Digital Foundry analyzes Darksiders post-patch
by Justin McElroy 
{ Jan 28th 2010 at 3:30PM } 
How'd they do it? It would appear that this feat was achieved by locking the frame rate at 30 per second rather than letting the game push out as many frames as it could at any given moment. That seems like good news for fans and great news for all those poor, torn screens.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
ZombieRobot @ Jan 28th 2010 3:34PM
It would appear this is how its done....its not a mystery its called vsync. ignorance is not bliss for a journalist
Volkodlak @ Jan 28th 2010 3:57PM
No one that writes here claims to be a journalist.
BIGGEN (LIVE-PSN: BIGGEN1103) @ Jan 28th 2010 4:27PM
@zombierobot
well aren't you just a pretentious prick?
FartButtFace @ Jan 28th 2010 4:41PM
When you write about games and get published, it's video game journalism.
If you're in video game journalism, you're a video game journalist.
The key word here is "journalist".
ScottG13 @ Jan 28th 2010 4:59PM
Lets not lower the bar for journalism to "write words that appear on a website."
Not saying that Joystiq does not engage in journalism, but it's a bit of a slippery slope.
Chibi Chaingun - blackhivemedia.com @ Jan 28th 2010 5:05PM
@Zombierobot: Lol, I was thinking the same exact thing.
Peter @ Jan 28th 2010 3:35PM
I'm noticing tearing on Bayonetta as well.
Nick @ Jan 28th 2010 3:47PM
I have, too. It's not AS bad as Darksiders, but it is most certainly there.
But there's less complaints about it as seeing a naughty teacher half naked versus an emo warlord... your focus tends to be elsewhere.
and by elsewhere, I mean her tits.
VpZ94 @ Jan 28th 2010 3:36PM
YAY! Finally the tearing will stop!!
Oh wait... already beat the game :P
oh well...
Captain Planet [Planeteer | Power of Captain Planet] @ Jan 28th 2010 3:43PM
Is it just me or are games not as "polished" as they used to be? Don't get me wrong, I'm all for these patches to fix glitches/hacks/etc but in the 'cartridge' era of gaming (this can be extended to the PS2/Dreamcast as well), I don't recall ever being frustrated with graphics and/or gameplay (except Battletoads, damn that game). I understand games are a lot more technical these days but sometimes I feel as if there isn't a significant amount of time being spent on QA and that there's some project lead/exec that says, "We can just patch it after launch. Deadlines, deadlines, DEADLINES PEOPLE!"
Nick @ Jan 28th 2010 3:50PM
You can't compare games now to games back then.
There is so much more complexity in games these days, and such an urgency to push them out as quick as possible.
Yes things like this get missed, yes it's frustrating... but at the same time, these aren't coming from huge studios where a massive budget is put towards QA, which for games this complex is far, far more extensive.
But to play devil's advocate, you look back to Gamecube/PS2/Dreamcast/etc... you couldn't patch the games then, and yes there were less "bugs" most of the time... so... ugh. I don't know, I just confused myself.
That's not hard though.
(that's what she said)
216 @ Jan 28th 2010 3:57PM
Its true. Thanks to network updates/patches, game companies can push out an unfinished product and fix it later with "Patches" and worsemore, "DLC".
VpZ94 @ Jan 28th 2010 4:00PM
I see your point, but I think there are two cavebeats to it (I'm no insider on the industry anyways)
1. It costs money, To have a game being played and replayed for 2-3 months is expensive and delays the game further besides you can patch anything not too big afterwards.
2. The longer you take to make a game the more outdated it looks. Studios are racing to make more games, better games to pick your attention. Within a two-three month period a possible hit might become a clone of what just released... or a victim of... it doesnt have UC graphics, or I liked ME2 Gameplay better.
my two cents :D
Then a White Kid Said @ Jan 28th 2010 4:01PM
It's not like there weren't glitches in the Cartridge Era, you were just screwed if you ran into one back then.
wcarnation @ Jan 28th 2010 4:08PM
Stuff happens, games have always had issues now and then. It just happens even more now that there are more things that can go wrong, a lot more "moving parts" to these "machines".
Captain Planet [Planeteer | Power of Captain Planet] @ Jan 28th 2010 4:30PM
I think some of you missed the point of my comment.
The point was, to put it bluntly, I think developers/publishers have gotten lazy in recent times as far a QA is concerned. I just feel as if there isn't enough emphasis on quality (when it comes to certain devs/publishers) and some are more focused on releasing a game within a certain time frame knowing they can have a 0-day patch or one the month after release. I think it's irresponsible on the devs part considering the tools and resources they have access to.
RandomZero @ Jan 28th 2010 5:17PM
I have to completely agree with the Captain. With this generation of consoles, there seems to be a LOT more issues right out of the box. Some of the things should have been caught in testing and/or QA WAY before they're released. I'm all about the patches/fixes, but come on guys, is it so hard to check it to make sure it works correctly the very FIRST time you play it?
Sly @ Jan 28th 2010 5:45PM
at least now, when you do run into a glitch, it'll (probably) get fixed. before, you were just SOL.
knighty (GT: ZeraKnight) @ Jan 28th 2010 3:48PM
Great, they did exactly what I dreaded. Yay lets cut the game down from 50fps to 30fps. They could have at least made it an option like Bioshock. I'll just get ready to be downvoted again.
Draco Basileus @ Jan 28th 2010 3:55PM
I agree with you. The tearing didn't bother me that much. If a developer is going to modify the game in certain ways (video, audio changes) post launch then they should at least let the user have to option to toggle the new setting On or Off.
Hoffer @ Jan 28th 2010 3:58PM
You don't need to be logged into Xbox Live to play Darksiders for any reason. So, just don't download the patch and play at 50 fps all you want.
I played thru the entire game before the patch came out and didn't even realize there was screen tearing.
onan @ Jan 28th 2010 4:08PM
They do have an option to not use the new locked 30fps frame rate though, it's called "Not downloading the patch".
onan @ Jan 28th 2010 4:09PM
Damn you speedy Joystiqers, I take one phone call before hitting send and now I just look foolish. :p
Mazzani @ Jan 28th 2010 4:29PM
Don't forget, that if you prefer the way the game played pre-patch, you have the option to remove the patch. Though, this would also remove all patches from other games...
Sean @ Jan 28th 2010 4:10PM
Played this game for about 16 hours with mcguffin finding... never experienced any screen tearing.
baby sea tuna @ Jan 28th 2010 4:15PM
You had to have at some point. It was SUPER noticible almost every time you panned the camera.
Props for using the word "MacGuffin" though.
baby sea tuna @ Jan 28th 2010 4:15PM
Good, by the time I finish ME2 enough to get back to other games they'll have fixed Darksiders, the Dragon Age "Ostagar" DLC, and the all of the new ACII DLC will be out. Win/win as far as I'm concerned.
JAllenBourne @ Jan 28th 2010 4:38PM
I wish they had fixed it before ME2 came out.
Lushamania @ Jan 28th 2010 4:48PM
I haven't played Darksiders, so I'm just shooting in the dark, but just because the game was running at 50FPS doesn't necessarily mean your HDTV was truly showing that framerate. NTSC lists many different resolutions and refresh rates, and it does supprot 50Hz, but I doubt the game was coded (or even our console systems) to send a 50Hz signal. So, my best guess is that Darksiders was *always* displaying a 30Hz signal, even though the game would sometimes run faster than 30FPS. Which would explain the screen tearing.
knighty (GT: ZeraKnight) @ Jan 28th 2010 9:13PM
No that's not how screen tearing works. Your monitor/tv has a fixed refresh rate, and if the game doesn't perfectly match that you get tearing because the gpu will override a frame currently being rendered to the screen. So you get some of one frame and the rest of another. VSyncing fixes it by making sure the gpu will always wait till the tv/monitor has finished before writing another frame. But because of this, you are locked to a framerate that is divisible by your refresh rate. So a 60hz screen can display a game at 60fps, 30fps, 20fps, 15fps and so on. This is why VSync is BAD when you're dipping just below 60fps like in Darksiders because if you can't keep up with 60fps the gpu has no choice but to drop to 30fps. And that loss of framerate is a much bigger loss than what you gain by removing the tearing.
GuardianLegend @ Jan 28th 2010 8:30PM
50 fps on 360 version eh? I played through the PS3 version and it rarely seemed that high. Guess 360 was brought down to PS3's level to combat tearing though.. bummer
PurpleFries @ Jan 29th 2010 12:20AM
thats because there is much less screen tearing on the ps3 version.
Lushamania @ Jan 29th 2010 12:54AM
@Knightly:
Exactly. The game's v-sync was likely set to 30Hz. Running at 50FPS = tearing. You basically reiterated what I said, but in reverse. :)
knighty (GT: ZeraKnight) @ Jan 29th 2010 7:31AM
No, that's not what you said and not how it works. The screen will always output an image at 60hz. You don't set vsync to a value. The framerate just drops to a divisible of the refresh rate and duplicates how ever many frames it needs to.
Lushamania @ Jan 29th 2010 8:43AM
No, you're mistaken. The screen doesn't *always* output a 60Hz image. ATSC refresh rates can be 24Hz, 30Hz, 50Hz, and 60Hz, and all sorts of odd refresh rates in between. Realistically, the PS3, Wii, and 360 probably only support the 30 and 60 Hz refresh rates (I take that back, the PS3 handles 24p).
Where you are going wrong is stating I am wrong and then assuming that Darksiders is coded to a refresh rate of 60Hz (and then bound by that V-Sync). As I stated in my original comment, it would make sense that it's coded for 30Hz, and that any time the frame rate goes higher than that, we get tearing. V-Sync may or may not have anything to do with this. This would explain why the developers patched the game to only run at 30fps.
At this point, I don't really know what you are arguing for. As I stated, we've been basically reiterating the same thing over now, just citing different refresh rate values in our defense. I understand what V-Sync is, but what I am saying is completely independent of V-Sync. For all we know, Darksiders may not have a V-Sync value, and is only coded based on a frame limiter (also very plausible).
Any time the screen gets a higher frame rate than the refresh rate its outputting, the screen will tear. Since you're on the V-Sync kick, try this. Set your monitor or LCD screen to 60Hz and then play Quake 3 with V-Sync turned off. When you're going 200+FPS you're going to get tearing constantly.
Lushamania @ Jan 29th 2010 9:04AM
@Knighty
This needs to be said: If V-Sync is turned on (and yes, it is coded based on the vertical sync of your monitor, 30Hz, 60Hz, 75Hz, or whatever), then you don't get screen tearing. That is V-Sync's main goal, to keep the video output matched to your displays refresh rate so that both are in sync (hence the name). Since Darksiders is a tear-fest, it's safe to assume that V-Sync was not used, and then everything I've said up to this point applies.
With so many games that do tear, I wouldn't be surprised to hear from a Developer that V-Sync isn't even used. My best guess would be that V-Sync requires extra processing and memory power to ensure that each frame gets a "wait" or "don't wait" command. So, why use those precious CPU cycles, when you can just impose a frame limiter and be done with it? Darksiders would be an example of a frame limiter of 60fps, but an ATSC signal that doesn't match that (and hence the tearing).