Did that PC game come out resolution locked? Don't worry this guy will fix it for you

[Justin Kahn]

Sometimes, when a game publisher releases PC ports of its console titles there are certain features PC gamers have come to expect that don't always make the cut. Sometimes the game's resolution is locked and there are a minimal set of graphical customization controls, which for many PC gamers can be problematic.

Recently, Rising Star Games released Deadly Premonition: The Director’s Cut for the PC, but the horror game came out with its fair share of limitations, mainly that it was locked at 720p. As you can imagine, PC gamers became very vocal on NeoGaf about this until 29 year-old Austrian coder Peter Thoman (right) came to save the day.

Thoman, better known by his online handle Durante, has become well known for let's say "helping" publishers mod PC ports to better suit the platform. Within an hour of the news hitting NeoGaf, Thoman had posted, "I should be able to fix this.” After one day of Deadly Premonition releasing on PC, Thoman had a patch downloadable that would allow gamers to manually adjust the game's resolution. After 70 hours of coding, spread across 2 weeks of work, Thoman offered up additional customization and enhancements to his mod including more reliable anti-aliasing, improved depth-of-field effects and an option for ambient occlusion.

To put it simply, he reverse-engineers the graphical output of the game, rather than tinkering with the game's source code to make the additional customization possible. You can see a before and after shot below.

He has also tweaked Dark Souls in a similar fashion, another Japanese title that released on PC with a locked resolution. As for why these games release this way, Thoman thinks that it's likely because of the publishers underestimating interest in the titles due to poor PC sales in Japan.

Thoman, who has a a Ph.D. in computer science, simply says he does this for free because he doesn't "like playing games at low resolution." When suggested that he get involved in this kind of work professionally, Thoman says he isn't interested, "I do this for fun…The more you do it as work, the less it will seem like fun.”

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/54755-did-that-pc-game-come-out-resolution-locked-dont-worry-this-guy-will-fix-it-for-you.html

 

[insect]

Another reason PC beats console hands-down when it comes to gaming.

 

[hahahanoobs]

"As for why these games release this way, Thoman thinks that it's likely because of the publishers underestimating interest in the titles due to poor PC sales in Japan."

If sales are poor, why continue to copy and paste? I don't get it. Durante takes a couple days to fix the resolution, and 70 hours to add better AA, DOF and AO himself, tells me those Japanese devs are just lazy, or Japanese gamers have low standards. Durante is the man!

 

[ghasmanjr]

"As for why these games release this way, Thoman thinks that it's likely because of the publishers underestimating interest in the titles due to poor PC sales in Japan."

If sales are poor, why continue to copy and paste?

Because "ctrl+C,ctrl+V" makes them a lot of money. If you do the money earned per minute spent working, it's a hefty margin lol.

 

[SantistaUSA]

That's impressive, we need more guys like him. I feel like the reason they do that is because they want more people buying console copies of their game as it is a lot harder to pirate and making resolution the same as the console will make some noobs think their console is just as good as a gaming pc.

 

[Alpha Gamer]

"As for why these games release this way, Japanese devs are just lazy, or Japanese gamers have low standards. Durante is the man!

As I mentioned in another occasion, I spend around 12 hours of my day around Japanese people. And I can tell you: the average Japanese has very poor understanding of computer technology, it's just not in their culture. Mainly, because they spend most of their time on their cell phones or mobile game devices, having little use for computers. Just so you can understand it, I become their personal hero as soon as I mention you can change youtube's video resolution.

Now, regarding the "I do this for fun...The more you do it as work, the less it will seem like fun..." I have the same approach regarding my job. I'm an English and Japanese teacher, but whenever I have the opportunity, I do it for free. And it's very pleasant. Specially in the case of Japanese, since I've studied for free in a public University and I feel it's my duty to return something to society.

And last, Durante had an important part in my life. Dark Souls is my favorite game ever.

 

[hahahanoobs]

"As for why these games release this way, Japanese devs are just lazy, or Japanese gamers have low standards. Durante is the man!

As I mentioned in another occasion, I spend around 12 hours of my day around Japanese people. And I can tell you: the average Japanese has very poor understanding of computer technology, it's just not in their culture. Mainly, because they spend most of their time on their cell phones or mobile game devices, having little use for computers. Just so you can understand it, I become their personal hero as soon as I mention you can change youtube's video resolution.

AKA low standards, because there is nothing stopping Japanese gamers from seeing what the possibilities are in places other than Japan, which is still confusing considering Sony Playstation is from there.