» Fri Oct 07, 2011 11:52 am Well now I have both and I've been playing the XBox version now for a few nights, not a great deal because I don't have a lot of time, but a fair amount.
I just tried some of the .cfg file tweaks I have seen in other threads, and I forced vsync with my AMD ATI whatever... program in windows. This makes the game look pretty damn sharp and run pretty damn well. I just made what was probably the mistake of swapping back and forth between my PC output and XBox output on my 40" Samsung LED 1080p 60hz TV, and as satisfied as I've been with the look of the XBox version, and I really have been, I have to admit that there really is a pretty substantial increase in visual appeal and awesome factor when I'm looking at the PC version. It's really quite a difference. Enough of a difference to make me contemplate starting the game over and catching up my progress to where I'd been on the 360 version.
It would probably be a no brainer if not for one factor...
The texture pop is still kind of bad. It's nowhere near as bad as it was, granted, but it's still worse than on the 360, and still definitely an annoyance. When it comes to outright crashes or lockups of the game, I haven't yet had one really but I tend to think this may be to do with how little time I've clocked in the PC version. I haven't given it a lot of time to crash on me. But that may be another concern, not sure.
So I wanted to ask, what is the absolute best anyone with an AMD/ATI (what's up with that btw? did AMD buy ATI or something?) card has managed with regard to texture pop? Has anyone outright eliminated it? or gotten it down to XBoxian levels? I think I've used all the major tricks, grabbing the latest Rage driver for AMD, making a pretty extensive .cfg and forcing vsync but is there some further thing I can do about it? Other than just wait for a patch from id? Have they even patched it yet at all btw?
I know some people may be thinking "oh here's a guy who was moaning about the PC version the other night and now he's talking about switching back to it, guess he shouldn't have been an impatient little whiner and wasted money on a console version and he should've just waited for things to get figured out a bit"
Well to anyone thinking that, let me just reiterate that it was really, really poor form on id/gamesas's part to release the game having that many issues on that wide a swath of PC rigs. I can accept some kinks needing to be ironed out with patches, this was well beyond that as we all know. I don't think my reaction of wanting a nice, stable, reliable version of the game was misguided or stupid at all. But if I can switch over to the PC version and have it work well, of course I will because naturally, obviously, I wanted it for PC most in the first place. Hence me buying it for that first.
Plus I had been planning that release night to play for a long long while, and grabbing the XBox version was really the only way I had available to me to make that happen. Even as I bought it I thought to myself "I'm sure eventually I'll be playing the PC version instead, but lord knows when" (I thought it might be on my next rig) - now it seems it may be pleasantly sooner than I anticipated but that depends, depends on what I hear from you fine folks about the texture pop. As I said it remains enough to keep me on XBox, I *think*
EDIT: Oh btw I forgot to include my feelings about the game itself, and it is really growing on me, once you get on a stable platform like the XBox and just have some time to get used to it's quirks, some of it's outdated aspects, or to have some of your id nostalgia triggered, or you just get a chance to see more of those really beautiful outdoor environments (got to love that sky and those unique looking rock formations) you really can start to have a good time. I just wish it hadn't been such a chore to get to that point, but I do like the game a lot. I do wish a certain mayor's PA system would break... and I do wish the music was better...
