Is there any way to get this stupid game to run at 30fps and/or decrease shadow/lighting settings?

[cylinderofantigod]

My laptop has horrible performance on Dark Souls: Remastered. I have to turn everything off/low and set it to 800x600 to get anywhere near decent performance (50-60fps in most areas, with considerable slowdown when I'm near a light source, fire, etc.). If I set it to 720p, it will bog down to around 40fps just about everywhere, which wouldn't bother me at all... except the game speed is tied to the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ framerate, so everything moves in slow motion.

PTDE ran fine even on a much crappier laptop, and I know the difference between the two has been discussed to death here and elsewhere, but one thing that nobody ever seems to touch on is the fact that refusing to sell PTDE isn't scummy just or even primarily because it's a blatant cash grab, but because optimization for Remastered is absolutely dreadful, and they removed support for old and even some newer mid-end devices (bought this laptop for half a grand earlier this year) by not at least offering a 30fps option in the game settings or allowing me to decrease shadow/lighting quality. They could have even just raised the price of PTDE to the price of DSR, and that would have allowed some of us to play the game while they make the same amount of money. I should be able to play a 10 year-old game on this laptop, especially one that worked on older hardware, even though it isn't the best. It can run Doom Eternal and Agony; it should be able to run this.

PTDE keys are $200, and pirating isn't even an option since all of the pirated versions require Games for Windows Live, which doesn't exist anymore.

If I could get the game running at 30fps, it'd probably be playable at 720p. Someone here once posted a speedhack that alleged to fix the problem, but I can't find it anymore: https://steamcommunity.com/app/570940/discussions/0/1697174779856309464/?l=dutch&ctp=2

I don't care if I get banned from online for using a speedhack as long as I can play the damn game.

Please don't tell me to buy a new computer unless you're willing to pitch money to help me finance it. I don't have any.

Lighting seems to do me dirty more than anything else. Is there some ini file I can edit somewhere that will let me decrease shadow and lighting quality to gain some FPS?

[DOS32]

Just limit your fps to 30 in nvidia settings or whatever the AMD equivalent is

[cylinderofantigod]

Originally posted by DOS32:

Just limit your fps to 30 in nvidia settings or whatever the AMD equivalent is

I ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ love your avatar, first of all. One of my favorite movies. Sequel comes out in a couple of months! Can't wait.

That won't work for DSR, unfortunately, because the game is tied to the framerate, so forcing FPS without some kind of workaround will just make it run at half speed. Anything other than 60fps is too slow.

Good news is that I've randomly gotten playable framerates (55-60fps, which isn't bad considering even the OG console versions are prone to slowdowns) using 960x600 even though it wouldn't work before, and 720p runs at around 45-50fps (still to slow to be playable). But at least 960x600 is almost widescreen. I'll settle.

Improves even more when I disable Steam overlay, but that appears to kill the controller (which required a workaround to get working in the first place - this game, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Christ).

[AxiomExotic]

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ my man i need to know your specs if you cant even run this game, you must have some stone age windows 98 pc :D

[JellyPuff]

Optimization in DS:R isn't dreadful, the PtdE optimization is. And TBF, most dx11 capable GPUs, i.e. every GPU not solely meant as a display-out, like iGPU's, should be able to achieve consistent 50-60FPS.
My theory is, that the slowdowns at lower FPS are the result of whatever fixes they've applied to get rid of the physics glitches when you unlocked the FPS of the original. Could've shipped it with 2 executables, though, where that fix hasn't been applied. Or at least a "30FPS"-mode with a speedhack applied.
Not shipping remasters on PC with their OG is industry standard, albeit a bad and pretty pointless industry standard. All it does is kill legacy support for no reason at all.

Now before you do anything else, try disabling V-SYNC in-game and make sure it's disable on a driver-level as well and enable your Laptop's max-performance mode and make sure it's not thermal throttling. Continue reading, if it's still not running consistently enough.

I've had a suspicion, that the "missing file" in the thread you've linked was just a guide using "Cheat Engine" and enabling a speedhack. Wether true or not, i went ahead and tried it, because it can't be that simple of a fix, right? Well, it was. Though i cannot tell you, how and to which extend it affects game-logic, like jump-distance or iframes.

Download the latest version of Cheat Engine, install it and open it. Open DS:R. Then ALT-TAB and click on the magnifying-glass icon and select this game from the list of currently open processes. Now tick the check-box for "Enable Speedhack" and set it to "1,4" (use a comma). You can try "1,3" or "1,5" too, if you feel, that it's just slightly off compared to PtdE. Make sure, you lock the game to 30FPS.

Use this mod[www.nexusmods.com] to restore the broken specularity maps on some of the game's textures, unless you like the matte look.

[cylinderofantigod]

Originally posted by AxiomExotic:

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ my man i need to know your specs if you cant even run this game, you must have some stone age windows 98 pc :D

Oh, good. How much money are you able to pitch?

I know you're offering since I specifically asked nobody to bring this up unless they were. Awfully generous of you, thanks!

Originally posted by JellyPuff:

Optimization in DS:R isn't dreadful, the PtdE optimization is. And TBF, most dx11 capable GPUs, i.e. every GPU not solely meant as a display-out, like iGPU's, should be able to achieve consistent 50-60FPS.
My theory is, that the slowdowns at lower FPS are the result of whatever fixes they've applied to get rid of the physics glitches when you unlocked the FPS of the original. Could've shipped it with 2 executables, though, where that fix hasn't been applied. Or at least a "30FPS"-mode with a speedhack applied.
Not shipping remasters on PC with their OG is industry standard, albeit a bad and pretty pointless industry standard. All it does is kill legacy support for no reason at all.

Now before you do anything else, try disabling V-SYNC in-game and make sure it's disable on a driver-level as well and enable your Laptop's max-performance mode and make sure it's not thermal throttling. Continue reading, if it's still not running consistently enough.

I've had a suspicion, that the "missing file" in the thread you've linked was just a guide using "Cheat Engine" and enabling a speedhack. Wether true or not, i went ahead and tried it, because it can't be that simple of a fix, right? Well, it was. Though i cannot tell you, how and to which extend it affects game-logic, like jump-distance or iframes.

Download the latest version of Cheat Engine, install it and open it. Open DS:R. Then ALT-TAB and click on the magnifying-glass icon and select this game from the list of currently open processes. Now tick the check-box for "Enable Speedhack" and set it to "1,4" (use a comma). You can try "1,3" or "1,5" too, if you feel, that it's just slightly off compared to PtdE. Make sure, you lock the game to 30FPS.

Use this mod[www.nexusmods.com] to restore the broken specularity maps on some of the game's textures, unless you like the matte look.

Thanks. I may this this out later. What's the likelihood of getting banned from online for using something called Cheat Engine? I'm actually starting to enjoy it, haha.

I actually ended up getting a consistent 55-60FPS in most areas after fiddling around, but marking your post as the topic answer since somebody might need it in the future.

I still get a huge amount of lag in certain places (the Queelag boss fight was the biggest so far), but even Blighttown was fine. If I run into any serious issues, I'll give 'er a try.

And... well. I remember Rockstar pulling that ♥♥♥♥ not too long ago with the GTA trilogy (removing the originals from the store), and it didn't go over well, so they relented. I'm all for updated remasters with better graphics, but it's just too obviously being greedy when they stop offering the originals for sale. If they just raised the price of the originals to match the remasters, they wouldn't look any more greedy than they already do, and people could still play. It's not like anybody's going to buy PTDE if they can run DSR, anyway (from what I understand, the GTA remasters were legitimately awful, and that was a different story).

[AxiomExotic]

Originally posted by cylinderofantigod:

Originally posted by AxiomExotic:

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ my man i need to know your specs if you cant even run this game, you must have some stone age windows 98 pc :D

Oh, good. How much money are you able to pitch?

I know you're offering since I specifically asked nobody to bring this up unless they were. Awfully generous of you, thanks!

wow why so rude i just thought it was funny jesus man why so insecure about your pc lol

[cylinderofantigod]

Originally posted by AxiomExotic:

Originally posted by cylinderofantigod:

Oh, good. How much money are you able to pitch?

I know you're offering since I specifically asked nobody to bring this up unless they were. Awfully generous of you, thanks!

wow why so rude i just thought it was funny jesus man why so insecure about your pc lol

You didna answer my question. How much can I put you down for?

I mean, ♥♥♥♥, you're in this thread to try and help, right? I know you didn't make the comment just to be an ass after I said in the OP that it similar comments wouldn't be helpful if you weren't willing to help me solve the problem. That's just not what people on the internet - especially in the gaming community - are like.

No, I'm sure that post was made in good faith, and you're here to be helpful, and I appreciate it. Every dollar counts. DM me anytime when you're ready.

[AxiomExotic]

wow you are really asinine, im out of here

[cylinderofantigod]

Originally posted by AxiomExotic:

wow you are really asinine, im out of here

I'm very sad to see you go. Thanks for being so helpful and constructive during your time here. You will be missed.

+1 rep

[JellyPuff]

Originally posted by cylinderofantigod:

Thanks. I may this this out later. What's the likelihood of getting banned from online for using something called Cheat Engine? I'm actually starting to enjoy it, haha.

Depends on what you do with it. I don't think, that the CE speedhack will cause a softban, but i also can't guarantee you, that it won't.
The softban system isn't 100% understood, but the general consensus is, that temporary changes are fine as well as most modifications, that do not touch the game's "params", which are game-internal configurations, like NPC stats or give yourself "impossible stats", like a "crystal-infused Estus Flask", SL1 but all stats at 99, that sort of stuff.

The game might also just throw the "insufficient framerate for online play"-message, if locked at 30FPS and boot you into offline mode, if the devs have taken the slowdowns at low FPS into account.

[CB]

I mean, ♥♥♥♥, you're in this thread to try and help, right? I know you didn't make the comment just to be an ass after I said in the OP that it similar comments wouldn't be helpful if you weren't willing to help me solve the problem.

knowing the exact specs of your windows 98 toaster might be helpful for someone who can optimize that. and also, you made this thread trying to blame the game instead of your pc. it's open season to point out that your rig is probably slower than a ps4.

[cylinderofantigod]

Originally posted by CB:

I mean, ♥♥♥♥, you're in this thread to try and help, right? I know you didn't make the comment just to be an ass after I said in the OP that it similar comments wouldn't be helpful if you weren't willing to help me solve the problem.

knowing the exact specs of your windows 98 toaster might be helpful for someone who can optimize that. and also, you made this thread trying to blame the game instead of your pc. it's open season to point out that your rig is probably slower than a ps4.

My point was, coming into a thread and tell me my computer sucks isn't a solution unless you're going to help me buy a new one.

I was blaming the company for releasing the game in a format that some computers can't play and removing support for legacy systems, not the game for being unable to run on my PC (and it does, by the way, or it was).

If you think it's open season to come into the thread and make a comment I specifically said wouldn't be helpful, then I think it's open season to brand you rude and counterproductive to the thread.

How much can I put YOU down for? How's $50 sound?

[CB]

i'm sorry that you don't want to hear that you need to upgrade but you probably should. really, how old and out of date are we talking?

[cylinderofantigod]

Originally posted by CB:

i'm sorry that you don't want to hear that you need to upgrade but you probably should. really, how old and out of date are we talking?

♥♥♥♥ off.

EDIT: CB is getting this response because he's blatantly trolling. He knows what he's doing; I'm not going to be polite. Anybody seriously interested, the laptop is six months old and it's a mid-end model. It runs the game fine, too, or it did before I started having problems with the game crashing. Consistent 50-60fps now, no need to update.

[CB]

i thought you wanted my money lmao. don't want these two cents?????