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[pa22word]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=767774&highlight=dark+souls+screenshots

Here it is. This thread. Official screen shots released by namco, of the retail version. We knew it was coming out like this before hand. a whole month and half before hand. :l

*still warrants an explanation, I suppose.

Those shots are obviously cherry picked as to hide the state of the lighting engine and how darkness works, as indicated by none of them being shot in dark areas except for the shot zoomed in on the player character holding a torch in an already well lit area.

If anything that just makes it even more obvious that they were bullshitting people. Otherwise why show off the torch mechanic if they knew it had been neutered at that point?

 

[tehPete]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=767774&highlight=dark+souls+screenshots

Here it is. This thread. Official screen shots released by namco, of the retail version. We knew it was coming out like this before hand. a whole month and half before hand. :l

*still warrants an explanation, I suppose.

What a cautiously constructed bunch of screenshots - closeups, high-contrast and menu shots, exactly what you need to show off your new lighting upgrades [/s] The more that comes to light, the more this feels like a carefully approached bait'n'switch.

 

[nbthedude]

If the PC version looks similar enough to the footage it is being advertised with I see no problem. It's common practice to advertise multiplatform games using the best-looking version, and generally people don't complain much about that.

Agreed on all counts.

 

[nbthedude]

Those shots are obviously cherry picked as to hide the state of the lighting engine and how darkness works, as indicated by none of them being shot in dark areas except for the shot zoomed in on the player character holding a torch in an already well lit area.

If anything that just makes it even more obvious that they were bullshitting people. Otherwise why show off the torch mechanic if they knew it had been neutered at that point?

Wait. Namco picked the best looking shots of their game for PR? No way.

That this is somehow unacceptable and that you think they should have shown bad screenshots instead indicates that we have totally left the realm of reality.

 

[pa22word]

If the PC version looks similar enough to the footage it is being advertised with I see no problem. It's common practice to advertise multiplatform games using the best-looking version, and generally people don't complain much about that.

Problem is the attempted to pass off the better looking version as PS3 footage 6 weeks before launch.

Even if the PCv comes out looking like the TGS footage it still doesn't change the fact that they lied to everyone who was looking to buy the PS3 version based on being shown that footage.

 

[SlasherJPC]

The problem with this, as someone said above, is the fact you are losing detail and limiting the colour range.

Not to mention...this doesn't affect any of the other problems.

I understand this and agree. Someone asked for direct capture. I provided.

 

[nbthedude]

What a cautiously constructed bunch of screenshots - closeups, high-contrast and menu shots, exactly what you need to show off your new lighting upgrades [/s] The more that comes to light, the more this feels like a carefully approached bait'n'switch.

It's like you guys are new to the concept of marketing.

 

[Havel]

Wait. Namco picked the best looking shots of their game for PR? No way.

That this is somehow unacceptable and that you think they should have shown bad screenshots instead indicates that we have totally left the realm of reality.

They shouldn't have used bad screenshots, no.

They should have released gameplay footage to the press. Everyone who had played the final game at that point, IIRC, was under an NDA.

 

[pa22word]

Wait. Namco picked the best looking shots of their game for PR? No way.

That this is somehow unacceptable and that you think they should have shown bad screenshots instead indicates that we have totally left the realm of reality.

Honestly, if we left the realm of reality at any point in this thread it was as soon as you started posting in it.

And while those shots are harmless enough on their own, in hindsight (with the knowledge of the total bullshit demo they showed to PSaccess) they are very damning in that they show a very obvious intent on the part of either fromsoft or namco to deceive people as to the state of the finished game.

 

[Kieli]

It's like you guys are new to the concept of marketing.

The consumer should have some responsibility in learning about the product they are buying and whether or not they will be satisfied by it. Yes, I agree with you in as much as that.

However, how the fuck are we supposed to do that when publishers are doing their damnedest to deceive us? The fact that it's done by every firm since the beginning of time somehow excuses or absolves From/Namco/whoever-did-the-marketing?

 

[Lalalandia]

Wait. Namco picked the best looking shots of their game for PR? No way.

That this is somehow unacceptable and that you think they should have shown bad screenshots instead indicates that we have totally left the realm of reality.

No that you think failing to say 'this is the PC version' is acceptable is the sign that we have entered the fever dreams of marketeers everywhere. This bullshit was endemic on PC titles in the Amiga days where you'd buy a game on the basis of screenshots on the box and get an EGA abomination inside. That the PC crowd have so quickly forgotten this and now revel in the idea that 'their' platform is used to deceive others boggles my mind.

Is it really that much to ask to put a watermark saying PC build when you show something?

Is it that hard to understand the anger of those who've been deceived?

Don't let your love for the developer blind you to what they've done here which is pure 'bait and switch', if we let FROM / Namco Bandai away with this what's to stop Ubisoft from advertising Watch_Dogs footage with that 2012 target render until launch?

 

[DarkoMaledictus]

It's not just the lightning. Textures are concerned too, when it's not whole elements which are withdrawn, affecting heavily the atmosphere.

Case in point:


And, once again, people here are angry because of the deception.

Wow... that is a pretty jarring difference !! Like 1 generation leap...

 

[Durante]

No that you think failing to say 'this is the PC version' is acceptable is the sign that we have entered the fever dreams of marketeers everywhere. This bullshit was endemic on PC titles in the Amiga days where you'd buy a game on the basis of screenshots on the box and get an EGA abomination inside. That the PC crowd have so quickly forgotten this and now revel in the idea that 'their' platform is used to deceive others boggles my mind.

Who, exactly, is doing that?

Is it really that much to ask to put a watermark saying PC build when you show something?

I'd be all for that. I just don't see why DS2 should be held to a higher standard than any other multiplatform title. For example, I'm sure Titanfall and BF4 are advertised using PC footage, not current-gen console footage and certainly not last-gen console footage.

 

[nbthedude]

They shouldn't have used bad screenshots, no.

They should have released gameplay footage to the press. Everyone who had played the final game at that point, IIRC, was under an NDA.

Fair enough. They did a bad job marketing their game and seemingly someone (either the press or Namco) also did a terrible job making it clear which versions of the game were being shown both in terms of the state of the actual builds being shown and the system these builds are running on.

On that much I can pretty much agree. And moreover, I would say in general that kind of stuff probably happens all the time because companies aren't that careful about indicating which build/platform their media is from unless someone specifically asks them because it usually doesn't matter all that much. There is a mystery here, no doubt and apparently a bit of a mess in term so perception and delivery (to be honest, I think the vast majority of the people enraged it happened not when they started playing the game but when they came to threads like this one and were taught to be enraged but that's beside the point). I can agree there's a bit of a mess in terms of lack of clarity.

It's all the steps beyond that about intention to deceive etc. etc. that things start to get pretty iffy to me. And even more so when people start yelling about consumer rights or fraud or being sodomized by corporations or all the other nonsense rhetoric being thrown around regularly in this thread.

 

[pa22word]

I'd be all for that. I just don't see why DS2 should be held to a higher standard than any other multiplatform title. For example, I'm sure Titanfall and BF4 are advertised using PC footage, not current-gen console footage and certainly not last-gen console footage.

Difference being we either knew exactly or had a good approximation what BF4 and Titanfall were going to look and run like on their platforms beforehand. We thought we did with Dark Souls 2, but Namco bullshitted everyone with fake/old footage under the guise that it was running on a specific platform.

 

[tehPete]

It's like you guys are new to the concept of marketing.

Company shows multiple previews of a game showing advanced effects; uses media from these builds for advertising and marketing, and then releases a game that any non-gamer can see is lower in quality and doesn't include said effects.

It's like some people are new to the concept of providing a product as advertised.

 

[nbthedude]

Company shows multiple previews of a game showing advanced effects; uses media from these builds for advertising and marketing, and then releases a game that any non-gamer can see is lower in quality and doesn't include said effects.

It's like some people are new to the concept of providing a product as advertised.

Now you are blatantly taking me out of context. I was responding specifically to accusations that Namco picked the "best" shots for the media they released.

 

[tehPete]

Now you are blatantly taking me out of context. I was responding specifically to accusations that Namco picked the "best" shots for the media they released.

My apologies, and fair point; each medium is suitable for showing different things though - video for lighting and dynamic effects as advertised, screenshots for static detail. NB/From knew what they were doing, and it's the calculated deception that's the issue here, nothing else.

 

[kingofthedead45]

What a cautiously constructed bunch of screenshots - closeups, high-contrast and menu shots, exactly what you need to show off your new lighting upgrades [/s] The more that comes to light, the more this feels like a carefully approached bait'n'switch.

Those shots are obviously cherry picked as to hide the state of the lighting engine and how darkness works, as indicated by none of them being shot in dark areas except for the shot zoomed in on the player character holding a torch in an already well lit area.

If anything that just makes it even more obvious that they were bullshitting people. Otherwise why show off the torch mechanic if they knew it had been neutered at that point?

Well, hear me out, simply to play devil's advocate. Yes while these screen shots have an altered state of sharpness/contrast:

They are most definitely indicative of the retail version. We hadn't seen anything that "bad" before hand, and while it was only a month out to release and nothing was said at all about it, it was still shown. I 100% agree that it was a total bait and switch and it still needs to be explained though.

 

[maquiladora]

EDIT:

zephervack made a good post in the other thread about the different builds:

 

[Lalalandia]

Who, exactly, is doing that?

If they already said PC was their lead platform upfront from the very start, why is the onus not on the audience to make sure/find out if the version they are showing is the same they are buying.

All the Titanfall Footage has been Xbox One. All the footage in commericals is Xbox One. Everybody knows that's the lead SKU. It' s assumed the 360 version doesn't look quite the same.

Except of course MS and Respawn have been very upfront as to which version they have been showing.

I just can't see how a company consistently using assets not representative of the only version of the game on sale as promotional material can ever be anything but deceptive. The consistent retreat to 'oh but version X will be awesome' is basically a way of saying 'Well I'll be playing what was shown so I don't know why you're whinging'

 

[Metroid-Squadron]

Well, hear me out, simply to play devil's advocate. Yes while these screen shots have an altered state of sharpness/contrast:

They are most definitely indicative of the retail version. We hadn't seen anything that "bad" before hand, and while it was only a month out to release and nothing was said at all about it, it was still shown. I 100% agree that it was a total bait and switch and it still needs to be explained though.

Except none of those show the same areas than the demo builds so direct comparison wasn't possible. All we could gather from that is that some areas look worse than others.

 

[nbthedude]

Except of course MS and Respawn have been very upfront as to which version they have been showing.

I just can't see how a company consistently using assets not representative of the only version of the game on sale as promotional material can ever be anything but deceptive. The consistent retreat to 'oh but version X will be awesome' is basically a way of saying 'Well I'll be playing what was shown so I don't know why you're whinging'

Have they or has everyone just assumed? Anyway admittedly it's a special case since they are trying to pimp the Xbox One so of course that's the version they are showing and everybody knows it.

I'm not disagreeing that there is a problem if you don't know which version you are looking at. I just agree with Durante that it's a standard practice to show the best version by default and that I'm not convinced the onus is on the developer to make that clear. I think people in the media should ask/make sure which version it is. And people in the fanbase should learn about the differences between the versions if they want the best one/one that looks like the coverage.

In that sense I'm not sure how any of this is different than every other case in the past where I always had to research to find out information about the best versions of a game before I purchased it. I've been doing that my entire gaming life.

That's actually one of the reasons I didn't run out and buy the console version immediately because From did seem to make clear that PC was their lead platform and their PR guys just a week before the game launch on consoles said "PC gamers won't be disappointed" implying that we were getting the superior version. Thus to me it's no different than when Street Fighter Alpha was released on Playstation 1 in December and then the superior Saturn version was released SEVEN MONTHS later and I waited for the Saturn version cause I knew it was going to be better.

 

[kingofthedead45]

Except none of those show the same areas than the demo builds so direct comparison wasn't possible. All we could gather from that is that some areas look worse than others.

Yeah, agreed, it was pointed out, how we're we supposed to know? We were left to assume. :/

 

[7DollarHagane]

As someone who followed almost no preview footage or coverage of this game and bought it at launch and is enjoying it tremendously,

I have a hard time getting upset about it. I'll probably double dip the PC version.

The solution is stop caring so much about previews and play more games.

 

[fade_]

As someone who followed almost no preview footage or coverage of this game and bought it at launch and is enjoying it tremendously,

I have a hard time getting upset about it. I'll probably double dip the PC version.

The solution is stop caring so much about previews and play more games.

Or don't preorder games anymore and wait until you see retail gameplay.

 

[lazer_bean]

As someone who followed almost no preview footage or coverage of this game and bought it at launch and is enjoying it tremendously,

I have a hard time getting upset about it. I'll probably double dip the PC version.

The solution is stop caring so much about previews and play more games.

some people like to know what they buy before they buy it

Or don't preorder games anymore and wait until you see retail gameplay.

I agree with that

 

[Lalalandia]

Have they or has everyone just assumed? Anyway admittedly it's a special case since they are trying to pimp the Xbox One so of course that's the version they are showing and everybody knows it.

Well when you are not selling a next-gen version and keep showing the game at PS3 centric events and apparently on PS3s (at the very least with DS3s which have no offiial PC support) then I think that assumption is reasonable to make and not disabusing it really is on FROM soft and Namco Bandai (a lie of omission if you will).

I'm not disagreeing that there is a problem if you don't know which version you are looking at. I just agree with Durante that it's a standard practice to show the best version by default and that I'm not convinced the onus is on the developer to make that clear. I think people in the media should ask/make sure which version it is. And people in the fanbase should learn about the differences between the versions if they want the best one/one that looks like the coverage.

In that sense I'm not sure how any of this is different than every other case in the past where I always had to research to find out information about the best versions of a game before I purchased it. I've been doing that my entire gaming life.

That's actually one of the reasons I didn't run out and buy the console version immediately because From did seem to make clear that PC was their lead platform and their PR guys just a week before the game launch on consoles said "PC gamers won't be disappointed" implying that we were getting the superior version. Thus to me it's no different than when Street Fighter Alpha was released on Playstation 1 in December and then the superior Saturn version was released SEVEN MONTHS later and I waited for the Saturn version cause I knew it was going to be better.

Your example though is from the dark days of bullshots as an industry norm though, for all the passion here on this subject now it really is nothing like the wild west of the PS1 era and earlier. That is probably part of the problem here in that developers have gotten more honest over the years due to the backlash that happened then. While of course BF4 and others were shown with PC footage (E3 stage footage PC key prompts say hi), the betas that were released were representative of the final quality on PS3/360 allowing consumers to evaluate whether those versions were worth $60.

For the record I don't think this is a game breaking issue, I find it disappointing as proper dynamic lighting is exciting to me but if they'd said 'nah just not happening' then game is still a DS title. Of course over the long stretch in development you can discover that feature X doesn't work any more when all the other systems are layered in but it behoves you to stop using media showcasing that feature to advertise your game. For me this is an issue of if we let FROM do this how can we complain if Ubisoft/EA/Activision do it in the future?

 

[nbthedude]

Of course over the long stretch in development you can discover that feature X doesn't work any more when all the other systems are layered in but it behoves you to stop using media showcasing that feature to advertise your game.

But here is where it gets complicated: if the features are still in the PC build then it's not really false advertising to keep using the media. It's kind of a weird situition. I mean, I don't think it makes much sense for them to issue some kind of press release announcing a removal of a feature in the console version. But I would agree that if someone asks them about it they should be upfront that that version had to have the features cut.

For me this is an issue of if we let FROM do this how can we complain if Ubisoft/EA/Activision do it in the future?

And I guess where I'd come down is that we are in an era now where there are wide gaps. There are wide gaps between what a mid-high end PC can do and what the Xbox One and Playstation 4 and wide gaps between that and what a current gen 360 and PS4 can do. And if a given game is coming out for all of those platforms, we should sort of not assume anything about them anymore than you would assume a Gamegear version looks just like the Genesis game in th old days. I think the onus is on the gaming media to always try to ask the developer to be clear what version they are showing. Cause that is now really important info given the large differences in hardware nowdays.

And to be fair to my example, in truth I also waited cause the fuck the PS1 controller for fighters and all praise be the japanese Saturn pad.

 

[See You Next Wednesday]

Ok here's the thing:

The problem with setting the brightness to zero is that you're losing detail to artificially make the game dark. Basically you're limiting the colour range and losing detail by making certain parts of the image artificially dark. You can see how a great part of the wall is just simply black, unrelated to whatever light source is on the image.

In the demo the lighting has a natural gradient. Parts of the imagen closer to the light source are brighter, and the more far the zones are from the light the dark they are. But look how the wall is not just darker and dosn't have artificial missing detail.

The problem with lighting in the retail game is way more uniform and lacks things like AO. That's something you can't fix with brightness settings, since is just an artificial way to add dark to where the lighting was suposed to do. It might work to make the game like originally intended, regarding the torch mechanics, but is just a shitty/fake way to do it.

The problem with this, as someone said above, is the fact you are losing detail and limiting the colour range.

Not to mention...this doesn't affect any of the other problems.

O.k. I started Dark Souls yesterday & played about 6 hours.
I noticed the glitch within 3 seconds.

You do NOT need to lower the in-game brightness, that won't change the black point, just the shadow detail.
The game ships with a glitch & is outputting the incorrect HDMI range.

I figured this much within 3 seconds of starting the game. When the my 360 jumped from black to grey & kept the grey black around title screen as well as having the black bar during the cinematic cutscenes grey.

What Namco did was to artificially limit the HDMI range to increase shadow detail.
The problem with this is that it won't display the full color range & changes black color into grey & lowers the contrast of the displays by several times.


To get the correct settings, what FromSoftware originally intended for people to play, you'll have to set your Xbox 360 reference black levels to EXPANDED & your PS3 HDM color range to FULL.
If they are already set to that then you need to change the HDMI settings on your TV set in the menus to FULL.

This will essentially crush & destroy all shadow detail detail on your PS3/360 games & movies, BUT will be displaying the correct color range for Dark Souls.

 

[Polioliolio]

O.k. I started Dark Souls yesterday & played about 6 hours.
I noticed the glitch within 3 seconds.

You do NOT need to lower the in-game brightness, that won't change the black point, just the shadow detail.
The game ships with a glitch & is outputting the incorrect HDMI range.

I figured this much within 3 seconds of starting the game. When the my 360 jumped from black to grey & kept the grey black around title screen as well as having the black bar during the cinematic cutscenes grey.

What Namco did was to artificially limit the HDMI range to increase shadow detail.
The problem with this is that it won't display the full color range & changes black color into grey & lowers the contrast of the displays by several times.


To get the correct settings, what FromSoftware originally intended for people to play, you'll have to set your Xbox 360 reference black levels to EXPANDED & your PS3 HDM color range to FULL.
If they are already set to that then you need to change the HDMI settings on your TV set in the menus to FULL.

This will essentially crush & destroy all shadow detail detail on your PS3/360 games & movies, BUT will be displaying the correct color range for Dark Souls.

Woh,

Sir, can you please post some screenshots with the proper adjustment in place??

 

[Havel]

O.k. I started Dark Souls yesterday & played about 6 hours.
I noticed the glitch within 3 seconds.

You do NOT need to lower the in-game brightness, that won't change the black point, just the shadow detail.
The game ships with a glitch & is outputting the incorrect HDMI range.

I figured this much within 3 seconds of starting the game. When the my 360 jumped from black to grey & kept the grey black around title screen as well as having the black bar during the cinematic cutscenes grey.

What Namco did was to artificially limit the HDMI range to increase shadow detail.
The problem with this is that it won't display the full color range & changes black color into grey & lowers the contrast of the displays by several times.


To get the correct settings, what FromSoftware originally intended for people to play, you'll have to set your Xbox 360 reference black levels to EXPANDED & your PS3 HDM color range to FULL.
If they are already set to that then you need to change the HDMI settings on your TV set in the menus to FULL.

This will essentially crush & destroy all shadow detail detail on your PS3/360 games & movies, BUT will be displaying the correct color range for Dark Souls.

This seems really...odd. If you use a PC monitor for example on your console, then your HDMI level should be on FULL in the first place to display the correct range. TVs need to be set at limited for the correct value.

Also this still doesn't explain, nor is it related, to something like this:

This seems more like an issue on a per TV basis.

 

[Toxi]

O.k. I started Dark Souls yesterday & played about 6 hours.
I noticed the glitch within 3 seconds.

You do NOT need to lower the in-game brightness, that won't change the black point, just the shadow detail.
The game ships with a glitch & is outputting the incorrect HDMI range.

I figured this much within 3 seconds of starting the game. When the my 360 jumped from black to grey & kept the grey black around title screen as well as having the black bar during the cinematic cutscenes grey.

What Namco did was to artificially limit the HDMI range to increase shadow detail.
The problem with this is that it won't display the full color range & changes black color into grey & lowers the contrast of the displays by several times.

To get the correct settings, what FromSoftware originally intended for people to play, you'll have to set your Xbox 360 reference black levels to EXPANDED & your PS3 HDM color range to FULL.
If they are already set to that then you need to change the HDMI settings on your TV set in the menus to FULL.

This will essentially crush & destroy all shadow detail detail on your PS3/360 games & movies, BUT will be displaying the correct color range for Dark Souls.

Thanks for the suggestion. Can't believe they fucked up something like that.

 

[deoee]

O.k. I started Dark Souls yesterday & played about 6 hours.
I noticed the glitch within 3 seconds.

You do NOT need to lower the in-game brightness, that won't change the black point, just the shadow detail.
The game ships with a glitch & is outputting the incorrect HDMI range.

I figured this much within 3 seconds of starting the game. When the my 360 jumped from black to grey & kept the grey black around title screen as well as having the black bar during the cinematic cutscenes grey.

What Namco did was to artificially limit the HDMI range to increase shadow detail.
The problem with this is that it won't display the full color range & changes black color into grey & lowers the contrast of the displays by several times.


To get the correct settings, what FromSoftware originally intended for people to play, you'll have to set your Xbox 360 reference black levels to EXPANDED & your PS3 HDM color range to FULL.
If they are already set to that then you need to change the HDMI settings on your TV set in the menus to FULL.

This will essentially crush & destroy all shadow detail detail on your PS3/360 games & movies, BUT will be displaying the correct color range for Dark Souls.

Can someone actually test this?

 

[CountAntonius]

O.k. I started Dark Souls yesterday & played about 6 hours.
I noticed the glitch within 3 seconds.

You do NOT need to lower the in-game brightness, that won't change the black point, just the shadow detail.
The game ships with a glitch & is outputting the incorrect HDMI range.

I figured this much within 3 seconds of starting the game. When the my 360 jumped from black to grey & kept the grey black around title screen as well as having the black bar during the cinematic cutscenes grey.

What Namco did was to artificially limit the HDMI range to increase shadow detail.
The problem with this is that it won't display the full color range & changes black color into grey & lowers the contrast of the displays by several times.


To get the correct settings, what FromSoftware originally intended for people to play, you'll have to set your Xbox 360 reference black levels to EXPANDED & your PS3 HDM color range to FULL.
If they are already set to that then you need to change the HDMI settings on your TV set in the menus to FULL.

This will essentially crush & destroy all shadow detail detail on your PS3/360 games & movies, BUT will be displaying the correct color range for Dark Souls.

This is interesting. Would like to see some pics maybe a patch can fix this if true?

 

[Rell]

This happens to pretty much every game ever.

And really, look at From's titles. Did anyone actually think that we'd get those kind of visuals from them on last gen's hardware?

Bummer that people feel like they got suckered by a bait and switch, but this isn't especially egregious.

 

[Dr. Black Jack]

I think the darkness issue is related to your display and not the game. On my 360 with Standard black levels, the default brightness level is perfect. If I move the slider completely dark, both elements disappear, and if I move it completely light the dragon appears. If I turn the system settings to Expanded it crushes all of the blacks and I can't see the left symbol unless I turn the brightness all the way up. I'm not that far into the game (barely into the Forest of Giants) but the brightness level is spot on with the preview footage (minus the lighting downgrades of course).

I'm using a Sony 34XBR960 over HDMI. What TVs are you guys having the brightness problem on?

EDIT: Yeah, the solution posted above should work. It's your TV, not the game.

 

[CheesecakeRecipe]

This happens to pretty much every game ever.

And really, look at From's titles. Did anyone actually think that we'd get those kind of visuals from them on last gen's hardware?

Bummer that people feel like they got suckered by a bait and switch, but this isn't especially egregious.

I feel like anyone who says this has never seen Otogi: Myth of Demons or its sequel.

FROM may not always make the most beautiful games but they are more than capable of great looks.

 

[See You Next Wednesday]

It's not just the lightning. Textures are concerned too, when it's not whole elements which are withdrawn, affecting heavily the atmosphere.

Case in point:

And, once again, people here are angry because of the deception.

Ask your brother if he can lower the brightness on this stage. Maybe the dragons are afraid of the bright!

A lot of the smaller changes were probably design choices, like changing the outline of doorways & getting rid of the extra clutter in the hallways or changing the way the sun faces the castle.

 

[Stet]

Can someone actually test this?

CONFIRMED

 

[CountAntonius]

CONFIRMED

Whoa so the game looks better?

 

[Stet]

Whoa so the game looks better?

are you serious

 

[Havel]

CONFIRMED

All I'm seeing is crushed blacks and over bright whites.

 

[Gbraga]

O.k. I started Dark Souls yesterday & played about 6 hours.
I noticed the glitch within 3 seconds.

You do NOT need to lower the in-game brightness, that won't change the black point, just the shadow detail.
The game ships with a glitch & is outputting the incorrect HDMI range.

I figured this much within 3 seconds of starting the game. When the my 360 jumped from black to grey & kept the grey black around title screen as well as having the black bar during the cinematic cutscenes grey.

What Namco did was to artificially limit the HDMI range to increase shadow detail.
The problem with this is that it won't display the full color range & changes black color into grey & lowers the contrast of the displays by several times.


To get the correct settings, what FromSoftware originally intended for people to play, you'll have to set your Xbox 360 reference black levels to EXPANDED & your PS3 HDM color range to FULL.
If they are already set to that then you need to change the HDMI settings on your TV set in the menus to FULL.

This will essentially crush & destroy all shadow detail detail on your PS3/360 games & movies, BUT will be displaying the correct color range for Dark Souls.

Interesting, I hope we can get some pics.

 

[Stet]

oh my god is poe's law really this bad in this thread

 

[TyrantII]

Whoa so the game looks better?

No, looks to me like you're just forcing a black/white crush. IE losing detail in dark and highlights.

 

[soontroll]

Looks terrible but at least it's a bit darker.

 

[See You Next Wednesday]

I think the darkness issue is related to your display and not the game. On my 360 with Standard black levels, the default brightness level is perfect. If I move the slider completely dark, both elements disappear, and if I move it completely light the dragon appears. If I turn the system settings to Expanded it crushes all of the blacks and I can't see the left symbol unless I turn the brightness all the way up. I'm not that far into the game (barely into the Forest of Giants) but the brightness level is spot on with the preview footage (minus the lighting downgrades of course).

I'm using a Sony 34XBR960 over HDMI. What TVs are you guys having the brightness problem on?

EDIT: Yeah, the solution posted above should work. It's your TV, not the game.

Yeah, proof in changing your TVs color range to intentionally crush blacks levels doesn't crush the shadow detail in the dragon brightness calibration display. It just makes the blacks black & doesn't wash the colors & contrast.

I guess the game still has some minor downgrades from the reveal, but the atmosphere from the beta is still there, just glitched.

I wouldn't be surprised if Namco Bandai did this at the last second behind FromSoftware's back.

 

[Stet]

it's even cut off on the side of the tv, i put zero effort into it and people think it's real

 

[BluePigGanon]

Man this thread takes me back to the 80s, when you had no idea what the screenshots on the backs of boxes were actually showing (especially with PC games).