OFFICIAL Dying Light (Discussion)

[RCoon]

Genre: Single Player, Open World, Co-Op, Multiplayer, Survival, Zombies, Parkour
Meta Critic: 79

System Requirements:

MINIMUM:

• • OS: Windows® 7 64-bit / Windows® 8 64-bit / Windows® 8.1 64-bit
  • Processor: Intel® Core™ i5-2500 @3.3 GHz / AMD FX-8320 @3.5 GHz
  • Memory: 4 GB RAM DDR3
  • Hard Drive: 40 GB free space
  • Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 560 / AMD Radeon™ HD 6870 (1GB VRAM)
  • DirectX®: Version 11
  • Sound: DirectX® compatible

RECOMMENDED:

• • OS: Windows® 7 64-bit / Windows® 8 64-bit / Windows® 8.1 64-bit
  • Processor: Intel® Core™ i5-4670K @3.4 GHz / AMD FX-8350 @4.0 GHz
  • Memory: 8 GB RAM DDR3
  • Hard Drive: 40 GB free space
  • Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 780 / AMD Radeon™ R9 290 (2GB VRAM)
  • DirectX®: Version 11
  • Sound: DirectX® compatible

System Performance

CPU: i5 4670 (Stock)
GPU: MSI GTX 970 (Stock)
RAM: 16GB 2133mhz
Storage: WD 1TB 7200RPM
Display: 2560 x 1440

1440p

Spoiler: FPS

Spoiler: GPU Usage

Spoiler: CPU Usage

Spoiler: VRAM Usage

Spoiler: GPU Power Consumption

1080p

Spoiler: FPS

Spoiler: GPU Usage

Spoiler: CPU Usage

Spoiler: VRAM Usage

Spoiler: GPU Power Consumption

FOV Slider is in "Game Options"

Graphics Settings:

Skip Intro Videos:

 

[rtwjunkie]

The biggest thing I turn off on nearly every game is motion blur. I want to see the game I am playing and it is just more cpu/gpu power that can be better used.

 

[RCoon]

The biggest thing I turn off on nearly every game is motion blur. I want to see the game I am playing and it is just more cpu/gpu power that can be better used.

I only just realised I had AO turned off when I took my screenshots. I should probably turn that on, though I imagine it's going to affect performance somewhat. Might drop some performance charts in this as I don't have time for a full review this short notice, plus I haven't asked the devs for a press kit

 

[rtwjunkie]

AO is alot of the lighting effects, correct? I think that's one of the most awesome things the devs did well!

For me, it really hasn't hurt performance as much as it normally does.

 

[newconroer]

Here's quick early thoughts :

Feels like .. how I expected Dead Island was meant to be(at least based on the seriousness of that popular trailer). Though oddly at the same time, it actually feels like how Dead Island turned out to be, with some Assassin's Creed roof-topping thrown in.

Runs like .. a pinto with some sugar in it's gas tank. As far as I can tell, the stock shipped version has given the best performance to date. While the first patch v 1.2 gave the worst and the most recent patch v 1.2.1 is somewhere in the middle. What people should know about the use of Chrome Engine 6 in Dying light, is that the View Distance setting doesn't mean what you might expect. The entire city is rendered at once, so you can see where you are going when doing your parkour. View Distance is a scale of LOD and object/geometric detail on the rendered scene(which as previously mentioned is the whole city). The more detail, the more performance cost.

For anything pre v 1.2.1 the View Distance slider is the main performance culprit. At 50%(default) it's the equivalent of a 'high' setting. Any thing over that would be for screen shots only as you couldn't tell in-game when moving about.
Once patching to v 1.2.1 the View Distance becomes mostly negligible as they changed it's quality/detail level(it's on 75% by default). Also Shadow Maps have been giving a 'very high' setting which was classed previously as 'high.' As it stands, 'very high' is 4096x4096 and 'high' is 2048x2048 resolution.

None of the following make a drastic difference. In my setup at 1600p, the removal of all of them gained me about six frames.

Ambient Occlusion
HBAO
Depth of Field
Motion Blur
AA

If you're really looking for a performance boost, and care more about game play than graphics, you can disable all the shadows. That will give you a nice return on fps. Note that setting shadows to 'low' will give nowhere near the same performance gain as will disabling the shadows entirely.

Some other miscellaneous bad points I've noticed :

• Doesn't properly support non XBOX 360 controllers(even with the use of 360 emulator or Xpadder, it's still wonky)
• A lot of the buildings are identical inside and out, to the point where the objects inside (cupboards, drawers, chests, tool boxes) are equally identical - very cookie cutter
• Zombies are quite redundant in their look and flesh wounds.
• Overall the quality and texture level of the world is poor. It's only visual saving grace is that you can see the whole city.
• You can't incapacitate yourself with any type of sprain or wound from falling/missing a jump
• In order to unlock online matchmaking/online play, you have to complete the first mission, which is quite lengthy.

Once they fix the performance, and I get a chance to play with some others more on line, my attitude towards it should improve. For the moment I am treating it as a game with potential...

 

[RCoon]

Added system performance graphs to the OP.

Doesn't appear to use much more than 50% CPU usage at either resolution, and GPU power consumption doesn't max out at 1080p, so I guess the load is a little less intensive.

VRAM usage is strangely similar for such a large difference between 1080 and 1440p, but probably down to the way GPU-Z reads the 970's memory, so I assume it's using more than 3.5GB, it just isn't showing what's being used in the 0.5GB segment. No way is there merely 100mb difference between those two resolutions.

To be honest, the FPS difference between the two resolutions is a lot less than I expected, perhaps down to the VRAM usage. But that's baseless conjecture on my part.

 

[newconroer]

After most recent 1.2.1 patch, my GPU usage can hit 100% at times, though the second card is between 0-30%. It performs how most games do for me with Crossfire. It's not often I have both cards pegged at 100% (coughdragonageinquisitionandcrysiscough). Before the patch, they hovered around 55% at best.

VRAM is wonky on Crossfire, but from what I can gather, it's 3GB at least.

 

[z1tu]

Thanks for the thread! I'm really enjoying this game, it's what Dead Island wasn't able to provide to me, since I only managed to play a few hours after getting bored of it. Performance wise, before the latest update I would have frame drops but not that massive plus CPU and GPU were at 90+% on all cores so I didn't have that issue. Now, with the latest update it's just awesome. I did however have to switch shadow mapping to medium since I only have 3gb of vRam and on high it eats more than 3. I can't complain about stuff like " a lot of buildings are identical", "you can't incapacitate yourself" etc, I have yet to see an open world game where most buildings are unique snowflakes inside and out. Also, incapacitating yourself by breaking a leg would just be incredibly frustrating since you would become zombie meat in seconds. I think the game has just enough realism to be fun, because in the end, games are supposed to be fun. I see a lot of elements borrowed from different games and I see them implemented well, like the skill tree and crafting system, much better in my opinion than those from Far Cry. Anyway, really cool game, sets an example to most triple A games recently out. Cheers!

 

[RCoon]

I did notice on maxed out settings that the draw distance seems to be the deciding factor on how the game is going to decimate your VRAM. I've got everything maxed out, including draw distance. People seem to be getting sensible VRAM usage readings with average draw distance settings and shadow mapping on medium, and that's the only difference to my settings, which appear to gobble up in excess of 3.6GB of VRAM at peak.

Patch seemed to sort things quite well, although I was sat at 50% CPU usage on every resolution.

 

[z1tu]

I did notice on maxed out settings that the draw distance seems to be the deciding factor on how the game is going to decimate your VRAM. I've got everything maxed out, including draw distance. People seem to be getting sensible VRAM usage readings with average draw distance settings and shadow mapping on medium, and that's the only difference to my settings, which appear to gobble up in excess of 3.6GB of VRAM at peak.

Patch seemed to sort things quite well, although I was sat at 50% CPU usage on every resolution.

I don't get what's up with the cpu usage issue, I mean why some don't have that issue like myself? I get 99% usage on all cores almost the entire time the game runs and it doesn't drop below 90.

 

[RCoon]

I don't get what's up with the cpu usage issue, I mean why some don't have that issue like myself? I get 99% usage on all cores almost the entire time the game runs and it doesn't drop below 90.

I get 61FPS average with 47% CPU usage on 1080p. Then 51FPS Average with 48% CPU usage on 1440p!

 

[z1tu]

I get 61FPS average with 47% CPU usage on 1080p. Then 51FPS Average with 48% CPU usage on 1440p!

lol interesting that even though resolution changes, the usage goes up by one point, shouldn't it be lower?

 

[RCoon]

lol interesting that even though resolution changes, the usage goes up by one point, shouldn't it be lower?

I'd hazard a guess that the usage is about identical, it's just my average figure was off by a percentage point due to some obscure result in my list of numbers. Basically processor usage for both was identical for all intents and purposes.

It's probable that because it's being limited to 50% of the processor, it's not being bottlnecked by the GPU, but rather the CPU at this point.

 

[z1tu]

I'd hazard a guess that the usage is about identical, it's just my average figure was off by a percentage point due to some obscure result in my list of numbers. Basically processor usage for both was identical for all intents and purposes.

It's probably that because it's being limited to 50% of the processor, it's not being bottlnecked by the GPU, but rather the CPU at this point.

Yeah, was thinking about that too but still, shouldn't cpu usage be lower at higher resolutions or am I remembering that wrong?

 

[RCoon]

Yeah, was thinking about that too but still, shouldn't cpu usage be lower at higher resolutions or am I remembering that wrong?

Yeah it should, provided the GPU is the main bottleneck at the higher res. In my case the GPU isn't bottlenecking, but it looks to be some kind of CPU limiting issue. If the CPU was actually going above this weird cap of 50%, the figures might turn out different. Probably an issue with my setup and how the game handles it. Shall wait for another patch!

 

[z1tu]

Yeah it should, provided the GPU is the main bottleneck. In my case the GPU isn't bottlenecking, but it looks to be some kind of CPU limiting issue.

Maybe it'll be fixed in a future update. This looks like the only game so far which is not pleased with my gpu OC, I had to take it down a notch since I was getting texture artifacts all over the place.

 

[RCoon]

Maybe it'll be fixed in a future update. This looks like the only game so far which is not pleased with my gpu OC, I had to take it down a notch since I was getting texture artifacts all over the place.

I'm not too bummed out, 51 average with highs above 60 on 1440p so it's definitely playable and enjoyable!

 

[z1tu]

I'm not too bummed out, 51 average with highs above 60 on 1440p so it's definitely playable and enjoyable!

Yeah that's awesome, I haven't measured my fps but I play with vsync on anyway, I do notice sometimes drops but they go away fast and if they don't I fix them by alt-tabbing in and out of the game.

 

[RCoon]

Yeah that's awesome, I haven't measured my fps but I play with vsync on anyway, I do notice sometimes drops but they go away fast and if they don't I fix them by alt-tabbing in and out of the game.

Oh yeah, this game has TERRIBLE tearing. I recommend people play with VSync on at all times, even if they hate it like I do. Intro tutorial mission running along the crane, I wanted to tear my pupils out my face. Luckily I finished benching, so I got VSync back on.

 

[z1tu]

Oh yeah, this game has TERRIBLE tearing. I recommend people play with VSync on at all times, even if they hate it like I do. Intro tutorial mission running along the crane, I wanted to tear my pupils out my face. Luckily I finished benching, so I got VSync back on.

It's funny because I started using vsync for a whole different reason which might sound idiotic. I started using it when I had the 280x and read that since it limits the amount of frames rendered per second, the gpu doesn't need to "work" as much thus reducing power usage and temps. I still have no idea if this is true.

 

[RCoon]

It's funny because I started using vsync for a whole different reason which might sound idiotic. I started using it when I had the 280x and read that since it limits the amount of frames rendered per second, the gpu doesn't need to "work" as much thus reducing power usage and temps. I still have no idea if this is true.

You might not see a difference in GPU readings, as 100% GPU power usage isn't representative of the true type of load, but it kind does work like that.

Although you'll notice my power consumption on 1080p was about 10% lower on 1080p. So yeah, VSync does provide minor power/heat savings, although the savings are based on whether you've got far too much horsepower for 60FPS. If you're walking the line of having the required hardware for the game, or don't have strong enough gear, there probably won't be any difference.

 

[mroofie]

You might not see a difference in GPU readings, as 100% GPU power usage isn't representative of the true type of load, but it kind does work like that.
Although you'll notice my power consumption on 1080p was about 10% lower on 1080p. So yeah, VSync does provide minor power/heat savings, although the savings are based on whether you've got far too much horsepower for 60FPS. If you're walking the line of having the required hardware for the game, or don't have strong enough gear, there probably won't be any difference.

This is regarding your first comment (too big to quote :0) so I am quoting this instead lol :0

and this why im waiting for big Maxwell refresh!
Poor fps is poor :0

The game itself any good ??
You don't get a lot of weapons from what I have seen :/

 

[rtwjunkie]

This is regarding your first comment (too big to quote :0) so I am quoting this instead lol :0

and this why im waiting for big Maxwell refresh!
Poor fps is poor :0

The game itself any good ??
You don't get a lot of weapons from what I have seen :/

Well, you make a lot of makeshift equipment from what I have seen so far. Being that it is Techland, I am guessing you can make weird weapons too, like Dead Island. Hopefully someone who has progressed farther than me can correct or confirm this?

And yes, I think the game itself is good! I find it hard, so I've been playing in small spurts, because I get frustrated easily, LOL. Been spending most of my time lately on another highly frustrating game.

 

[z1tu]

Well, you make a lot of makeshift equipment from what I have seen so far. Being that it is Techland, I am guessing you can make weird weapons too, like Dead Island. Hopefully someone who has progressed farther than me can correct or confirm this?

And yes, I think the game itself is good! I find it hard, so I've been playing in small spurts, because I get frustrated easily, LOL. Been spending most of my time lately on another highly frustrating game.

What level are you? I'm 10 at survival and agility and 9 at combat and so far it's been ok. Are you trying to do a lot of missions at night?

 

[rtwjunkie]

I'm still trying to find the guy under the bridge. I've been at it 7 times, and I always get caught by the climbing and running zombies, who are supposed to be out at night. But it doesn't look light night.

I think I suck at this game, LOL!!!