Yeah, given the visuals / large areas I am surprised Recore isn't a lot worse. Most other Unity games of even much smaller scale perform much worse. It's probably one of the better Unity games on PC.
Megaton. Durante helped Xseed fix up the Little King's Story port
- Thread starter Grief.exe
- Start date
Yeah, given the visuals / large areas I am surprised Recore isn't a lot worse. Most other Unity games of even much smaller scale perform much worse. It's probably one of the better Unity games on PC.
HerroRygar
Member
It's also pretty amazing how they wrote a bespoke engine, memory manager, scripting system and VM for the original Wii game. Impressive on the one hand, infuriating on the other
And all of it only commented in Japanese and compiling correctly in SHIFT-JIS of course!
Do you know why they wrote their own memory manager? I heard that the MySQL project did too, but they had a damn good reason (problems with malloc implementations across platforms in something that needs all the bare-metal speed it can muster).
I'm late, but that blog post is also a really great read on the (rather) typical machinations of games not intended to work outside of one singular target specification and what can(/cannot) be done when the porting crew really knows what it's doing.
I mean yeah, articles can easily be written about the issues, but when there's actual proof of concept and execution (a game) it holds that much more weight.
Part of me wishes that was the thread topic. ;p
edit: i'm going to take every opportunity to repost https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QPBSeIvJt8
I mean yeah, articles can easily be written about the issues, but when there's actual proof of concept and execution (a game) it holds that much more weight.
Part of me wishes that was the thread topic. ;p
edit: i'm going to take every opportunity to repost https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QPBSeIvJt8
I'd guess it's because it is a rather complex and dynamic game targeted originally at a system with a total of 88MB of memory. A perfectly fine decision in that context, just an unnecessarily complex PITA when you port to something with an order or even two orders of magnitude more memory.
That makes sense. As you say, it's supersampling, so at 3840*2160 with 4xSGSSAA you'd be rendering at roughly the equivalent of 8k resolution in terms of samplesYeah buddy.
I had to bump the game down to 2560x1440 with 8xMSAA + Super Sampling (SGSSAA?)
It actually looks better than having 2xMSAA + Super Sampling @ 4K.
The AA options are severely demanding. 4x destroys my GPU @ 4K. Might need a Titan X Volta to max out this game.
You could alternatively try 4k with 8xMSAA (which shouldn't be a problem) and see what you like better.
Durante have you ever considered writing a textbook on 'fixing' games i.e. optimizing, porting? I think it would be a great idea and could encourage other people to fixing up broken ports.
Maybe use code examples GeDoSaTo, DSFix, Deadly Premonition as examples in your textbook and how you coded them to fix games.
You could do it before you retire...
Maybe use code examples GeDoSaTo, DSFix, Deadly Premonition as examples in your textbook and how you coded them to fix games.
You could do it before you retire...
Oh my god. Playing Symphonia like that would be objectively better, reminds me of this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRZ2Sh5-XuM
nephilimdj
Member
I feel like I should force myself to beat the vita version at its 5-20fps badness before I buy this
SmartWaffles
Member
Durante is a god.
Alright, just bought it, as promised!
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I think he already answered the question.
Is it out? I've been interested in delving into things like it but never found a good resource.
Corleth the Fey
Member
I Pancho, thank you Durante and XSEED, from the very bottom of my bull heart.
Dictator93
Member
<---------- Dictator93-----------
But back on topic - I know the contact was done via twitter at the start, but did you have to prove your credentials at all? Or was it more like, "oh, you are that Durante. In that case, let me send you the Git ASAP."
Whooops, was talking about the game.
I don't think he has written any book yet(hehe), but as per the post, it seems he has been having thoughts about it.
Just to be clear, that was tongue in cheek
Oh well, cool that it might happen at some point though. Every time I've tried to find more information on the subject I always end up at some Skyrim tutorial -_-
Dont want to look cynical, but how is this different from all of the others programmers that do this every day for a living?
Good chance to thank all the unsung code heroes that you only see midway through the credits roll and contributed to the success of our favourite games. This people will never get a "you are god" post in GAF or any sort of weird personality cult. If anything, they'll be lucky not to be insulted as lazy.
Good chance to thank all the unsung code heroes that you only see midway through the credits roll and contributed to the success of our favourite games. This people will never get a "you are god" post in GAF or any sort of weird personality cult. If anything, they'll be lucky not to be insulted as lazy.
Because Durante has been fixing games for free until (I think) this game, for the sake of helping out his fellow gamers. He hasn't been doing it for a living.
Context is everything. Did you even read Durante's write-up on XSEED's blog? You know the one that is linked to in the OP?
Dictator93
Member
If you look at it from a high up cartesian perspective, it is pretty similar I guess. But the difference here is in the context: this is an instance of a developer coming to the community, asking to aid them. It showcases the strength of the PC platform in developing communities which make games better through modding / user freedom. Also, Durante has done a lot of great work for free in the past to make games shine much better on PC - that deserves special commendation IMO.
Battlechili
Banned
Thank you Durante! Glad that XSeed got you on the job.
I was worried this PC port was forever broken.
I was worried this PC port was forever broken.
AndyMoogle
Member
Thank you, XSEED, for making sure this port didn't go to waste. And thank you, Durante, for accepting the job and fixing the game.
I'll gladly purchase this game now. Shame it's not on sale on GOG though!
I'll gladly purchase this game now. Shame it's not on sale on GOG though!
I actually wish he didn't get one.
Yes, Durante did fix it, but we need to give credit to XSEED for making this happen. Little King's Story doesn't deserve to be in the same tag as a bunch of games that still need Durante's third party fixes. It's an official update.
He very much deserves it, if he hadn't done all that work Xseed wouldn't have contacted him in the first place
They hired a skilled programmer. I think youre all getting a bit too romantic about it. No big deal though.
foobarry81
Member
Eh... they deserve some credit for trying to fix the mess they themselves created, sure.
But think of it this way:
- scenario A: they don't do anything, and the game keeps on selling badly, XSeed gets a bad rep, and they make a loss on the release
- scenario B: they hire Durante, the game sells better, XSeed look like the good guys for hiring a gaming enthusiast's hero, and they make some more money from the renewed interest in their release.
There's quite a bit of self interest in there too. Anyway, let's hope this sort of sets an example, that you can turn around a shoddy release and buy goodwill in the process. But publishers should aim at getting it right the first time.
I think he totally deserves props for the work he's done purely on his own to help the community. This, being a job, is more just kind of cool.
I agree that XSEED deserves some recognition here though, good on them for going back for a game they could have easily forgotten.
You sound cynical. No big deal though.
Erm. This game came out in August 2016. It didn't even sell very well. The fact that they went out of their way to get it fixed is commendable, and that's why there is a thread about it.
As for why Durante has a fan base here, it's because he is a member of the community here and we like him. If you have a problem with that, it's on you, not anyone else. Lol.
ThatsMytrunks
Member
I'm not particularly interested in the game, but considering Durante's involvement, I want to reward companies with my money for making good decisions.
Then you shouldn't have made this dumpster tier post
My fault. Must have missed the pages of XSEED ARE GODS posts.
Also, not sure why you're trying to make me look like I'm attacking the guy. He's clearly a talented dev and I've said as much. Which part of a post saying "thanks" to all those programmer who make the same daily efforts without getting recognition or respect is making people so angry?
Sorry, will amend my sins with a quality quote.
So you can get right back on topic.
How is the port on Vita? Or is it a totally different game? I've held off because of hearing bad things about the performance and controls on Vita.
whalleywhat
Member
Cool. This is a great game. Probably the Wii's biggest hidden gem.
JB2448
Member
Why don't you make a thread about these unsung heroes yourself so they can be better appreciated, congratulated, and thanked for their work? It'd be much better than being on the defensive over us appreciating a fellow GAF member and the work he put in to help renovate a cult classic's official release.
charlequin
Banned
Even putting aside the bizarre framing here, part of the answer is that it isn't, inasmuch as we often have threads about writeups from other non-NeoGAF-member programmers about fixing issues in games this way. Even just limiting ourselves to XSEED, their contract programmer Sara who's worked on the Trails games, Corpse Party, etc. has written some extensive blog posts about the types of modifications she had to do to localize those games in the past and we've had pretty good discussions about them. Or similarly, we've had threads a number of times about major nitty-gritty changes to the Dolphin emulator that improved accuracy and speed.
Durante's fortunate enough to be in a position to be able to give a lot of visibility into what he does, and enterprising enough to tackle a lot of these games quickly and effectively, that's why everyone gets excited.
whalleywhat
Member
I couldn't find anything on YouTube.
mcwizardry
Member
Durante is a cool guy, I would love to know more about the moment he booted up Dark Souls on PC for the first time and went "Yeah, I'm gonna make this better".
He very much deserves it, if he hadn't done all that work Xseed wouldn't have contacted him in the first place
Just to be clear, I'm not saying he doesn't deserve his tag, far from it, just that I don't think it should be updated with a game he was hired to fix, when it's not just a list of his accomplishments, but also a sort of "wall of shame" for the ports he had to fix on his own time.
I do see where you're coming from, though, and it's fair enough.
One of the great parts about the PC community is word of mouth gets around on niche titles. So Xseed will continually profit off of this decision essentially indefinitely.
Hopefully the user review scores will raise to above 90% favorable, then in subsequent sales this game will be able to sell more and more copies.
It wasn't actually. Ken contacted me right here on GAF via PM.
Well, given that he asked me rather than the other way around there was no credential proving involved.
I think there's a lot of truth to that. If I wasn't actively contacted by XSEED, and given the source code, I never could have done anything about the game.
I think it's fair to say that XSEED care more about their ports and their reputation for them than quite a few other companies.