Tomb Raider (2013)

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VulgarDisplay

Diamond Member
Apr 3, 2009
6,193
2
76
I wonder if Square ran out of keys because of preorders/promos and what not. They might not have expected a lot of PC orders. Might explain why PC reviewers didnt get any keys, even though the game is apparently good on PC. Steam unlocked level 3 preorder bonuses like 2 weeks ago.

The entire reason PC reviewers didn't get copies is because they didn't want footage of tressfx to leak prior to launch day.
 

dagamer34

Platinum Member
Aug 15, 2005
2,591
0
71
I played the game for an hour and a half. It does have that Uncharted feel to it, but is a bit more open in its level design. This game is meant to be played with a 360 controller though, I didn't even bother with Keyboard/Mouse (then again, I almost always play PC games on my 60 HDTV, so I prefer it).

Do not play in the vicinity of little kids. :)
 

KaOTiK

Lifer
Feb 5, 2001
10,877
8
81
I've spent my 6 hours or whatever only using the kb/m without any issues at all. Haven't even thought of trying to use the controller.
 

Childs

Lifer
Jul 9, 2000
11,450
7
81
The entire reason PC reviewers didn't get copies is because they didn't want footage of tressfx to leak prior to launch day.

Did your read this somewhere? Not that I dont believe you, but i'd like more info. I didnt think that was a big enough feature to hold back reviews. Heck, I seen someone post video of it and how it effected framerate earlier today. The street date was broken in the UK. One guy almost had the whole game in walkthrough form on his channel. I didnt look at it, but he had like 30 videos, and that was earlier on Monday.

EDIT: Actually, the walkthrough might have been on console. But there was a dude doing frame rate tests on PC yesterday.
 
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Childs

Lifer
Jul 9, 2000
11,450
7
81
There is something weird going on with TressFX. Ultra without TressFX is 52fps at 1080p. Ultra with TressFX, I get 40fps at 1080p. Lower LOD to simply High and it goes to 50fps. Also, Using High preset with TressFX is also 50. Now, if I use the Normal preset, and just turn on TressFX, frame rate drops to under 30.

i7-3770K@4.6Ghz, GTX 680, 16GB RAM
 

sze5003

Lifer
Aug 18, 2012
14,177
622
126
There is something weird going on with TressFX. Ultra without TressFX is 52fps at 1080p. Ultra with TressFX, I get 40fps at 1080p. Lower LOD to simply High and it goes to 50fps. Also, Using High preset with TressFX is also 50. Now, if I use the Normal preset, and just turn on TressFX, frame rate drops to under 30.

i7-3770K@4.6Ghz, GTX 680, 16GB RAM

Very odd behavior but I'm not all too familiar with tressfx. You would think with a 680 there should be no issues. Have you tried all high presets with something other than tressfx?
 

CPA

Elite Member
Nov 19, 2001
30,322
4
0
I'm about to load this bad boy up and get playing. Can't wait.
 

sze5003

Lifer
Aug 18, 2012
14,177
622
126
I'm at work so I couldn't even play if I was able to. Well see what happens today.
 

Sho'Nuff

Diamond Member
Jul 12, 2007
6,211
121
106
Played for about an hour last night and was very impressed. This is a good one folks. Worth the $ if you ask me.
 

Phobic9

Golden Member
Apr 6, 2001
1,824
0
71
Looks interesting but I'm hearing it's more of an "on-rails" experience than the original Tomb Raider. Suppose I'll wait for a sale but looking forward to hearing more impressions or seeing some more PC screens.
 

Canbacon

Senior member
Dec 24, 2007
794
4
91
Looks interesting but I'm hearing it's more of an "on-rails" experience than the original Tomb Raider. Suppose I'll wait for a sale but looking forward to hearing more impressions or seeing some more PC screens.

Yes, for sure the start of the game is very much just sit back and press forward and do quick time events. Hopefully it will open up, however, I'm thinking it won't be much more open than a small area at a time that funnels into a single point.
 

Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
30,383
912
126
There is something weird going on with TressFX. Ultra without TressFX is 52fps at 1080p. Ultra with TressFX, I get 40fps at 1080p. Lower LOD to simply High and it goes to 50fps. Also, Using High preset with TressFX is also 50. Now, if I use the Normal preset, and just turn on TressFX, frame rate drops to under 30.

i7-3770K@4.6Ghz, GTX 680, 16GB RAM

At least from what I've read and experienced, enabling TressFX pretty much drops your performance by 20 FPS on nVidia hardware. Kepler wasn't really built for DirectCompute, which is what TressFX uses. Honestly, you'd probably have a better experience with a 7970 Ghz.

Also, keep in mind that the Ultra preset uses FXAA instead of SSAA. At least from what I've noticed from switching between the two, FXAA usually gives me between 10-20 FPS more than using 2x SSAA.

I'm wondering if we'll get some good driver optimization from nVidia. nVidia's website doesn't list Tomb Raider anywhere on their driver page, which isn't common as they usually will tweak the drivers to offer greater performance prior to a game's release.

Don your tin foil hats folks, because maybe that's why Square-Enix wouldn't release the PC version for review! AMD didn't want nVidia to get their hands on a copy to perform optimizations in their drivers to make the cards look worse at time of review. The conspiracy! :p
 

thm1223

Senior member
Jun 24, 2011
336
0
71
Out of curiosity, do the gameplay mechanics or storyline quality share any similarities to Max Payne 3?
 

ImpulsE69

Lifer
Jan 8, 2010
14,946
1,077
126
If you include a tech that is supposed to enhance the look, but kills performance in doing so, is it really an enhancement?
 

Childs

Lifer
Jul 9, 2000
11,450
7
81
Very odd behavior but I'm not all too familiar with tressfx. You would think with a 680 there should be no issues. Have you tried all high presets with something other than tressfx?

Yeah, its fine without it. And at High, Ultra, and Ultimate, it scales fairly linearly with TressFX enabled. Not sure why it takes such a huge dip on Normal.

At least from what I've read and experienced, enabling TressFX pretty much drops your performance by 20 FPS on nVidia hardware. Kepler wasn't really built for DirectCompute, which is what TressFX uses. Honestly, you'd probably have a better experience with a 7970 Ghz.

Also, keep in mind that the Ultra preset uses FXAA instead of SSAA. At least from what I've noticed from switching between the two, FXAA usually gives me between 10-20 FPS more than using 2x SSAA.

I'm wondering if we'll get some good driver optimization from nVidia. nVidia's website doesn't list Tomb Raider anywhere on their driver page, which isn't common as they usually will tweak the drivers to offer greater performance prior to a game's release.

Don your tin foil hats folks, because maybe that's why Square-Enix wouldn't release the PC version for review! AMD didn't want nVidia to get their hands on a copy to perform optimizations in their drivers to make the cards look worse at time of review. The conspiracy! :p

Well, something is odd. There doesnt seem to be a reason why running the game on Normal with TressFX enabled would be so much slower than High or Ultra+High with TressFX. It should have actually put it around 60fps, not 30fps.
 
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KaOTiK

Lifer
Feb 5, 2001
10,877
8
81
I've gotten a weird issue where when I first launch and get into the game, it is a slideshow (after having already played a lot at the settings I haven't touched after first setting it up) and when I go back to the games main title screen and reload my game it runs smooth again. Really is a wtf thing.
 

sze5003

Lifer
Aug 18, 2012
14,177
622
126
Wish I had my key to try when I get home but I got several emails and non from Amd.
 

CPA

Elite Member
Nov 19, 2001
30,322
4
0
Using a 680Ti on Ultra with or without TressFX causes a weird graphic glitch that makes my screen go nuts at certain points. Went down to High with TressFX and all is good. Tress FX sure does make a difference in hair. lol. Does slightly slow things down during a cutscene, but no issues during actual gameplay.

BTW, I'm loving this game so far.
 

Qbah

Diamond Member
Oct 18, 2005
3,754
10
81
Using a 680Ti on Ultra with or without TressFX causes a weird graphic glitch that makes my screen go nuts at certain points. Went down to High with TressFX and all is good. Tress FX sure does make a difference in hair. lol. Does slightly slow things down during a cutscene, but no issues during actual gameplay.

BTW, I'm loving this game so far.

Drivers not updated for TR on nVidia cards. I guess new drivers will address this - from an NV Rep it seems:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=49051185&postcount=927

We are aware of major performance and stability issues with GeForce GPUs running Tomb Raider with maximum settings.

Unfortunately, NVIDIA didn’t receive final code until this past weekend which substantially decreased stability, image quality and performance over a build we were previously provided. We are working closely with Crystal Dynamics to address and resolve all game issues as quickly as possible.

In the meantime, we would like to apologize to GeForce users that are not able to have a great experience playing Tomb Raider, as they have come to expect with all of their favorite PC games.

Maybe I should wait a bit with playing the game? It's preloaded already and my GTX670 is on the verge of playability right now with TessFX it seems...
 

sze5003

Lifer
Aug 18, 2012
14,177
622
126
Your saying really low fps or what? I'm sure it's not completely slow as molasses.
 

CPA

Elite Member
Nov 19, 2001
30,322
4
0
Question: What are the Ghost Hunter collectibles? In the first two areas, I found all of the collectibles except the Ghost Hunter (or whatever it's called). I didn't find any of the 20.
 

CPA

Elite Member
Nov 19, 2001
30,322
4
0
Yes, for sure the start of the game is very much just sit back and press forward and do quick time events. Hopefully it will open up, however, I'm thinking it won't be much more open than a small area at a time that funnels into a single point.

So far, that's about right, but the production is good enough to forgive the lack of vast openness.
 

Childs

Lifer
Jul 9, 2000
11,450
7
81
Drivers not updated for TR on nVidia cards. I guess new drivers will address this - from an NV Rep it seems:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=49051185&postcount=927



Maybe I should wait a bit with playing the game? It's preloaded already and my GTX670 is on the verge of playability right now with TessFX it seems...

I decided last night to either wait for a patch or updated NV drivers. I'm not sure if TR will have any replay-ability, so I want to play it as good as possible. Although, I thought the same thing about Rage and never went back to it.
 

KaOTiK

Lifer
Feb 5, 2001
10,877
8
81
Question: What are the Ghost Hunter collectibles? In the first two areas, I found all of the collectibles except the Ghost Hunter (or whatever it's called). I didn't find any of the 20.

They are these bone things hanging on things. Small skull in the middle and various small bones around them. Think a dreamcatcher but with skull/bones basically.
 

Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
30,383
912
126
Drivers not updated for TR on nVidia cards. I guess new drivers will address this - from an NV Rep it seems:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=49051185&postcount=927

As much as I was somewhat joking about the whole tinfoil hat spiel, it seems that it wasn't terribly far off. It may not be a The Way It's Meant to Be Played game, but I wonder why Crystal Dynamics didn't keep them in the loop better. It is a Gaming Evolved game (i.e. AMD's developer support), but you still want the game to play well for all of your customers... including those running nVidia hardware.

Maybe I should wait a bit with playing the game? It's preloaded already and my GTX670 is on the verge of playability right now with TessFX it seems...

I'd probably just play it. At worst, you'll need to turn a setting or two down to achieve proper rates. If you find it substandard, then you can always stop. For the most part, the framerate is alright. I've only had a couple situations where it absolutely tanked, but so far, a quick graphic change fixed it.