Support NeoGAF

[Easy_D]

You can actually try them both at 4k and see in person if it actually is a downgrade.
Just looking at the no sound bugs, crashes and issues around changing resolution on the og version of bioshock on some people's systems and o/s indicates some people have some really rosy views of the original pc ports.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=266981933

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1133842

Why is this so important for you? People are annoyed some effects are missing, why can't you be okay with that instead of trying to prove them wrong?

Found the graphics ini in the AppData folder. Here's the default "max" settings:

I'm gonna set everything to High/true, and see what happens.

FXAA is on by default? That's nasty. Also no wonder it can't keep 60 on consoles if they didn't bother implementing multi-threading

 

[hlhbk]

Thank god, installing when I get home from work then

http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/BioShock#Remove_physics_and_animation_frame_rate_cap

Stick with the far better original version.

 

[InfiniteCombo]

Sorry if I missed it from earlier in the thread, but does the BioShock 1 remaster have Steam achievements? I remember the OG version, it's the only game in my Steam library that doesn't have any achievements.

 

[Garrett Hawke]

http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/BioShock#Remove_physics_and_animation_frame_rate_cap

Stick with the far better original version.

It's not far better. :/

The surround bug is fixable with inis, and any of the old bugs brought over don't make this worse than the original which STILL has those bugs on top of having worse graphics.

It sucks about the water and I would like them to patch it in (but I know they won't), but this remaster is for the most part an improvement.

 

[abracadaver]

Sorry if I missed it from earlier in the thread, but does the BioShock 1 remaster have Steam achievements? I remember the OG version, it's the only game in my Steam library that doesn't have any achievements.

Yes! (65 achievements)

 

[Afro]

http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/BioShock#Remove_physics_and_animation_frame_rate_cap

Stick with the far better original version.

But these textures just look so much better.

 

[NeoRaider]

Some things look better and some thing don't. Overall i am not impressed at all.
I am glad this was free.

 

[Sword Of Doom]

Some things look better and some thing don't. Overall i am not impressed at all.
I am glad this was free.

Yeah same here

I'll go back to the original after spending like 30min with the remaster and see how it is.

 

[Yukinari]

Havent tried playing 2 yet but the 1st game has only crashed so far when i was messing with menu options.

Surprised TB didnt do a port report on these games yet.

 

[brunomartynhak]

Yeah I had the same with 3440x1440. You have to create a new res in the ini files.

Under users, app data, roaming, BioshockHD you need to add under input on user.ini setres 2560x1080 on one of the blank input keys.

I.e. F10=setres 2560x1080

Then once in game, not on the menus press F10 or whatever key you did it for and the resolution will change.

This works for both games. If you want you can do it for the FoV as well. Put setFov 90 and press in game and it'll change.

Great! Thanks a lot!

 

[Professor Renegade]

Have you played before? Because if you haven't, that's the tip of the iceberg.

Yeah I've played it before, Infinite too. I never finished 2 though.

 

[sqwarlock]

for a new page, and i tagged em.

Almost everything about the second set (crashed plane) looks better in the original. The wrench, the water distortion, the spray on the windows, the specularity of the support beams. If you reversed the labels, I'd be more inclined to believe you.

 

[Easy_D]

Aw, the hud and everything scales terribly from 1440p, everything looks kinda pixelated. I see there are some UI scaling options in the ini file though. Hopefully it works so you can have a readable hud. Also sad they didn't change the icon. All these years later and all I see when I look at it is a butt.

Edit: Ew what's wrong with mouse controls. Moving left and right and the view just kind of vibrates up and down constantly. It doesn't feel anything like this in the original and that's without even disabling the mouse acceleration.

 

[VistraNorrez]

I'd be interested in seeing someone mod the some of the new textures into the original.

 

[InfiniteCombo]

Yes! (65 achievements)

Cool, thanks for the info

 

[lantus]

Honestly, I never tried the original on PC, but my experience so far with the remaster has been great other than the lack of graphics options.

 

[Stitch]

First crash after a few minutes. Yep, this remaster is ass.

 

[Mithos]

Hmm,

I just noticed the Remasters ONLY show up in my Steam Client, on the website they are not in my owned games list nor do they add a games owned count with +2.
Do this only trigger after you've installed them through the client or what?

 

[Suikoguy]

This is just an embarrassing remaster. No wonder they made it free for PC users.

For those having resolution issues, set your resolution in C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\BioshockHD\Bioshock\Bioshock.ini

Find the [WinDrv.WindowsClient] heading and change the viewport resolutions.

Then, change the file to read only.

Might want to also fix the sound if you have a 5.1 setup:

Furthermore, options for 5.1 surround are missing. You can fix that specifically by going to the file above, finding SpeakerMode=
and changing that line to SpeakerMode=SM_5_1. You then need to add SpeakerModeValue=5 as a new line underneath that. If you have an EAX sound card you can also find bEAXEnabled= and change it to bEAXEnabled=True.

Of course, this seemingly introduced new issues, so i'm done messing with it for awhile. Should have given it to Bluepoint.

 

[paperspace]

Hmm,

I just noticed the Remasters ONLY show up in my Steam Client, on the website they are not in my owned games list nor do they add a games owned count with +2.
Do this only trigger after you've installed them through the client or what?

Are you logged in?

They are showing up as owned for me.

 

[Easy_D]

Are you logged in?

They are showing up as owned for me.

It's a bug. Bioshock 1 Remaster is in my library, installed and playable, but it's not listed as "In your library" on the actual store page, while the others are

 

[MrOogieBoogie]

Comprehensive Reddit post for fixing the game's mouse sensitivity and acceleration.

Gonna give it a whirl now.

 

[Easy_D]

So was every water surface and effect 2D on the console releases back then too? It's kinda jarring walking past leaky water and watching it fade into oblivion as you walk around its edge only to come back again as you near the other side.

Edit: After careful consideration.. the water effects are sliightly downgraded from the DX10, it's not as big of a deal as I initially thought, it's not a huge deal and the game just didn't age as well as I remembered. I think most of the issues are actually a result of the higher resolution textures in general. A lot of the water effects stuff is just sprites and shit like foam does look blurrier and well, foamier when you have a smaller texture being stretched out, the original textures are better at covering things up pretty much, while the improved textures kind of ruin the illusion at points.

Overall I must say the new texture work is really good. Plus 60 FPS couch. Also getting between 120-170 FPS downsampling from 1440P is always nice :lol.

 

[Stiler]

So if what I'm reading is correct, this remastered edition :

1. Got rid of all the cool DX10 "effects" on the pc version (IE the enhanced water/fox effects, etc)
2. Doesn't support surround sound in the options (which was available in the original)
3. Has terrible mouse acceleration issues
4. Still has all the old bugs

Is this correct? Why did they not fix or in the case of point 1, keep those in? Seems rather strange to have a "remastered" edition, which to many people you expect to be the "best/most up to date" edition.

 

[Easy_D]

So if what I'm reading is correct, this remastered edition :

1. Got rid of all the cool DX10 "effects" on the pc version (IE the enhanced water/fox effects, etc)
2. Doesn't support surround sound in the options (which was available in the original)
3. Has terrible mouse acceleration issues
4. Still has all the old bugs

Is this correct? Why did they not fix or in the case of point 1, keep those in? Seems rather strange to have a "remastered" edition, which to many people you expect to be the "best/most up to date" edition.

Fog effects seem to be improved actually, like the fog near the plane crash isn't as obviously 2D textures facing you at all times, there's also no smoke clipping through the floor either. Water isn't a huge deal and I think some effects are still in, like water deformation as mentioned earlier.


Bioshock (In DX10 mode):

Bioshock Remaster:

Same engine, same bugs, shame they couldn't fix some of them but with it being a new release I hope they can fix the more annoying ones. Mouse acceleration isn't that terrible if you lower the mouse sensitivity, but luckily can be turned off entirely. Same with surround. That you have to ini tweak at all to fix shit like that is stupid, but it's doable, at least.

 

[Sini]

Has this video posted yet?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKNjSep6xMk
Shows how much better Bioshock 1 sounded in original version.

 

[Easy_D]

Has this video posted yet?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKNjSep6xMk
Shows how much better Bioshock 1 sounded in original version.

Original sounds louder, can't really tell much of a difference otherwise? Sounds like they normalized all the audio actually. That's dumb. If the actual sound files are of a lower quality, I expect that to be as easy as dragging and dropping the original sound files into the asset folder of the remaster .

Edit: Makes no sense that they would be lower quality in the remaster though, the audio files are 2gB in the remaster and 1gB in the original. Unless they just used shitty compression? That said, dragging and dropping the original audio files worked fine, for what it's worth

 

[Sini]

Original sounds louder, can't really tell much of a difference otherwise? Sounds like they normalized all the audio actually. That's dumb.

Can't you hear the reverb in original that's entirely missing in remaster? Video author even mentioned it in the beginning.

 

[Kallor]

Original sounds louder, can't really tell much of a difference otherwise? Sounds like they normalized all the audio actually. That's dumb. If the actual sound files are of a lower quality, I expect that to be as easy as dragging and dropping the original sound files into the asset folder of the remaster

The remastered is flat as hell.

 

[moltonasty]

This and a lot of "remasters" these days unfortunately..

 

[Peterthumpa]

Jesus, @ 4K and aliasing is still clearly visible. Are we sure that SGSSAA isn't a viable option, at all? Maybe different bits?
It's also weird that besides the graphical bugs when turned on, SGSSAA actually works and does something on DX11. Interesting.

 

[BigBoss]

I've had Bioshock 1 crash on me 3 times. Once when loading the next level, another when changing the resolution and just now it crashed when trying to manually save in Fort Frolic. I've also had sound skipping issues, great remaster.

 

[Sini]

I've also had sound skipping issues, great remaster

Sound skipping issues? Where sounds get cut off when there's lots of sounds going on at once?
That usually happened whenever there was alarm going on, bots flying around and shooting all at once in original.
Disgusting if they didn't fix this either. There was a fix for original that I bet will work in this one as well if it has that issue.

 

[Easy_D]

Can't you hear the reverb in original that's entirely missing in remaster? Video author even mentioned it in the beginning.

I hear reverb in the remaster though? Even in the video, like when the lady says "I'll wrap you in a sheet" you can clearly hear the reverb, it's not as pronounced, but it's there. The overall sound mixing seems different though, lots of sounds that are clearly supposed to be loud and booming sound normalized to hell, which to me is a bigger issue than EAX effects missing.

Sound skipping issues? Where sounds get cut off when there's lots of sounds going on at once?
That usually happened whenever there was alarm going on, bots flying around and shooting all at once in original.
Disgusting if they didn't fix this either. There was a fix for original that I bet will work in this one as well if it has that issue.

Guessing that fix is just upping the amount of sound channels used by the game in the ini file? I bet the standard is something weak like 32

 

[4jjiyoon]

http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/BioShock#Remove_physics_and_animation_frame_rate_cap

Stick with the far better original version.

holy shit this guy is still going lol

 

[Sini]

I hear reverb in the remaster though? Even in the video, like when the lady says "I'll wrap you in a sheet" you can clearly hear the reverb, it's not as pronounced, but it's there. The overall sound mixing seems different though, lots of sounds that are clearly supposed to be loud and booming sound normalized to hell, which to me is a bigger issue than EAX effects missing.

I couldn't hear it and I'm using good headphones.

Guessing that fix is just upping the amount of sound channels used by the game in the ini file? I bet the standard is something weak like 32

That's indeed how it was fixed.

 

[Easy_D]

I couldn't hear it and I'm using good headphones.


That's indeed how it was fixed.

It's there, I'm using semi-cheap sony headphones :lol. It's nowhere as pronounced as the original effect though but there's definitely a slight echo to her voice.

Edit: Oh. I get what you're not hearing now. There's reverb, but the sustain isn't anywhere close to the original game's, yeah that does make it sound flat in comparison. Jesus how did I not notice that. When you said reverb I just thought "slight reverb" not full on echoing. Yeah that's definitely missing.

Also does the game not use the Bioshock.ini file? I made it read only and it still resets all my settings upon boot :\. Also they're sneakily studying how we play the games, there's a new addition in the settings folder: playerstats.debug

 

[Sini]

I assume they at least fixed the missing vending machine sounds in Bioshock 2? They broke them in last patch they released and never bothered to do anything about it.

 

[Luigi87]

I am very glad I can still add -nointro to the Properties so I can skip the opening logos. It gets tired after a while.

 

[Apoleptica]

Can't you hear the reverb in original that's entirely missing in remaster? Video author even mentioned it in the beginning.

I think you can turn reverb on in the audio settings in the remastered version.

 

[Sini]

I think you can turn reverb on in the audio settings in the remastered version.

It worked in the original but in remastered it doesn't do anything or only adds super slight version of the reverb effect.

 

[Real Hero]

won't even launch for me...

 

[Easy_D]

won't even launch for me...

It takes a good 30 seconds for it to actually launch for me. It's rather annoying, but if you wait a bit it should open up.

Also we've all been too focused on Bioshock 1. What's the status of the infinitely superior sequel? Did they upgrade the textures and such for it as well?

 

[Real Hero]

It takes a good 30 seconds for it to actually launch for me. It's rather annoying, but if you wait a bit it should open up.

unfortunately it is not that it says bioshock.exe stopped working immediately after I try to launch

 

[Bastables]

Why is this so important for you? People are annoyed some effects are missing, why can't you be okay with that instead of trying to prove them wrong?



FXAA is on by default? That's nasty. Also no wonder it can't keep 60 on consoles if they didn't bother implementing multi-threading

Because it seems people are overeacting to forum posts when with the steam versions you can literally download both versions and compare them on your own setup.

Also the weird impulse of people in forgetting that a number of the bugs/issues are actually just brought over from the originals.

 

[Arkanius]

Do any of the INI options for both games work in improving the graphical settings?
I'm a bit surprised many are set to medium... even on PC.

Also, is it safe to change the FOV in BioShock 2 that way? It has no extended option in BioShock 2

 

[Yukinari]

Am i just stupid or can i not find the folder to fix the mouse acceleration issue? Im on Windows 10 and i cant locate the directory.

 

[Mr. Tibbs]

Am i just stupid or can i not find the folder to fix the mouse acceleration issue? Im on Windows 10 and i cant locate the directory.

If you press the windows button with R, or select run in the search windows options, type "appdata" and hit enter, you'll see the "Roaming" folder.

 

[lmimmfn]

Haha no way, they didn't even bother fixing that in the remaster? That junk made it unplayable in the original version, especially when trying to hack. Non of the fixes worked for me.

Guess I'll use a controller if I play it again.

edit: assuming controller support is even in of course.

yeah man, its still the same lol, i dont even know why they bothered with these if they done even fix the basic stuff

 

[HueyFreeman]

Some things look better and some thing don't. Overall i am not impressed at all.
I am glad this was free.

This is the best summary so far. Definitely some things are improved but it's inexcusable that some things have deteriorated. It might come down to preference I suppose, but playing them back to back I far prefer the original due to better water, lighting and fog effects. Given that's most of the atmosphere of Bioshock I'm surprised anyone could feel differently but to each his/her own.