hardly noticable. Basically, why did they bother with any of the new things ?

[Moga CMDR]

Originally posted by #16:

The normal mapping is hardly noticable. Basically, why did they bother with any of the new things ?

No idea, I feel the same way. I think two things are possible. They earnestly thought it would be nice and decided to keep it even after it was a mess.

Or they solely kept it because they could say "more than just a port" and use it in marketing.

Or drugs maybe.

[Pangolin Legends: Arceus]

I wish they'd spent some of that time making a text speed option instead.

[Moga CMDR]

Originally posted by #16:

I wish they'd spent some of that time making a text speed option instead.

yeah...

[Josh (jahirie)]

Originally posted by #16:

I wish they'd spent some of that time making a text speed option instead.

OMG yes...

[JoeShmo]

the bit map / tile options are kinda "subtle" to some folks + they actually changed the aesthetics of a lot of them from the original; like tiles that were broken concrete they turned into prestine shiney marble stone.

The biggest difference is when you switch normal mapping off / on. It goes from flat textures to defined simulated 3d / contrast / shading / etc. It makes the tiles "pop out" like any forground / background / etc. technique would for a 2d drawing. Makes the scenes look a lot beter in my opinion.

This goes for the shadows / shading options as well. It's a rather "subtle" differnece..but one that makes the scenes more 2.5D looking..rather than just flat 2d textures.

I would have liked to see them do a proper job of upgrading the visuals...but at the very least these "touchups" do tend to make the game look more "photorealistic" ..rather than just adding extra res pixels and calling it done.


They really needed to upgrade the sprites though. Good lord those look jaring with the new updated maps / tiles. And the lazy bluring effect of SSAO is just insulting and wrong as a visual aesthetic.

[Maverik770]

I'm running this on a somewhat older system and it runs solid 60 FPS for me with Shadows turned off. That was the only setting that affected my performance in any way at all. Which makes no sense at all as this game's shadows even on High are a joke compared to full on 3D games that I run no problem on my rig. So the shadows have to have some kind of poor coding or optimization with the game or my GPU as there is no excuse for those tiny little blob shadows to slam FPS on a 13 year old game like this.

However, the Shadows issue aside, I'm playing with the following settings:

New Maps: On and Off - I keep switching back and forth between them because some of the old maps look better and some of the new ones look better. It's really hit or miss. I like the detail of the Old Maps but they aren't very crisp obviously.

Character Filter: Off - The sprites look so blurry bad and have white outlines with this turned on. I'd much rather go with the original pixel art.

Shadows: Off. Turning this on any setting tanks my solid 60 FPS to about 25-35 FPS which makes the characters move and interact slowly since game speed is directly tied to the framerate (as most console games are). Really unacceptable that turning shadows on in this game kills performance but oh well. You can hardly tell the visual difference with them off.

Vsynch: On. Works flawlessly for me. 60 FPS with Vsynch on. As long as Shadows are turned off.

DoF: Off. No need to blur stuff, just looks bad in 2D games.

Edge of Map Blur: Off. Again, utterly pointless to blur stuff.

SSAO: On. This actually works really, really well for me. The SSAO provides nice shadowing and depth to all objects and angles in the game world and does not impact framerate performance at all.

Normal Mapping: On. This looks and works great for me. Adds some nice depth feeling to the textures of the New Maps. If I have New Maps enabled then I also enable the Normal Mapping.

New UI: On. While I visually like the old UI's look and feel better (as it fits the rest of the game art way better than the new sterile UI) it becomes way too blurry and hard to read/use in Fullscreen higher resolutions. I applaud them for including this option but if you aren't playing in Windowed mode or on a tiny screen you pretty much have to use the New UI.

Subtitles: English

Voice Acting: English currently. The English dub seems quite good and I don't mind it one bit even though I typically prefer games to be spoken in their native language. I plan to flip it to Japanese later on and compare the 2 from there before I settle on one or the other.

In closing, anyone experiencing any kind of poor performance - Try turning off Shadows entirely. I know it seems ridiculous that an old spriate based 2D game like this could have any kind of shadows that would impact performance but they absolutely kill framerate and performance on my system for absolutely no reason.

None of the other graphical settings have ANY impact on my framerate or performance. I can turn on everything max aside from Shadows and have solid 60 FPS with VSynch enabled. Haven't seen any tearing or other graphical issues either. Game runs great for me and controls fine with either keyboard+mouse or 360 controller. The mouse support is surprisngly very good as well. You can pretty much control everything with the mouse. That is very rare for console ports.

My Rig's Specs:
Windows 7 64 Bit
HIS Radeon HD 6950 Ice Q X Turbo - 2 GBs DDR5 - Overclocked
AMD 6350 6 Core Black Edition - OC'd to 4.1 GHz
16 GBs Corsair Vengance DDR3 RAM
1TB Western Digital Caviar Black HDD

[Ragnaman]

Wow thanks for the detailed write up;

Question about sprite textures; Do you get a little tearing effect on the sprite when the filter is off ?
I get a very slight tearing when moving my character just slightly and then stop, it is as if the engine normalises the sprite or something and there is slight vertical tearing...it just bothers me.

With filter on, the sprites are blurred but I do not get the tearing.


Is it just my system ?