Arkham Knight PC Fixes Prioritized

H

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
It looks like a fire has finally been lit under someone's ass at Rocksteady. Too bad they didn't show this level of commitment BEFORE they shipped the game. :(

Totally supported decision to suspend PC version. We have our best engineers at Rocksteady working like crazy to help fix the issues ASAP. Thanks for the feedback! We hear you and are looking into it. Will keep you updated. (PC fixes come first)
Click to expand...
 
Glad to hear. Does look like an interesting game, and I'm hoping it will return to Steam a better product soon.
 
Whats going on is pretty much a repeating theme: Physics is hard.

What Gameworks is doing is trying to accurately simulate various effects, and as game after game after game is showing, it's REALLY expensive on the hardware. Be it hair in Witcher 3 or smoke and rain in Batman, the hardware can't handle it while also handling rendering.

I would be interested in the following test: Insert a second GPU (Say, a 980 GTX) as a dedicated PhysX card, and run the benchmarks a second time. I fully expect to see "normal" FPS once the load involved with Gameworks is removed from the primary GPU.
 
All I could think of are 12-18hr days, 7 days a week for the Devs to fix this. And then when its all done and fixed, the devs are let go. :(
 
gamerk2 said:
Whats going on is pretty much a repeating theme: Physics is hard.

What Gameworks is doing is trying to accurately simulate various effects, and as game after game after game is showing, it's REALLY expensive on the hardware. Be it hair in Witcher 3 or smoke and rain in Batman, the hardware can't handle it while also handling rendering.

I would be interested in the following test: Insert a second GPU (Say, a 980 GTX) as a dedicated PhysX card, and run the benchmarks a second time. I fully expect to see "normal" FPS once the load involved with Gameworks is removed from the primary GPU.
Click to expand...

The game as it is, is supposedly locked at 30fps... Hadding a second gpu as a PhysX card wouldn't change that IMHO. It may resolve the floating batmobile or glidding Batman bug but not much else. Hell, I've even seen some video showing the same inside out faces bug that was present in AC also present in this game and they're not even using the same engine.
 
they are only doing this because the game has been pulled. if this game was still sell-able they would be working on a patch, but not as hard.

in a way i am happy to see a game launch this bad. i hope other devs see the money they lost by releasing a broken game. maybe this will be the game that will stop devs from releasing crap games going forward.
 
Pulling the game in the first place is a ballsy move. Granted, it never should've made it this far with these issues, but at the bare minimum the publisher is paying attention to their fanbase.
 
vernefrax said:
Pulling the game in the first place is a ballsy move. Granted, it never should've made it this far with these issues, but at the bare minimum the publisher is paying attention to the money they are losing to Steam/GMG refunds.
Click to expand...

FTFY ;)

If not for the Steam refund policy, I doubt we'd be seeing this sort of response from RS/WB.
 
Yes, thankfully for refunds, we customers can put some pressure on them to make things right.

I only pre-ordered because it was 40%. I decided to get a refund just to show them that this release was unacceptable. If and when they do fix the game, I will buy it when it's 75% off.

Not only that, they better put in the extra work to make the PC version even better than the consoles (more features, options, etc.). They should really borrow a page from the GTA V PC launch.
 
vernefrax said:
Pulling the game in the first place is a ballsy move. Granted, it never should've made it this far with these issues, but at the bare minimum the publisher is paying attention to their fanbase.
Click to expand...

They money's certainly a big part of it, but it's also got to be incredibly embarrassing for them. These aren't minor issues, the PC version is nine shades of f--ked up. Plus it wouldn't surprise me if they got a nastygram from Nvidia over this. Lots GeForce 980 Ti's(possibly other Nvidia cards, I dunno) were offering free copies of Arkham Knight with purchase, now their promo offer is useless.
 
gamerk2 said:
Whats going on is pretty much a repeating theme: Physics is hard.

What Gameworks is doing is trying to accurately simulate various effects, and as game after game after game is showing, it's REALLY expensive on the hardware. Be it hair in Witcher 3 or smoke and rain in Batman, the hardware can't handle it while also handling rendering.

I would be interested in the following test: Insert a second GPU (Say, a 980 GTX) as a dedicated PhysX card, and run the benchmarks a second time. I fully expect to see "normal" FPS once the load involved with Gameworks is removed from the primary GPU.
Click to expand...
The issues go far beyond Gameworks. Texture streaming, gameplay pauses, floating enemies, crashes... The list goes on. It does not matter whether or not you have Gameworks options turned on or off, the game has serious underlying issues regardless.
 
At least they got the guts to pull the from the shelves and fixing it. Instead of other Co. who would just take your money first and wait to fix it.
 
Game's been working fine for me since day 1, all I did was up the FPS cap to 120 and that was it, it's been pretty solid with no glaring issues. In comparison, Origins actually crashed a few times on release day, and I also encountered that one early Riddler trophy room bug where once you went in, you couldn't get back out.
 
Yep they should have put this effort into it before taking everyone's money. If it was delayed a month, nobody would be complaining.

Enough of this crap with just release buggy ass games first, then fix it later.
 
If it's fixed within a week I'd be surprised.. There is just too many problems involved with it and most of that is Nvidia Gameworks..Gameworks has cause performance issues for AMD users in various games and this is also going to happen in Arkham Knight...
 
ravensteel said:
If it's fixed within a week I'd be surprised.. There is just too many problems involved with it and most of that is Nvidia Gameworks..Gameworks has cause performance issues for AMD users in various games and this is also going to happen in Arkham Knight...
Click to expand...


Is there any evidence that the cause of the issues are due to Gameworks? Everything I've read so far seems to indicate it was just another lousy port. Tired of all this finger pointing at Gameworks being the cause of the problems.

Guess what? I've played many games that use Gameworks - that don't have issues.
 
gamerk2 said:
Whats going on is pretty much a repeating theme: Physics is hard.

What Gameworks is doing is trying to accurately simulate various effects, and as game after game after game is showing, it's REALLY expensive on the hardware. Be it hair in Witcher 3 or smoke and rain in Batman, the hardware can't handle it while also handling rendering.

I would be interested in the following test: Insert a second GPU (Say, a 980 GTX) as a dedicated PhysX card, and run the benchmarks a second time. I fully expect to see "normal" FPS once the load involved with Gameworks is removed from the primary GPU.
Click to expand...

gnzblz said:
Is there any evidence that the cause of the issues are due to Gameworks? Everything I've read so far seems to indicate it was just another lousy port. Tired of all this finger pointing at Gameworks being the cause of the problems.

Guess what? I've played many games that use Gameworks - that don't have issues.
Click to expand...
I agree. I'll repeat what I said in one of the other threads.

...I certainly don't think it's the boogeyman people make it out to be, but it always seems like Gameworks is used in cheap ports in order to add some pretty graphic effects for PC without having to put the effort in for creating them yourselves. As a result we get poor integration into an engine that wasn't designed to handle them in the first place and the result is shitty performance for everyone.
 
Oops...
I had a post multiquoted that I didn't want...
Just ignore the first quote.
 
Honestly, I don't want to hear them say "Oh we've got 20,000 engineers working on it and we'll get it fixed in a jiffy!!"

I want to hear them say, "We screwed up. We released a product that wasn't ready. We're going to fix it, but it's going to take some time. Please be patient with us while we make Arkham Knight into the game it should have been originally."

A company being 100% no-BS honest like that, I can respect a lot more than one that basically acts like the problems with it can be fixed in a couple days.
 
WorldExclusive said:
Should have been this way from the start.
Click to expand...

This is what happens when you outsource. From what I understand, all the pressure is being put on Iron Galaxy at this point, whom handled the Arkham Origins port as well. I doubt very seriously that Rocksteady gets their hands dirty...
 
gnzblz said:
Is there any evidence that the cause of the issues are due to Gameworks? Everything I've read so far seems to indicate it was just another lousy port. Tired of all this finger pointing at Gameworks being the cause of the problems.

Guess what? I've played many games that use Gameworks - that don't have issues.
Click to expand...

is there evidence? not that i know of. i did see somewhere that says when you enable GW effects it changes the render path to dx10. is that confirmed? no.

if i was nv i would be pissed. GW has taken a lot of heat (some warranted), but this seems to be out of their control. that fact that it has GW just makes for an easy escape goat.
 
Yep, thats what you get when you only have 12 people working on it. What did they (WB/Rocksteady) think they were gonna get from Iron 12 Monkeys.
 
Burticus said:
Is that like an escape pod with hooves? ROFL

Perhaps you meant scapegoat. Or maybe you typed that and your phone autocorrected it for you. heh.
Click to expand...

where are we going to get an edit button in this section of the forums?
 
Motley said:
Yep they should have put this effort into it before taking everyone's money. If it was delayed a month, nobody would be complaining.

Enough of this crap with just release buggy ass games first, then fix it later.
Click to expand...

Oh I'm sure if it were delayed a month people would be complaining. They, being people, tend to do that. However they definitely should have delayed it until it was finished and working properly. Hell, most PC games that get released these days really should be delayed anywhere between an extra month and six months so they are actually ready for public consumption. Deadlines tend to be a large part in the stupidity of releases these days as well as the "we can patch it out" mentality that the online era has provided us with.
 
mtbush said:
This is what happens when you outsource. From what I understand, all the pressure is being put on Iron Galaxy at this point, whom handled the Arkham Origins port as well. I doubt very seriously that Rocksteady gets their hands dirty...
Click to expand...

It sounds like Rocksteady has taken this in house for the fix. There are rumors that Iron Galaxy only had a short window to work on the PC version and the "finished" product bears that out. Yeah they did the shitty Origins port as well but they also worked on titles like Destiny and Bioshock Infinite which didn't have such widespread performance issues. This was a case of a publisher (that would be WB) wanting a PC version just so they could claim to have one and not giving the developers of that version enough time to do a solid job of it. And if it hadn't been for the Steam refunds they would've shrugged their shoulders and said "it'll be patched and fuck you we already got your money."

At least it sounds like their committed to making it right. This could've been another Origins, "OK we patched the showstopper bugs but the rest wont be patched." Or worse yet they could've just said forget it and shelved the PC version entirely. Given how much love WB has shown for PC gamers in the past I wouldn't have been surprised.
 
I think if there is one positive thing coming out of this whole debacle is that the days of releasing broken "patch it after shipping" games are over. Steam and gmg offering refunds for non working games is amazing for us and will either cause developers to release stable code or abandon PC gaming and focus on consoles.
 
Handing off to another company to port over to pc is always a bad idea. Made for pc needs to be a thing again.
 
And people keep pre-ordering. When will you guys learn? You don't pay for a product before it's available. You don't go to McDonald's, order a Big Mac and then come pick it up days later, do you? Why are video games any different; The days of missing out on a game on launch day due to inventory issues are a thing of the past, so there's absolutely no reason to pre-order these days.
 
What surprises me about this whole bad launch fiasco is that *people find it shocking a game launches on PC in a bad state*. I've personally set my expectations low for PC ports, I just tell myself that it will be broken, missing features or just downright unplayable at launch wait at least 2 to 3 months and check to see if the problems are fixed if it is then great i can now purchase, if not well then i just won't buy it. As for Rocksteady, WB & Nvidia they knew damn well the game didn't work properly on PC but it was still pushed out the door anyway because $$$. DLC, pre-orders & video cards sold will ALWAYS be their first and foremost priority ,making sure the game works is an optional bonus but not necessary to their bottom line. (At least this is how i feel about this whole situation)
 
dreamcast87 said:
making sure the game works is an optional bonus but not necessary to their bottom line. (At least this is how i feel about this whole situation)
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure this is going to change with the Steam refund situation. And is plenty of reason to start buying directly from Steam rather than through third parties that sell keys. I guess we'll have to see what happens when the next AAA title hits the PC as a trainwreck. Should be any day now.
 
trick0502 said:
they are only doing this because the game has been pulled. if this game was still sell-able they would be working on a patch, but not as hard.

in a way i am happy to see a game launch this bad. i hope other devs see the money they lost by releasing a broken game. maybe this will be the game that will stop devs from releasing crap games going forward.
Click to expand...

Or they just say, "Screw a PC version; we'll just stick to consoles."
 
I don't blame the developers honestly. And by the developers, I mean, the engineers. Is the game broken? Yes. But I think a lot of blame needs to be put on the bean counters and the management making ridiculous demands. This is common at a lot of companies. And sadly, the programmers and the ones whose reputation is hurt while the terrible marketers almost always keep their job.

And there's a vast difference between outsourcing your development to some shop in India where you have a ton of people who come out of diploma factories who can barely code their way out of a Hello World program and in the more developed world where getting into the industry as a software developer requires a ton of brilliance to begin with. But no matter how brilliant a team is, they can be limited by investors.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top