PC Report: Dead Rising - Optimized Video Settings

[Guest]

PC Reports are a series of quick first impressions regarding the technical aspects of a PC game. For an up to date account of Dead Rising fixes and improvements, please visit its respective PCGamingWiki article.

 

Developed by QLOC and published by 2K Games. The game was released on October 7, 2016 for Windows only.

System Requirements

Minimum

• CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.4 GHz or AMD Athlon X2 @ 2.8 GHz
• RAM: 2 GB
• HDD: 8 GB
• GPU: AMD Radeon HD 6770, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti (DirectX 11)
• OS: Windows 7, 8.1, 10 (64-Bit)

Recommended

• CPU: Intel Core i5 Family or AMD Equivalent
• RAM: 8 GB
• HDD: 3 GB
• GPU: ATI Radeon HD 7790, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 (DirectX 11)
• OS: Windows 7, 8.1, 10 (64-Bit)

Editor's System

• CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 (Skylake)
• RAM: 32 GB DDR4 2133MHz (Kingston HyperX Fury)
• SSD: 500 GB (Samsung 850 EVO)
• GPU: MSI R9 380 4 GB
• OS: Windows 10 (Version 1607) (64-Bit)

These system requirements aren't too demanding but a graphics card which supports at least DirectX 11 is needed in order to actually run the game, along with a 64-Bit system.

 

Most modern systems shouldn't have any issues running the game at smooth a framerate, even at ultra high resolutions. However certain resolutions are not listed such as 1366x768.

 

 

The game currently doesn't have a field of view setting, there's also a depth of field effect present in the game which cannot be disabled.

 

V-Sync and Framerate

Currently the game has some microstuttering issues in larger open areas, as a workaround set the Framerate setting to 60 or Variable (for high refresh rate screens). Set VSync to On.

 

Ideally the V-Sync setting should always be enabled to lessen the amount of microstuttering and to ensure a smooth framerate distribution.

 

 

While using a Variable framerate, disabling the V-Sync mode can lead to a very large delay in milliseconds before a frame is drawn, causing extra microstutter.

 

 

Antialiasing

The MSAA setting does a pretty poor job at masking most jaggies, any differences are very difficult to spot even while using values higher than MSAA X2.

 

 

 

 

Click on the images to see the animated comparisons, they are best viewed in a fullscreen tab.

 

There's a strange flickering effect which is most likely caused by the lack of any proper antialiasing techniques.

 

 

 

 

Click on the images to see the animated comparisons, they are best viewed in a fullscreen tab.

 

On lower end systems this setting can dramatically affect the overall performance, lower or disable this setting if needed.

 

Motion Blur

As the camera moves blur is heavily applied over the entire scene, some artifacts are also often present. This setting mainly comes down to user preference, otherwise there is very little point in keeping this setting enabled if a higher framerate is needed.

 

 

Once this setting is applied the overall framerate will be impacted, even when no motion is present, as such this setting should be disabled if a higher framerate is needed or if the game is stuttering.

 

 

Shadow Quality

This setting mainly controls how the shadows will look like. On the lowest settings they will have a blockier look, while at higher values the game will begin using hard shadows instead, these shadows can never be completely disabled.

 

 

It mainly affects very specific entities, such as certain decorative objects and all characters.

 

 

Notice how the door and the main character are no longer brightly glowing.

 

 

 

 

Click on the image to see an animated comparison. This image is best viewed in a fullscreen tab.

 

Not all objects benefit from this setting, certain entities will still be using lower quality shadows such as the electrical's panel power cord. This issue is often visible in certain cutscenes on most characters.

 

 

 

 

Click on the image to see an animated comparison. This image is best viewed in a fullscreen tab.

 

When this setting is enabled all characters will begin casting their own shadows, it also changes how they look when under other shadows.

 

 

 

 

Click on the image to see an animated comparison. This image is best viewed in a fullscreen tab.

 

This setting has a minor performance impact in enclosed spaces with no characters.

 

 

In areas filled with zombies expect large performance drops, all actors will cast their own shadow. Disable this setting if needed.

 

 

Depth of Field

Currently this setting cannot be disabled, this effect is very heavily used throughout the entire game in order to mask poorly aliased areas. It is also used very often during most cutscenes in order to give the game a more cinematic look.

 

 

Notice how the lights and the signs are almost completely out of focus.

 

 

Performance Analysis

These are the optimal settings used for this system for usual gameplay. These settings are balanced in order to provide the best performance and visual quality possible. Among the most performance intensive choices are the Antialiasing modes, the Shadow Quality setting and the Motion Blur setting. Lower any of these options in order to gain a significant performance boost if the game is running poorly.

 

For the best experience set V-Sync to On and the Framerate to a value of 60 on normal screens or Variable while playing on a high refresh rate screen.

 

 

Whenever an enemy was hit with a melee weapon the game suddenly stopped for a moment. There are constant microstuttering issues in some of the more open areas, however the framerate itself was perfectly fine.

 

Audio

Some basic sound options along with some other general settings.

 

 

Controls

Most input settings are located in the Options menu. There have been no issues with the mouse and keyboard controls, some of the default keyboard bindings might feel odd however, make sure to rebind some of the stranger keys to anything more comfortable before playing. Certain parts of interface such as the map feel odd to navigate with a mouse. The game also features some mild mouse acceleration which cannot be disabled.

 

 

Most keys can be rebound, only certain special keys cannot be used (Print Screen, Scroll Lock, Pause). There's a minor issue where only the Mouse 4 button can be bound, the Mouse 5 button isn't being detected by the game.

 

 

All controller buttons can also be reassigned as desired.

 

 

These are the optimal bindings used for this system for usual gameplay, a mouse and a keyboard was overall better over a gamepad due to the rather awkward default control scheme.

 

 

Conclusion

Higher end systems should be able to comfortably run the game at pretty high framerates, although the more open areas might be affected by some serious microstuttering issues. As a workaround the VSync setting should be enabled and the frame limiter setting should also be set to at least 60 FPS. On lower end systems or while playing at a higher resolution the shadow quality, antialiasing and the motion blur should all be lowered in order to ensure a smoother experience.

 

There are some minor gameplay issues, one of these being related to the quick time events, which appear when the player is being grappled by a zombie, if such prompts fail to appear quickly mash the A and D, or Q and E keys, along with the Left Mouse and Right Mouse buttons in order to get past this issue. Whenever an enemy was attacked with a melee wepon, the game would pause itself for a few milliseconds, this could possibly be by design however.

 

Overall this is a solid release with a few minor issues, although the video settings could include a few more advanced tweaks but otherwise there aren't any other issues with the game. Performance wise there shouldn't be any major problems.

 

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[Guest]

When I worked on this I was really sleep deprived, I'll clean up the article tomorrow, the important thing was to get it out at least though, I improved it very slightly now while I was slightly awake again. Some of the sentences are kinda weird but that's because of the deadline, I'll improve any oddly writen parts of the article tomorrow.

 

Or at least when I wake up.

[Mars icecream 57]

It's said here that "freezing" with heavy mêlée weapons is intentional: https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/52s27l/capcom_acknowledges_that_dead_rising_pc_version/d7n4h8t

 

I didn't know that missing key prompt when being grabbed is a bug, however hitting left and right keys seems to work. I have no experience with the original version.

[Guest]

It's said here that "freezing" with heavy mêlée weapons is intentional: https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/52s27l/capcom_acknowledges_that_dead_rising_pc_version/d7n4h8t

 

I didn't know that missing key prompt when being grabbed is a bug, however hitting left and right keys seems to work. I have no experience with the original version.

I would understand if only your character and the zombie you attacked froze, but not the whole game, as in the whole screen and everything on it just stops, this really is a terrible desing choice and they should fix it anyway. It really only makes the combat feel really cluncky.

 

Or at least have an option to turn that off if it really is on purpose. It misleads other people into thinking that the game is running poorly.

[Marioysikax 89]

I would understand if only your character and the zombie you attacked froze, but not the whole game, as in the whole screen and everything on it just stops, this really is a terrible desing choice and they should fix it anyway. It really only makes the combat feel really cluncky.

 

Or at least have an option to turn that off if it really is on purpose. It misleads other people into thinking that the game is running poorly.

Yeah, it's not new thing to have small pause to emphasize the impact, but it's not done by completely freezing the whole goddamn game. Seen some complains and debate with console versions as well and that is something that apparently did not happen with original 360 release and it's clear that the whole game pauses instead of just the animations. 

[Mars icecream 57]

 

Yeah, it's not new thing to have small pause to emphasize the impact, but it's not done by completely freezing the whole goddamn game. Seen some complains and debate with console versions as well and that is something that apparently did not happen with original 360 release and it's clear that the whole game pauses instead of just the animations. 

 

 

I was sure that the pausing was in the Xbox 360 version as well. Can you give a source?

[Marioysikax 89]

I was sure that the pausing was in the Xbox 360 version as well. Can you give a source?

https://youtu.be/zPqJfnnMrZY?t=2m25s

[Guest]

Maybe the physics are sped up, I could check if this happens at 30 FPS some day.

[Mars icecream 57]

Maybe the physics are sped up, I could check if this happens at 30 FPS some day.

No, I play at 144fps and when comparing to the Xbox 360 version YouTube videos no animations play at +4x speed.