How should I play The Evil Within? Was it really intended to be cinematic or is that just marketing spin for poor optimisation?

[GuruMeditationError]

Was The Evil Within really designed to be played with boarders or is that just marketing spin?

 

If they specifically made it to be played with boarders then that's the way I want to play it but if it was just a last minute tweak and patch job to cover up game engine optimisation problems I'd rather just play without frames.

 

Did the developers know the game would be displayed in letterbox and design it to be viewed that way from the very start?

 

Do we know if that's actually the case? That they really intended for it to be played between frames?

 

I'm not sure what to do.

[cheekboys]

I would highly recommend it even though it is locked to 30fps, you can disable the bars on PC. but besides that it is a fantastic game!

[GuruMeditationError]

I would highly recommend it even though it is locked to 30fps, you can disable the bars on PC. but besides that it is a fantastic game!

 

I've had installation troubles from disc but during the process it patched and one of the changes was a toggle to 60fps.

 

Do we know if it was actually designed for play within the bars? Is that a genuine design decision or is it just P.R. spin for a bad optimisation workaround?

[cheekboys]

I've had installation troubles from disc but during the process it patched and one of the changes was a toggle to 60fps.

 

Do we know if it was actually designed for play within the bars? Is that a genuine design decision or is it just P.R. spin for a bad optimisation workaround?

It is perfectly fine without the bars. It doesn't make a difference other than making it look better.

[GuruMeditationError]

It is perfectly fine without the bars. It doesn't make a difference other than making it look better.

 

If it's a genuine design decision I'd play it with bars but I'm not sure whether I should trust that that's really the reason for them. 

[cheekboys]

If it's a genuine design decision I'd play it with bars but I'm not sure whether I should trust that that's really the reason for them. 

I have played through pretty much the entire game without bars and there has been no problems so far. I think it is just because on consoles the bars are there to decrease the resolution to 1920x768 on PS4 to increase the frame rate. Being "cinematic" is just marketing BS. Also about the 60FPS, I cannot run the game at 60FPS with a GTX 780 SC so I think the 30fps lock is just to hide bad optimization.

[GuruMeditationError]

I have played through pretty much the entire game without bars and there has been no problems so far. I think it is just because on consoles the bars are there to decrease the resolution to 1920x768 on PS4 to increase the frame rate. Being "cinematic" is just marketing BS. Also about the 60FPS, I cannot run the game at 60FPS with a GTX 780 SC so I think the 30fps lock is just to hide bad optimization.

 

I'm just wondering if they knew they'd have to have bars and so designed the game from the very start of the development process to look good with bars, or if it was just a last minute thing and really it's actually better without. I don't know where I'd get a definitive answer for that.

[cheekboys]

I'm just wondering if they knew they'd have to have bars and so designed the game from the very start of the development process to look good with bars, or if it was just a last minute thing and really it's actually better without. I don't know where I'd get a definitive answer for that.

I'm not sure what you are asking. The game to me looks like crap with the bars. Although the game was designed with bars in the first place, they look horrible anyway.

[GuruMeditationError]

I'm not sure what you are asking. The game to me looks like crap with the bars. Although the game was designed with bars in the first place, they look horrible anyway.

 

 

I'm wondering if they added bars at the last minute because they couldn't get it optimised or whether the game was created and built to be played within bars purely for reasons of style and design. If they always intended for it to be played within bars, right from the very beginning of the production process then I'd play it that way, I just don't know if that's really the case or if it really is just marketing B.S. I don't know how to get that information, I guess I just have to try it myself and see if it makes a difference to the experience :0/ 

[D2ultima]

I'm wondering if they added bars at the last minute because they couldn't get it optimised or whether the game was created and built to be played within bars purely for reasons of style and design. If they always intended for it to be played within bars, right from the very beginning of the production process then I'd play it that way, I just don't know if that's really the case or if it really is just marketing B.S. I don't know how to get that information, I guess I just have to try it myself and see if it makes a difference to the experience :0/ 

Couldn't get it optimized I bet. Apparently it runs fantastically on all hardware at 30fps, but the minute you cross it, it demands ridiculous amounts of power from the system. Also, removing the black bars shrinks the FoV a lot and there wasn't a way to improve this until recently I think.

[GuruMeditationError]

Couldn't get it optimized I bet. Apparently it runs fantastically on all hardware at 30fps, but the minute you cross it, it demands ridiculous amounts of power from the system. Also, removing the black bars shrinks the FoV a lot and there wasn't a way to improve this until recently I think.

 

I didn't occur to me that it would shrink the field of vision. I think I'm just going to play it with the bars. For me it's like television, I'd rather have boarders and the correct aspect ratio than a full screen with the edges of the frame cut off.

 

If it really was designed with letterbox in mind from the get go then maybe that's why it's such a system hog without the bars. i.e. they really didn't intend it to be played without the bars and focused the development on enhancing the image within the intended letterbox.

 

Edit: I've been playing it and it seems you'd loose more in reducing the screen width than you'd gain by increasing the height. Not sure about the frame rate, I think I'd prefer it at 60fps

[D2ultima]

I didn't occur to me that it would shrink the field of vision. I think I'm just going to play it with the bars. For me it's like television, I'd rather have boarders and the correct aspect ratio than a full screen with the edges of the frame cut off.

 

If it really was designed with letterbox in mind from the get go then maybe that's why it's such a system hog without the bars. i.e. they really didn't intend it to be played without the bars and focused the development on enhancing the image within the intended letterbox.

 

Edit: I've been playing it and it seems you'd loose more in reducing the screen width than you'd gain by increasing the height. Not sure about the frame rate, I think I'd prefer it at 60fps

Yeah. 60fps is preferred for most games for most people (I'm #PCMustardRace with a 120Hz screen and two 780Ms in a laptop so I want 120fps )

[NUSNA_Moebius]

Played the demo.  Pretty horrified to find out it was OpenGL.

[GuruMeditationError]

Not sure about the design decisions. I like games for the immersion. The Evil Within looks great, but it seems to be less immersive because of the format.