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Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition
Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition cover
Developers
From Software
Publishers
Namco Bandai Games
Engines
PhyreEngine
Release dates
Windows August 23, 2012
Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition guide on StrategyWiki
Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition on Wikipedia

Warnings

For Games for Windows - LIVE on Windows 8 or later, install the latest Games for Windows - LIVE software.
Dark Souls
Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition 2012
Dark Souls II 2014
Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin 2015
Dark Souls III 2016
Dark Souls: Remastered 2018

Key points

Games for Windows - LIVE was removed from the Steam version on February 16, 2015; product keys activate on Steam.[1]
Using a controller is highly recommended over keyboard and mouse controls.
If using keyboard and mouse controls, apply the DSMfix to improve mouse control issues.
A port of the console versions of the game with few configurable options.[2] Use DSfix to increase rendering resolution along with many other options.

General information

Steam Community Discussions
Steam Users' Forums

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
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Completely optional Steam unlock.[3]
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Windows
Amazon.com
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Windows
GamersGate
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Windows
Gamesplanet logo.svg
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Windows
Incorrect store name. See here for available options.
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Windows
Steam
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Windows
All non-Steam versions require Games for Windows - LIVE DRM.[1]
All product keys activate on Steam.[1]

Essential improvements

Using DSfix with in-game anti-aliasing enabled causes the game to only use part of the screen.
Using DSfix with in-game anti-aliasing enabled causes the game to only use part of the screen.
High-resolution textures, fonts, and controller button prompts are available to download.

DSfix

A GUI for DSfix is available for inexperienced users
DSfix increases the rendering resolution for better visual quality; without it the game outputs anamorphic 1024x720. It also allows the 30fps lock to be lifted, HD or other alternate textures to be used, as well as giving options for anti-aliasing (AA), Screen space ambient occlusion (SSAO), Depth of Field (DOF) blurring, anisotropic filtering (AF) and many other features.
Raising the FPS cap may introduce clipping problems such as occasionally falling through elevators. You can avoid most of these issues by capping the FPS at 59.
Instructions

Skip intro videos

Instructions

Dark Souls PVP Watchdog

BitBucket

Main thread

Download

Dark Souls PVP Watchdog is a tool designed to prevent some common forms of cheating and tampering in online sessions, and gives the player the ability to ban offenders from their worlds.
Disclaimer: read the overview in the first link.
Instructions

Dark Souls Connectivity Mod

Developer's Main Site

NexusMods Page

The problem: Recent versions of Dark Souls have trouble connecting to other nodes, making Multiplayer difficult or even impossible.
Dark Souls Connectivity Mod is a tool that attaches itself to Dark Souls process, allowing it to connect to player nodes.
A side-effect of being able to choose a node, Co-Op and PvP with select players becomes possible.
Instructions

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

Template:Game data/row
System Location
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/211420/pfx/[Note 1]

Save game data location

Template:Game data/row
System Location
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/211420/pfx/[Note 1]
For the Games for Windows - LIVE version %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\XLive must also be backed up.

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
Steam Cloud
Syncs up to 100 MB of save data.

Video settings

Video settings.
Video settings.

Template:Video settings

Borderless fullscreen windowed

Instructions

Anisotropic filtering (AF)

Instructions

Anti-aliasing (AA)

Anti aliasing may be forced with the compatibility flag 0x004000C0. Sparse Grid Supersampling gives a blurry effect. Multisampling combined with transparency supersampling seems to work well (this author uses 4x on each). Some dark diagonal line artefacts are visible on my system occasionally with these settings but aren't obtrusive. DSfix's antialiasing should be turned off for this.

High frame rate

Instructions

Ambient occlusion (AO)

Ambient occlusion can supposedly be enabled with either 0x00000029 (Skyrim, soft AO) or 0x00000003 (Fallout 3, stronger AO effect). DSfix's AO should be turned off if you're forcing it here.

Input settings

Control scheme tips.[4]
Control scheme tips.[4]

Template:Input settings

Keyboard

Unintuitive default keyboard scheme, for example, 'End' brings up menu (and 'Escape' does nothing).
Instructions

Mouse

Mouse controls feel very jittery, with very unintuitive results when the camera collides with a wall or the floor.
Instructions

Controller support

'Hot swap' between keyboard and mouse controls and controller is available.[2]
Use of controller is highly recommended.[2]

Audio settings

Template:Audio settings

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
Traditional Chinese
French
German
Italian
Korean
Polish
Russian
Spanish

Network

Online features in non-Steam versions require a Microsoft account (optional for offline play).

Multiplayer types

Type Native Notes
LAN play
Online play

Ports

Protocol Port(s) and/or port range(s)
TCP 53,80,443,3074
UDP 53,88,3074
This game supports Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) for automatic port configuration.
UPnP is working in the Games for Windows - LIVE version if the Games for Windows - LIVE Network Settings says "UPnP is available, in use"; if not, refer to this guide.

VR support

3D modes State Notes
Nvidia 3D Vision
See Nvidia 3D Vision.

Nvidia 3D Vision

The game suffers from poor Nvidia 3D Vision support.
Instructions

Issues fixed

Performances issues

General fixes

Instructions
Instructions

Lower-spec machine fixes

Instructions
Instructions
Certain areas of the game are more demanding on your hardware causing slowdown in-game. It seems that the engine, when faced with an area where it struggles to render 30 FPS, will cut down to 15FPS. The most famous is Blighttown, but large animated characters can also produce this slowdown.
Unlock the FPS cap with DSfix (unlockFPS 1), set the frame cap at 30 (FPSlimit 30) and enable Vsync (enableVsync 1) For the most part you will have the same experience, but where the game would usually dip to 15FPS it will only drop as far as it needs to (results depend on your machine).
Unlocking the FPS cap may result in issues involving broken physics and animations. Falling through elevators, corpses sinking through the ground, choppy creature animations are all observed issues.

ATI/AMD-specific fixes

Appears that ATI/AMD graphics cards are underutilised.
Instructions
Instructions

Nvidia Optimus-specific fixes

Instructions

Crashes

Lifting FPS-cap using DSFix

Instructions

VSFilter.dll

Crash occurs after start screen.
Instructions

Monitor refresh rate

Instructions

Windows 7

Crash on startup
Instructions

Windows 8

Instructions
Instructions
Instructions

RivaTuner

Instructions

Controller issues

Controller not working

Instructions
Instructions

DirectInput controllers have wrong mapping

Use X360ce to fix the issue by emulating the official Xbox 360 Controller.
Instructions

Miscellaneous

Black Screen on startup

The game's window remains black after launching and is "Not Responding" if clicked on.
The issue occurs when an Xbox 360 Controller is plugged in.
Instructions
Instructions

Minimize with multiple monitors

Fix binds the mouse to a single screen (DSFix has this feature built in).
Instructions

Progress bar stuck during installation

Problem may be caused by setup utility getting stuck whilst installing DirectX and Games for Windows - LIVE.
Instructions

Manual Save Game conversion from GFWL version to Steam version

Useful if the automatic conversion fails. However, this will only transfer your game state WITHOUT your achievements.

Instructions

Steam requesting UAC on every launch

The issue is that Steam is trying to install Gfwlivesetup.exe but Steam also stopped supplying the executable with new downloads.

Instructions
Instructions

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 9
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Physics Havok
Audio FMOD
Input XInput
Cutscenes Bink
Multiplayer Steamworks, Games for Windows - LIVE Steam version uses Steamworks, non-Steam uses GFWL.[1]

System requirements

Windows
Minimum
Operating system (OS) XP, Vista, 7
Processor (CPU) AMD Phenom II X2 545 3.0 GHz
Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 3.0 GHz
System memory (RAM) 2 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 4 GB
Video card (GPU) ATI Radeon HD 4870
Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX+
DirectX 9.0c compatible

Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/211420/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (211420) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References