Topic: Tales of Symphonia - Durantes slams the PC port

[MysterD]

PC Gamer -> Here's Durante on how poor Tales of Symphonia PC technical port is & the "VMProtect" anti-tamper DRM it ships with
Durante's Website -> Durante's Tales of Symphonia PC GeDoSaTo plug-in released to unlock resolution.

[Cobra951]

I have no sympathy for the pixel-counting nonsense.  While he's right that 3D rendering doesn't need a locked resolution, textures and 2D overlays benefit greatly from the original intended resolution of the game screen--which in turn means that the overall look of the display will be the best possible, what the artists intended.  If they chose not to redo the art assets for a much-higher res, keeping the internal res where it belongs in the best thing to do.  Then it becomes the job of proper filtering to keep the final display looking good at any hardware resolution.

This is all hand-drawn art too.  It does not improve with extra pixels added in after the fact.  Lastly, 720p is part of the HD standard.  4K is something else entirely, and at this point, still very much niche in terms of gaming resolution.  If people need to justify their expense in high-end PC and screen hardware, ports of old games are the last thing they should be using for that purpose.

If I take a native 4K image, and blow it up to 70mm film resolution, then zoom a corner of it out to take the whole 4K screen, it will look like shit too.

[MysterD]

I have no sympathy for the pixel-counting nonsense.  While he's right that 3D rendering doesn't need a locked resolution, textures and 2D overlays benefit greatly from the original intended resolution of the game screen--which in turn means that the overall look of the display will be the best possible, what the artists intended.

Some 2D games are mixed 3D models, such as games like Planescape: Torment - which have been modded to use higher-resolutions with modded UI's. When done properly, games can benefit from this - especially when PC gamers are likely sitting extremely-close to their monitor to the point that they're hugging it; have a bigger + closer field of view - stuff like this helps so the image isn't so pixelated.

And yes, games like these should have options for AA filters and anything else (if the engine can use it), to improve the image for those who want to use higher resolutions + settings.

If they chose not to redo the art assets for a much-higher res, keeping the internal res where it belongs in the best thing to do.  Then it becomes the job of proper filtering to keep the final display looking good at any hardware resolution.

I still do not see the reason to limit the gamer on such as thing. While it's fine for the game to be set to default at 720p & recommend it, not giving the PC gamer the option to decide themselves how to render the game is just plain silly. We're not used to limitations of that kind here.

This is all hand-drawn art too.  It does not improve with extra pixels added in after the fact.  Lastly, 720p is part of the HD standard.  4K is something else entirely, and at this point, still very much niche in terms of gaming resolution.  If people need to justify their expense in high-end PC and screen hardware, ports of old games are the last thing they should be using for that purpose.

If I take a native 4K image, and blow it up to 70mm film resolution, then zoom a corner of it out to take the whole 4K screen, it will look like shit too.

Wait, who the hell on the PC anymore plays games at 720p? Most of us here on the PC are in 1080p, 1440p, or above.
Many of us PC gamers here, we've been using 1080p for numerous years.

Also, on the PC - we sit much closer to our screen than console-gamers do. Literally, our field of view includes sitting directly in front of the monitor, which is directly in front of our face. So, we do need the fidelity + more graphics settings - having a higher resolution, more graphics features, and whatnot is logical here. Sitting so much closer, I need to see so much more b/c of where I'm sitting.

When sitting further away, which I sometimes do when playing my PC games on my HDTV - BTW, my PC has a HDMI cable connected to my HDTV - I really don't need as much detail here as I'm sitting further away. Sitting further away, I'm not going to notice everything b/c I'm not sitting right up on it. I do feel that I do need more details, though - if I do sit up close right up on my 55'' 1080p HDTV, which I sometimes do. I can see pixelation and other things, if I'm up that close and not rendering at higher-settings.

[MysterD]

Important stuff Durante mentioned in his PCG article on Tales of Symphonia PC's "VMDirect" anti-tamper system/DRM that's worth pointing-out:

Yet, there is one additional fact that tells us even this scenario—terrible as it is— does not suffice to capture the full extent of incompetence or apathy at play here.

Because apparently, the budget was sufficiently large to license the “VMProtect” anti-tamper system. Which, by the way, generates randomly named executable files for each run, providing the headline for this section. Not only is this system apparently completely ineffectual—with a cracked version of the game appearing in mere hours—it also actively hampers efforts of modders (should any even show up after such blatant disregard for the platform) trying to fix what is broken with this release.

So let’s recapitulate. Namco-Bandai cannot afford even the very minimal changes required to support arbitrary resolutions or superficially QA their product, but they can afford a completely ineffective DRM system. An ineffective DRM system for a game which people, if they were so inclined, have been able to pirate freely for over a decade.