How to play this darn game on PC

[CuriousCat]

How do I make the camera movement less jittery and what are the optimal controls for PC because default ones suck? Also is it really worth it to play on PC with mouse and keyboard?

[kaoz]

im using KB/M and i have defaults except for jump, jump is B. the camera movement doesnt feel jittery at all, make sure you use lock-on for fights most of the time and you should be fine

[Coq_Pwner]

The optimal settings are to use a controller.

I played briefly with KB + M and I had to change almost everything because I hated the default controls. Mapped all the attacks to buttons on my mouse instead of having to do combos , etc.

[trackles]

You use a controller, only insane people play dark souls with a mouse and keyboard

[kaoz]

Originally posted by trackles:

You use a controller, only insane people play dark souls with a mouse and keyboard

arent you the same person who said playing with your friends is cheating the system? i dont think i trust you.

[Kasic]

Mouse and keyboard suck for Dark Souls. I tried briefly and immediately went back to controller. If you're going to do it, you'll have to fully customize your mouse settings just for playing dark souls, completely re-do all the keybindings with trial and error to see what is most comfortable, and still accept that it'll never be as good as a controller.

Any game that requires variable inputs, especially for directional movement, is not going to play well with a mouse and keyboard.

[dcy665]

Surprise, your mileage will vary. We have many KB/M players, and a significant percentage that only use controllers.

What you aren't doing is providing enough information.
What type of system: laptop, office desktop, custom rig, the latest/bestest of everything.
Is this a gamer mouse or a cheap MSFT copy?

Where in the game are these problems showing up. Are you in the tutorial, did you make it to Firelink Shrine, or where exactly?

[richardson]

Mouse and keyboard is marginally better than using a joystick, guitar hero controller, or a single button tapping commands in morse code. All of which have been used to beat the game, so, sure, it's quite possible.

But like the above, I tried it and I switched to controller very soon - which I have only ever used to play two games, Dark Souls and For Honor.

[Kasic]

Originally posted by richardson:

Mouse and keyboard is marginally better than using a joystick, guitar hero controller, or a single button tapping commands in morse code. All of which have been used to beat the game, so, sure, it's quite possible.

But like the above, I tried it and I switched to controller very soon - which I have only ever used to play two games, Dark Souls and For Honor.

Controllers are good for games where you only/primarily drive vehicles, platformers, and third person views. This is because the keyboard keys cannot do variable input. It's either go or don't, and you only have forward/back/left/right for your motions (unless you want to map 4 more keys so you get EIGHT WHOLE DIRECTIONS!).

If your view isn't bound to your actions, need to have the ability to control how "much" you're moving, or are in a very simple game environment where you have few commands to enter, controllers are going to be superior.

FPS, MOBAs, MMORPGs, Puzzle Games, Card Games, etc it's better to have keyboard and mouse. If you have to select things with accuracy/speed, have a lot of possible inputs, or are navigating menus then the mouse/keyboard is going to beat a joystick every time.

[ZeroKelvin]

I've 100%-ed this game on MK 3 times now (GFWL, Steam, Steam Remastered).

Either get used to it (totally possible), or use a controller. There aren't any other choices.

[richardson]

Originally posted by Kasic:

Originally posted by richardson:

Mouse and keyboard is marginally better than using a joystick, guitar hero controller, or a single button tapping commands in morse code. All of which have been used to beat the game, so, sure, it's quite possible.

But like the above, I tried it and I switched to controller very soon - which I have only ever used to play two games, Dark Souls and For Honor.

Controllers are good for games where you only/primarily drive vehicles, platformers, and third person views. This is because the keyboard keys cannot do variable input. It's either go or don't, and you only have forward/back/left/right for your motions (unless you want to map 4 more keys so you get EIGHT WHOLE DIRECTIONS!).

If your view isn't bound to your actions, need to have the ability to control how "much" you're moving, or are in a very simple game environment where you have few commands to enter, controllers are going to be superior.

FPS, MOBAs, MMORPGs, Puzzle Games, Card Games, etc it's better to have keyboard and mouse. If you have to select things with accuracy/speed, have a lot of possible inputs, or are navigating menus then the mouse/keyboard is going to beat a joystick every time.

Exactly. I would never play Sniper Elite, Hitman, or Far Cry (three games I've sunk a lot of PC hours into) with a controller. (Although in Far Cry the vehicle physics haven't improved much since Interstate 76 back in the 90s due to the limitations of on/off keyboard control).

The big thing with Dark Souls is something that both late-era World of Warcraft and some stealth FPSes are flirting with, the necessity to hold down an action key while also both moving fluidly and adjusting the camera - I just don't have enough fingers for that.

[sekai]

Originally posted by TechnicallyOwl:

is it really worth it to play on PC with mouse and keyboard?

The answer is a fat NO.

You can try, but it's not gonna be very enjoyable. I know because I was playing it on KB+M and can't say I enjoyed the game (to humble brag, I did beat the game once on KB+M, my very first playthrough, but again, I wasn't enjoying the game until I got controller).

You know the game's PC port is ♥♥♥♥ and the KB+M is a slog when it tells you to use keys like INSERT or DELETE for menus, like, really? And let's not even mention how the transition from from controller scheme to KB+M is completely botched and just make it very fiddly like you're trying to operate a helicopter just to play the game on KB+M.

Get yourself a cheap controller and use it.

[sekai]

Also, the camera can be jittery because the game's camera has a terrible wall-recovery issue, which is also kind of a big deal when the game has a lot of tight corriders to go through. So what you should do is to just disable camera wall recovery from the menu which is thankfully included as a function. Because you know what, you will do a better job at camera wall recovery than whatever hack code they put into that function that makes the camera have an uncontrollable need to have sex with the wall once it touches it.

The second thing you want to disable is the automatic lock-on. The game's lock-on mechanic is a godsend and definitely something I wish more games have but it isn't when it happens automatically whenever an enemy enters your view, especially since certain bosses are better fought without lock-on (cough cough Gaping Dragon cough). And as such, you want to make lock-on a manual decision only and disable the automatic lock-on in the menus. This should also make your game less jittery becuase your camera will spend less time flying around to look at enemies the instant they enter visual range and instead you have control over what you want to be looking at.

That should make your camera experience much better.

[Gerg From Woolies]

Originally posted by TechnicallyOwl:

How do I make the camera movement less jittery and what are the optimal controls for PC because default ones suck? Also is it really worth it to play on PC with mouse and keyboard?

You think the PC controls are bad? Wait until you try DS2 with PC controls, that **** is near unplayable in my opinion.

[kaoz]

Originally posted by sekai:

Originally posted by TechnicallyOwl:

is it really worth it to play on PC with mouse and keyboard?

You know the game's PC port is ♥♥♥♥ and the KB+M is a slog when it tells you to use keys like INSERT or DELETE for menus, like, really?

? never did this for me, ever and im playing on kb/m

[sekai]

Originally posted by kaoz:

Originally posted by sekai:

You know the game's PC port is ♥♥♥♥ and the KB+M is a slog when it tells you to use keys like INSERT or DELETE for menus, like, really?

? never did this for me, ever and im playing on kb/m

Unless they did change the KB+M configuration in the Remaster but back on Prepare To Die Edition, the keyboard input is essentially ""designed"" by idk how to describe it ... like imaging a controller, hammer it flat, and then paste it onto a keyboard, and that was essentially your default keyboard control scheme. And that was why all the menu nevigation buttons were on some whack buttons like INSERT because the rest of the buttons were already occupied just for the simple stuff because yes, they mapped both controller sticks as buttons on the keyboard (WHILE ALREADY HAVING MOUSE FUNCTIONING AS THE CAMERA) if you can only imagine the horror.

But even with optimal configuration and bunch of quality of life to the keyboard, I'd still say it is probably still inferior to the controller when it comes to this game simply because of the way the USER INTERFACE is designed.

The fact everything done by the menu is done with some kind of CYCLING makes it hell with keyboard but makes total sense on controller. On controller, the whole inventory activity can be done in a flash with just 2 thumbs without breaking a sweat, but on keyboard you will need a much more confusing dance with multiple fingers, all simply because of the design of the UI being obviously catered for the use of controllers.

It doesn't mean you can't with practice and tweaks, be playing the game successfully with KB+M, but just know that the game was designed entirely for controller without the dev even so much as considering KB+M in an after thought.