Gaming BioShock: Gameplay, Graphics & Performance

how do you think my laptop (see sig) would fair at 1200x800, on XP pro... what setting likely with say a min of 30fps... not really sure where my gpu fits in compared to any of those ones tested lol

 

I think you'll have to run that on minimum, even then you may not see a stable 30fps.

 

Great review, saw it on TechMeme.

Does the PC version have surround sound? The one thing about playing it on the 360 is the 5.1 audio baked in, and audio is pretty important in this game...

 

Hey Wil, how the devil are you? How's the start-up coming along?

On the sound, surround is obviously supported but Creative's Vista drivers are still fubar so it kind of depends what soundcard you have.

 

Hey Wil, good to see you still popping by - thanks!

It does have support for surround sound - there's a whole blurb in the back of the manual saying the game is optimised for EAX/X-Fi. However, given the state of Creative's Vista drivers, I'd hold my breath.

The good thing is that there is a Creative offer tied in with BioShock:

Buy an X-Fi Platinum Fatal1ty Champion Series or X-Fi Gamer Fatal1ty Professional Series card and get a free Fatal1ty Gaming Headset: http://europe.creative.com/promotion/bioshock

Obviously, this isn't a good offer if you've already got an X-Fi, but it's tempting if you don't.

BTW, BioShock 360 on a big TV with 5.1 surround is truly stunning - it's one reason why I bought both X360 and PC versions

 

damm, i think ill wait to i buy a desktop but that could be 6 months plus away

 

it's already up for download on many torrent sites

 

you can download computers now? cool!!


anyway, i tested the demo today. looks like a good game. I won't be getting it yet, though. it's just doesn't look good on my x700 GFX card...
(x700 gfx card, P4 3,2ghz and a gig or ram.) so in order to play it properly i need a new computer, and i don't think my economy will handle that at the moment...

 

simply spend £100 and upgrade your graphics card to x1950pro. you'd be able to play the game maxed out without any problem at all.

 

hmm.. really?

Maybe i should consider it, then... Would be great to get a DX10 based system, but i really don't think it's worth it yet.

 

It's a good game - but not playable. I installed the game last week, activated it and, entered the cumbersome CD key, and had to play with the DVD in the drive at all times. You would think this would assure 2k Games that this was a legit version of the game that I spent a good half-hundred on at Best Buy. Wrong.... I couldn't play for 4 days because of work, and when I attempted to launch the game today the EXE file is missing. Attempted to run setup again, and it asked me "why" I want to uninstall this product.

 

What fps were you getting on minimum settings?

As said I have a 1950pro and it was playable with all settings on full at 1680*1050, and very playable and more to my fps taste with a couple of the shadow etc effects turned down but still high textures and so on.

 

Tested the game on my laptop and it run pretty much as I expected it to run. I didnt check the framerate with Fraps and the console wouldnt open but I bet it was under 10fps... But hey, what could I expect from a GF7400TC, huh ?

 

I was running it on all minimun, but texture quality to medium. I don't know any FPS numbers, but i would guess about 25... (nice flow, but I could see that it was lagging a bit, but it was good enough). The problem was that i had to patch the game to even run on my x700. And after that the texture graphics looked like they were in 256 color mode.

f00dl3: Are you by any chance running AVG? I have heard situations where AVG thinks the EXE file is a virus. This should be fixed in the newest virus definitions, though.

 

I've just had a bunch of screenshots sent over to me that show off some of the DX10 effects in a better light - I thought they'd be worth sharing.

Shadows

DX9


DX10

Soft Particles

DX9


DX10


DX9


DX10


DX9


DX10

 

Smoke is pretty amazing in DX10. they finally got rid of that "floating picture" effect...

 

Those screenies definately sum it up better, thanks Tim!

 

those screenies definetly show the advantages of soft particles
IMO that shadow improvements are pretty marginal (maybe even less realistic)

 

Mouse Acceleration makes my head hurt!

I've been trying to rectify the mouse acceleration issue in Bioshock since day one. I've tried many methods for reducing or adjusting this acceleration but the more I notice it the less I enjoy this game. I've stopped just after the bit with the dentist Brilliant design and atmosphere but if I can't control it properly I might as well let it play the game for me and I'll just watch.

I haven't noticed too many people complaining about this issue however if you type 'Bioshock Mouse Acceleration' into google you get this thread 'Is Bioshock Mouse Acceleration Ruining the game for you?' on the 2K forums.
I agree totally and I posted in there as well.

I was able to work past this initially but it quite literally made my head hurt

My primary concern is Games for Windows. I've seen too many co-releases that are more like PC ports from the XBox. Another game I had a similar issue with this was HaloPC. Released 2 or 3 years late with built-in mouse acceleration. $40 for that and I believe I played it for maybe an hour. I spent easily double that time trying to adjust the mouse

Oblivion, Bioshock, HaloPC, Halo2PC, Overlord, MoH3. Am I wrong or do the control schemes in these games suck? It is not hard at all to make smooth mouse movement in a PC game. One of teh first projects I made when learning DX programming was a simple navigation and collision system over a procedural terrain. I spent the vast majority of time refining mouse movement, just to see what I could do. I still use that mouse controller class in my new projects.

I'm concerned because Games for Windows wants me to buy an XBox controller for my Vista PC and now I think I'm beginning to understand why. Are the control schemes for XBox and a traditional mouse on a PC so incompatible that they can't rewrite it? I know one of the standards for XNA apps is for compiling to XBox and PC. I've DL'ed the SDK but I haven't had time to do anything with it. I'll have to see how they handle mouse control in XNA.

HaloPC I bought at a brick and mortar so I was actually able to return it wit a little negotiation. Bioshock however was a Steam DL and their policy is 'NO REFUNDS!' lol. So... 3 weeks and no response to my tech support requests. I do feel for them there. I know how fickle PCs can be when trying to run games. Still, no patches, no responses by email or in the forums i've seen. So my Bioshock sits, in the corner of my HD. A digital brick, no mortar

Great article btw. The only point I disagree on is that the control is precise. More precise than the XBox i'll grant you but no where near a game like Quake or UT.

Thanks, Vic