Widescreen Gaming Forum

Figured we could get something going about Dead Space.

I'll start by saying I really do like the game now that I have played it some. I really did not like it at first due to the narrow FOV and what I though were horrible controls.

So first, I'll explain the controls are fine and this game plays great with keyboard & mouse but I guess there is a issue with VSYNC causing horrible mouse lag.

I have a fix for those suffering the same problem.

In my case if I turned VSYNC on my mouse lagged bad even in game menus, when I got in game it was horrible trying to use the precise aiming needed to be good in this game with a mouse like that.

I googled it and found it to be a VSYNC issue. Turning it off fixed it but then my FPS jumped up to like 170 something and both my 4850's started to scream at me because they were running so much faster than needed (this is the main reason I use VSYNC to limit my video cards to render only what i need *60fps* rather than go all out like its a benchmark or something. Also this game only gives 30fps for some reason with it on.


I tried to force it on my ATI control panel and have it off in game and it did not work. So the solution is to download Rivatuner and run the D3D Overidder program that comes with it and make sure you have the "Enable LoadLibrary hooking" option checked or Dead Space will crash when it loads.

With VSYNC on in my ATI panel and this program on I now have a solid 60fps in game and no lag issues.


Now onto the game discussion.

I am pretty sure the game gives you ammo based on what weapons you have in your inventory, I am on chapter 10 and only used the line gun and plasma cutter the entire game and I find tons of ammo for both but rarely ammo for any other type. I figured its best to focus on 2 guns so you can have more ammo and upgrade them as much as possible.

I find them to be very good guns and have had no problems yet using only these two. I have spent all my money on upgrade nodes with the exception of new suits when they come out and I always get them right away because inventory space sucks...

I really cant say I have any complaints so far on the game. I really appreciate the fact that you can see where your next objective is at any time, so you can just play the game and not wonder around for hours just getting further away from where you need to be. I like that there is not a severe death penalty, I was so surprised the first time I died to have it auto load me to right before the event. Again this helps you just play the game and have fun.

Graphics are great, and this game is the first "new gen" game that my system just eats alive. Seriously maxing it out at full 1920x1080 I get in the high 100's for frame rate with VSYNC off and with it on I almost never see it dive below 60. They did great work with the game engine.

So what do you guys think of the game? Favorite weapons, hints, tactics, ect.

Im trying to think to myself if it will be worth it to upgrade telekinesis and stasis I have not had to use ether one very much at all so far.

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Yeah it's a cool game, and a useful VSync tip there for those whom have good enough rigs to use it. Me, I have severe stuttering with the game and settings don't help. Despite that I managed to beat it on everything but Impossible mode, think I'll save that for the uber rig I plan to build.

I agree the Plasma Cutter and Line Gun are good weapons, though some I've not tried like the Flamethrower, Force Gun, etc. My last time through I used only the Plasma Cutter. It's the only one that shoots fast enough for the misses that inevitably happen with the hitching I get.

On upgrades, don't waste anything on Kinesis and Stasis unless you've already done all your suit and weapon upgrades. Hmmm, hints, well it's generally stay back ducking in and out of cover (like doorways) or sprinting past enemies where you can for me. Then again I'm a bit limited due to the performance I get. One trick that might surprise some even in areas where you're trapped and a lot of enemies rush you is stand at the side of a cart near a wall. That way they can only come at you one direction.

Sometimes if you go to an area to trigger monsters you can retreat and take them out easily where they come to you. Like the lift that takes you down to the marker where you first have to move it along the track on the floor. I went back up the lift and had fun pasting them as they crawled into the vent to the left of it.

You can also save lots of ammo by how you travel along the pathways near that tentacle monster, because it spawns less times depending on your route. Another tip is to attack the monsters that look like Stingrays WHILE they're reanimating a corpse, vs after. It's much easier that way.

Save exploding canisters where the little buggers that look like Halo's Flood are if you can. Otherwise it's going to take some Plasma Cutter ammo or a deft sprint past them. I suppose the flame thrower might work on them too, but I hear it sucks in antigravity areas.

There's some boss fights against big monsters where it helps to place exploding canisters near you or stay close to them. You'll know them when you get to them. Take out the big Hulk-like guy from a distance at first by cutting his legs with the Line Gun, then run behind him and get his arms with the Plasma Cutter if you can.

ALWAYS check the position of your Plasma Cutter's alt fire alignment feature. It has an annoying tendency to revert to the default position when loading a save. If multiple enemies are rushing you, freeze the faster one and/or those that have great leaping ability, like the Scorpion looking ones. Those look cool jumping in slow mo anyway, it's not to be missed.

If you get disoriented easily in maze-like antigravity areas, have a hard time locating the enemies quickly, or have limited time due to minimal oxygen, try just chaining zero G jumps together once you know the route. This is particularly fun in areas that have huge vent fans which chop them up for you. The planting of the beacon on the asteroid is one good example of where you can easily get past various enemies without confrontation by chaining Zero G jumps.

The only caveat of using all the unlockables and carry overs (you keep what you make and all your gear for the next play though) is the game gets easier, even if you go up one difficulty level each time. Though as I said I've not tried Impossible yet. I've read that Impossible limits available ammo much more. As easy as it was on the next difficulty mode down from Impossible starting a new game without carryovers or unlockables though, it seems the only way to really make an Impossible mode would be to play it that way AND limit the ammo.

I don't know if you'll get many responses here, unless someone can make use of that VSync tweak and thank you for it. Dead Space PC has already had a 5 page thread. It's definitely a game worth discussing though and much of that thread was just questions about the PC version released date and whatnot.

http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14743

This is my game of the year for 2008. Nothing else came close. :)

I played it on the 360, though.

For weapons, the force gun's secondary fire is great for the little creatures that hop on you. You can charge it up, slam the ground, and kill them all.

Statis upgrade is highly useful if you're playing on a hard skill where ammo is sparse and damage is weak.

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Force gun 2nd for critters? Thats the grenade. I think you meant the contact canon deal or the plasma gun does the AOE.

I decided to record & upload Chapter 5 of the game. I noticed the lack of HD videos on youtube to enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4V3GeDfd-dc

I recorded it at full 1080p, spliced together the smaller clips in Vegas and reduced the size to 720P, then saved it as a uncompressed video (was like 56GB) then I ran that though AGK as a 2 pass for XVID and it came out under 1GB perfect for youtube.

Even though I went through the trouble though the quality still was reduced a lot by youtube, its not nearly the same as my "HD Test" videos from Fallout 3.

My XVID codec is not working in Vegas for some reason so I tried its HD codec and quality is good but contrast too high (making it too dark) and it came out at 1.33GB so it was too large.

I googled up on my XVID was not working on Vegas and I did not find why but I did come across an interesting program called Frame Server. Its a smart program that renders in real time the video from one format to the next sort of transcoding it so you avoid the ultra large middle file, or not hurt quality with a compressed middle file.

Part 2 is encoding with it now, I dont see how it can work right on a 2 pass target file size compression but we will see.

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ViciousXUSMC on the Web - YouTube :: FaceBook :: Website

That's way too large a file size for offering on the net. It's common for Xvid to not work well with mainstream editors because Xvid is open source. Name brand editors typically support licensed, restricted codecs like Wmv, Divx, etc. Free is a dirty word to people like Sony, Adobe, etc. That's right, even Divx is not really free anymore. They've gone to the darkside advertising their Pro version, and it sucks big time.

I use VirtualDub when making Xvid videos. You don't get features like transitions, effects, titles, credits, etc, but you can add background audio if you use an audio program like Audacity if you demux then remux the audio/video. It may not be full featured, but I find VDub renders the best image quality and file size. It also has the best contrast, sharpen and resize filters of ANY editor I've used including Adobe Premier Pro, Vegas, Ulead, etc.

The most laughable editor out there is Premier Pro IMO. It's no wonder why the price has dropped severely. You get lots of bells and whistles but no quality unless you go large in file size and use licensed codecs. There have been attempts to make a free open source full featured video editor that works well with codecs like Xvid, but none have succeeded so far. The closest thing to it is Jahshaka, but it's still a work in progress. http://jahshaka.org/

That's way too large a file size for offering on the net. It's common for Xvid to not work well with mainstream editors because Xvid is open source. Name brand editors typically support licensed, restricted codecs like Wmv, Divx, etc. Free is a dirty word to people like Sony, Adobe, etc. That's right, even Divx is not really free anymore. They've gone to the darkside advertising their Pro version, and it sucks big time.

I use VirtualDub when making Xvid videos. You don't get features like transitions, effects, titles, credits, etc, but you can add background audio if you use an audio program like Audacity if you demux then remux the audio/video. It may not be full featured, but I find VDub renders the best image quality and file size. It also has the best contrast, sharpen and resize filters of ANY editor I've used including Adobe Premier Pro, Vegas, Ulead, etc.

The most laughable editor out there is Premier Pro IMO. It's no wonder why the price has dropped severely. You get lots of bells and whistles but no quality unless you go large in file size and use licensed codecs. There have been attempts to make a free open source full featured video editor that works well with codecs like Xvid, but none have succeeded so far. The closest thing to it is Jahshaka, but it's still a work in progress. http://jahshaka.org/

You have to have a high file size for youtube or it wont offer the "HD quality" link it will only give you high quality.

For 10min video you need to use pretty close to the 1GB max size limit.

Part 2 uploading now 8min around 736mb.

The Frame Server worked, the video looks great quality and I did not have to deal with double encoding or a large middle file.

I still want to do it that way for this clip just for my own testing to see if the file size or quality turn out any different.

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ViciousXUSMC on the Web - YouTube :: FaceBook :: Website

You have to have a high file size for youtube or it wont offer the "HD quality" link it will only give you high quality.

That figures, being as YouTube, despite being popular, is one of the worst ways to host videos. 1GB for a ten minute compressed video is utterly ridiculous. I have made several Xvid videos of that length and longer well under 200MB in size and the quality is so good they can be zoomed to full screen on a 20" monitor and look pretty much as good as the actual game looks while playing.

Bah, Youtube sucks anyway. They take down just about everything nowadays, claiming violation of their new ToS.

Bah, Youtube sucks anyway. They take down just about everything nowadays, claiming violation of their new ToS.

Yeah one of the projects I put the most work into ever was a big edit from a tv show and they blocked it due to copyright violation.

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ViciousXUSMC on the Web - YouTube :: FaceBook :: Website

Can't you offer a better encoded, lower file size h264 video to youtube for the HD link?