Darksiders 360 patch analysed

By Richard Leadbetter Published 28 January, 2010

Screen-tear now significantly reduced.

THQ has released a patch said to address the screen-tear issues in the Xbox 360 version of Darksiders, with the code auto-updating the next time you run the game while connected to Xbox Live.

Earlier in January, developer Vigil Games said said that "it's something that's really not a difficult fix for us" while sources at THQ mentioned that the problem didn't appear in preview versions of the game - suggesting some kind of issue that materialised only in the run-up to launch.

It's extremely rare that patches actually increase the performance level of a game. Cutting down screen-tear to an appreciable degree without impacting frame-rate involves some pretty substantial optimisations to the engine, so it was with some level of intrigue that Darksiders performance was put through the Digital Foundry frame analysis tools in both original and patched conditions.

The result? Well, screen-tear is indeed dramatically reduced. In the sample of clips below, the launch version of the game has 43.5 per cent torn frames. The new version is considerably improved, taking that number down to 21.6 per cent.

Tearing from the old version of the game is on the top of the graph, while performance of the new patch is below. The green graph line indicates frame-rate from the launch version, while cyan shows the update.

So, what happened? How has the tearing been reduced by a factor of over 50 per cent? Based on what the video above shows us, it looks to be more of a case of the original code running with no limit to frame-rate. The game seeks to pump out as many frames as possible (maxing out close to 60FPS in some places), resulting in more tearing. The patch seems to be capping maximum output from the engine at 30FPS, thus giving the game engine a bit more room to breathe in less strenuous scenes.

While the video isn't exactly like-for-like (though the comparison clips are taken from the same game areas, synced to the same cut-scenes), it does suggest that when performance dips below 30FPS, both the launch and patched versions seem to act in much the same way. In short, it's fair to say that capping frame-rate in this way produces a more stable look to the game. So, how does this stack up to the PS3 version of Darksiders? It's one of the games currently being analysed for the next Face-Off, so look out for that next week...

Picture of Richard.

About Richard Leadbetter

Rich has been a games journalist since the days of 16-bit and specialises in technical analysis. Commonly known around Eurogamer as the Blacksmith of the Future.

Read more articles from Richard by visiting the Richard Leadbetter archive page.

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Comments (24) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • kinky_mong #1 2 years ago

    What Steel_Fist said.

  • speedjack #2 2 years ago

    Must say this is one of the few instances where I did actually notice the screen tear... I was surprised to read its still there as I don't notice it at all- the game also feels a lot smoother to me now as well.
    Edited by 1 at 28/01/10 @ 10:32

  • vx-chemical #3 2 years ago

    Too bad i already finished the game : (

  • miiiguel #4 2 years ago

    Good thing that I'm exploring every bit of Bayonetta prior to this one, which I also bought.
    I sound like a broken LP (pun), but Bayonetta is sooo amazing, omg!

  • metalmike25 #5 2 years ago

    Bayonetta is a great game but i don't think it's as amazing as other people think. The gameplay is fantastic but the script and voice acting is embarrassingly bad. I preferred Godhand

  • menage #6 2 years ago

    Lol, Godhand for script

    I think bayonetta's were fine, but at this point I just skip the scenes to get to the action right away.

  • miiiguel #7 2 years ago

    You should enjoy Bayonetta script for what it is, a kitsch story which plays with the notion of good and evil and it even finds time to make jokes about "space marines" and other cliches. I didn't find the voice acting bad either, it's not Mass Effect level but it's certainly not embarrasing.
    And replayability is immense, you have litle bonus for doing loads of stuff, almost every Achievement gives you something else too.
    My opinion, of course.
    Edited by 1 at 28/01/10 @ 11:31

  • jamhead #8 2 years ago

    "It's extremely rare that patches actually increase the performance level of a game"

    Just out of interest can anyone tell me why this is? Or why it's so difficult to do?

  • mrsquare #9 2 years ago

    "Just out of interest can anyone tell me why this is? Or why it's so difficult to do?"

    Game devs spend *months* at the end of a project optimising the game - its extremely unlikely that they'll suddenly find some magic code fix that they somehow managed to overlook. The biggest changes tend to come from art-side optimisations anyway, which you don't generally get in X360 patches since they have to be under 4mb in size.

  • Alkeno #10 2 years ago

    The good old framerate cap :-)

    If the tearing is greatly reduced there is little we can argue about the patch, it makes things better. However, it is such a lazy patch... before: #define kMaxFPS 60, after: #define kMaxFPS 30; compile, send to MS for approval, eat sandwich, get pat on the back.

    And still 21,6% of torn frames seems a huge lot. An engine should keep up with 30fps most of the time, not 80% of the time. Surely a little optimization would have been nice before launching the game.

  • muscleblade #11 2 years ago

    I also bought this and Bayonetta on release but started with Bayonetta. Now im too busy playing ME2, but i will find time for this later (i hope).

  • WinterSnowblind #12 2 years ago

    @jamhead
    Like was said, optimising a game is quite a difficult thing to do. Once the game has been released, there usually isn't much more they can do.

    However Darksiders on the PS3 is capped at 30fps where as the 360 version ran at a higher frame rate, but suffered from the screen tearing because of this. Seems they simply forgot to apply the cap to the 360 version.. Glad to see they fixed it pretty quickly though, I've been enjoying the game a lot but the tearing was rather bad.

  • chrisola #13 2 years ago

    I got this on PS3 and the camera gave me motion sickness...the way it slightly auto adjusts as you move, against the direction you are trying to point it....kind of unsettled me!

    I haven't touched it since i spent 25 mins on that damn Tiamat thing without killing it, even though i followed the 'cross blade, stun, attack, press circle, repeat' method :p
    Edited by 1 at 28/01/10 @ 12:27

  • asphaltcowboy #14 2 years ago

    Finished this last night. Brilliant game!

  • Darren #15 2 years ago

    Nice that the developers have halved the amount of tearing but, IMO, 20% is still way too much for my sensitive eyes (5% or less is acceptable though) but with Mass Effect 2 out now (and 100% v-synced... natch!) it's no longer a game I'm interested in any more. Sorry!

  • hiscore #16 2 years ago

    I agree with Alkeno. Polish should be applied before release to avoid screen tearing.

    Another option would have been that Vigil released a patch which added a VSYNC ON/OFF option to the menu screen (Bioshock, Saint's Row..) so the player could choose between framedrops (ON) / screen tearing (OFF).

    WIth this patch, the've kept the same bad performance when going under the capped 30 fps. 20% instead of 40% is a big leap, but the leap everyone wanted is from screen tearing to none.

  • GamesConnoisseur #17 2 years ago

    Nearly finished Darksiders and patch arrives far too late! Why not max 30 fps patch first day of office being opened?! The game is fun for me, Zelda is a strong influence and does have some good puzzles and combats. Bayonetta just is a much more complete game, missing the point to be disappointed in story part of the game, as the kitsch style is part of the appeal.

    If it was a straightforward good v evil, would be like many other but instead we have an unique approach where angelic host is the baddies and the sexy strong spec wearing femme fatale! Strange combinations that worked but not a pervert game that some people seem to think?

    Second Miiiguel that this game is darned good!

  • Kaminari #18 2 years ago

    Same strategy that was used in the patch for BioShock PS3. Simple yet effective.

    Most games affected by screen tearing are actually trying to churn out around 40 frames per second, which doesn't make any sense at all.

  • TRUTH #19 2 years ago

    Who gives a shit about story in game such as Bayonetta where action is it's main objective (and does brilliantly) - people who degrade the game because it's story is no Shakespeare are simply being difficult. Certain games may need a story (Oblivion, Castlevania, Fallout, Mass Effect etc etc) and certain don't (Doom, Virtua Fighter, Forza, GT, Mario, Fifa, Zelda etc etc).



    Edited by 1 at 28/01/10 @ 19:35

  • djed #20 2 years ago

    screen tearing is an abomination and is one reason i'm getting tired of consoles.

  • womble #21 2 years ago

    I'm all for locking a game to 30FPS, and can't see the value in having a variable frame rate with such levels of tearing.

  • photoboy #22 2 years ago

    It's about time for another face off, it feels like ages since the last one.

  • Loghorn #23 2 years ago

    Definitely agree with Alkeno & hiscore here about fixing issues first before releasing the game. How does a certain game like this, get so much screen tearing & framerate problems on a platform that is much more easier to develop than the other platform? That doesn't make any sense & shouldn't have happened at all in the first place.

  • mcreddie #24 2 years ago

    it is alot nicer, my brain was starting to fry there was so much tearing. btw DF, could you possibly pull your finger out of your butts and actually write some articles? is this website run by one person or something?? i do like this page and find it interesting, when there is something new to read...
    Edited by 1 at 01/02/10 @ 10:43