Support NeoGAF

[Skilotonn]

in the demo, there really isn't anything of importance posted in the text that size... oh and you might need to get a full body massage...

But you did atleast notice that you couldn't read anything? Didn't that matter, unless you expected Dead Rising to be a mindless zombie slashing game with no story, which is exactly the opposite of what it is...

...and about the full body massage, if you can get Layla to do that for me, I'm game...

No, I didn't - I played the game at E3, and hmmm, looked great there because it was on HDTV. At that point, there wasn't really the thought of "Hmm, I should make note of this text, because it'll probably end up unreadable on SDTVs."

So when the downloadable demo came out, you didn't want to get it as well to play again? Or did you not have a 360 till DR? If so, that's a different story...

I keep trying to plug a VGA cable into the back of my iMac, but it just won't seem to want to fit anywhere.

And, AGAIN, "Buy a new X" is NOT a valid solution to this problem. People shouldn't HAVE to buy a new anything if Capcom and Microsoft had done their jobs.

No they shouldn't, and I agree that fixing the text shouldn't be a huge problem - don't get me wrong, I'm not defending this at all... my point goes beyond the text problem - it's how can you be a serious gamer and buy an HD next-gen console and waste the visuals on a small SDTV? If you had the cash to buy a 360, spend a bit more and buy a decent monitor and VGA cable and get your money's worth...

...but hey, that's just what I'm thinking...

 

[plagiarize]

because everyone has a desktop (and not a laptop) at home

i'm not saying Capcom shouldn't have done this... i'm not belittling the people with SDTVs that aren't fit to display this. i'm just saying that there are cheap alternatives to HDTVs that will benefit all your games.

split hairs if you like, but CRT monitors are hardly rare or expensive. i'd bet that a lot of the people posting complaints of small text have CRTs that they could be using.

that doesn't invalidate their complaints, i'm just saying 'getting a vga cable is worth it, not just so the text in dead rising is legible'.

i don't want to get in argument with you today because i'm going to a smackdown taping tonight, and i'm bringing a sign that says 'I'm surrounded by peasants'.

 

[Miburou]

That's not true at all, though. The text looks awesome on my TV even when sitting across the room. It's a perfect size that I wish developers would adopt for most games (while offering the option for larger text to SD gamers).

You have a big-screen TV and good eyesight, we get it. Good for you, but not everyone is as fortunate as you are.

 

[Un4]

If you own a 360 and you don't at least have a VGA cable, you wasted some money. you're getting some nice anti aliasing, but you're losing tonnes of detail...

now capcom SHOULD have put a larger text size into the game (as an option... like Dark10x i like the size on my set... and i know it's perfect on a monitor with the VGA cable)... but you've spent extra money for a console that can do HD.

you're always going to be disadvantaged. i'm going to be able to see if that person off in the distance is a zombie or a swat guy much more easily than you... in mp games i'm going to be able to see you at a much larger distance than you can see me.

i'm going to see greater detail than you, and text is always going to look clearer even if it's legible on your tv. more of your screen is going to be taken up by HUD because it has to be a bigger size to be useful... etc etc.

i'm not saying you're stupid not to at least get the VGA cable, just really missing out. for the cost of the VGA cable the difference is HUGE. you spent $400 on a console (or 280 pounds or whatever) you spend more than a vga cable costs every time you buy a game. you can afford one and it will make all your games look much much better.

you know, maybe capcom DID test it on SDTVs and maybe their SDTVs displayed the text fine (as it seems many SDTV sets out there do).

it's a shame they don't think it's worth the effort to fix... and it's a shame some of you can't enjoy the game because of it...

but this is going to happen again. it's going to get more common... and for less than the cost of a game you can not only ensure that you're not going to miss out again, but you'll find that all your games suddenly look better.

But your aren't you stuck with 60hz refresh rate on a monitor and with that a headache after 15 minutes of play?

 

[Oldschoolgamer]

No they shouldn't, and I agree that fixing the text shouldn't be a huge problem - don't get me wrong, I'm not defending this at all... my point goes beyond the text problem - it's how can you be a serious gamer and buy an HD next-gen console and waste the visuals on a small SDTV? If you had the cash to buy a 360, spend a bit more and buy a decent monitor and VGA cable and get you money's worth...

...but hey, that's just what I'm thinking...

My thing is that not everyone is the serious gamer though. People are assuming that everyone has a desktop (I don't just my Toshiba), has VGA cables, has the funds to get both. Some people, just buy games to play them, and not really give a damn about image quality. Sooo, if they save up for the 360, then, the chances are thats it for a while. They spent that money on a next gen system, to continue playing games they like playing on their Xbox. If one doesn't watch much tv to begin with (i don't), what would be the point in rushing to get an HD set, before I get a new system to continue what I like doing? Especially since it would take me a while to get said funds for both.

 

[GilloD]

I've played it on 3 SDTVs. One was perfectly legible, one was very "eh" and one was a complete trainwreck and I couldn't see a thing. Still blows, though.

 

[plagiarize]

But your aren't you stuck with 60hz refresh rate on a monitor and with that a headache after 15 minutes of play?

what refresh rate is your tv?

games at 60hz on a monitor are not the same as word or similar. i have a friend who is very particular about running at 60hz plus on his pc, who said it initially bothered him that the 360's vga cable only output at 60hz but after a few minutes of playing a game he got used to it.

 

[chase]

I can't believe that people are trying to defend this.

 

[The Faceless Master]

question


i have a SDTV, like, 27 inches? or so, might be bigger, idk.

i was thinking about getting DR, but not with this shit.

how much would an s-video cable help me? should i get it for gaming in general? how much of an improvement is it?

play the demo?

 

[plagiarize]

question


i have a SDTV, like, 27 inches? or so, might be bigger, idk.

i was thinking about getting DR, but not with this shit.

how much would an s-video cable help me? should i get it for gaming in general? how much of an improvement is it?

if you can, download the demo and see if you can read the text at the top right of the screen against the blue bar. if you can read what it says without problem you'll have no problem enjoying the game.

 

[The Faceless Master]

But you did atleast notice that you couldn't read anything? Didn't that matter, unless you expected Dead Rising to be a mindless zombie slashing game with no story, which is exactly the opposite of what it is...

did you not read thru the thread?
i have no problems reading the text, as i have a HDTV, i'm just not godly to enough to assume that because i have no problems, that no problem exists and other people are just making shit up to attack the mighty capcom, who can do no wrong...

...and about the full body massage, if you can get Layla to do that for me, I'm game...

yep, definitely didn't read thru the thread...

 

[Skilotonn]

My thing is that not everyone is the serious gamer though. People are assuming that everyone has a desktop (I don't just my Toshiba), has VGA cables, has the funds to get both. Some people, just buy games to play them, and not really give a damn about image quality. Sooo, if they save up for the 360, then, the chances are thats it for a while. They spent that money on a next gen system, to continue playing games they like playing on their Xbox. If one doesn't watch much tv to begin with (i don't), what would be the point in rushing to get an HD set, before I get a new system to continue what I like doing? Especially since it would take me a while to get said funds for both.

They don't even need to get an HDTV - a monitor is just as fine, and to me, even better... I'm just saying that it's a waste, that's all...

And I hope that the people playing on these SDTV's aren't the same ones complaining about graphics in threads, because if that's the case, their opinions hold no weight...

did you not read thru the thread?
i have no problems reading the text, as i have a HDTV, i'm just not godly to enough to assume that because i have no problems, that no problem exists and other people are just making shit up to attack the mighty capcom, who can do no wrong...
yep, definitely didn't read thru the thread...

No I didn't not read the thread, but why are you even taking this up with me when I even said I'm not defending this, and my beef with HD gaming in general, NOT the text problem... you sounded like you had a problem when you responsed to me, and you don't even have a problem with the text... jeez

And maybe I'll read through the text when I get back home... maybe

 

[Un4]

what refresh rate is your tv?

games at 60hz on a monitor are not the same as word or similar. i have a friend who is very particular about running at 60hz plus on his pc, who said it initially bothered him that the 360's vga cable only output at 60hz but after a few minutes of playing a game he got used to it.

I've played (PC) games on 60hz before and found it pretty annoying actually. Maybe it gets better when playing farther from the screen, i haven't tried that.

 

[The Faceless Master]

No I ddin't not read the thread, but why are you even taking this up with me when I even said I'm not defending this, and my beef with HD gaming in general, NOT the text problem... you sounded like you had a problem when you responsed to me, and you don't even have a problem with the text... jeez

And maybe I'll read through the text when I get back home... maybe

because saying you're not defending something while applying a fresh coat of damage control is still actually defending it...

 

[plagiarize]

I've played games on 60hz before and found it pretty annoying actually. Maybe it gets better when playing farther from the screen, i haven't tried that.

mileage may vary i guess

 

[Bojangles]

People playing the 360 on 14" televisions deserve to not be able to read the text.

 

[Shawn]

I just came across this thread no more than 20 seconds ago. I'm not going to read through all the posts here, but I will only say this:

You have no business buying an Xbox 360 (or PS3 for that matter) if you're not going to be using it with an HDTV.

End of story.

 

[future_pinoy]

People playing the 360 on 14" televisions deserve to not be able to read the text.

not everybody on this earth is as rich and spoiled bratty like you, beech !!!

 

[Patrick Bateman]

Don´t know if it has been posted, yet, nevertheless there are some "tips" published by Capcom:

1. Change the settings of the screen.
2. Use a componente cable instead of a standard composite cable
3. Set the tv-screen on widescreen also if the tv isn´t a widescreen tv.

http://www.gamefront.de/

 

[dark10x]

not everybody on this earth is as rich and spoiled bratty like you, beech !!!

The fact that a display capable of handling the game MUCH better than a 14" TV can run you less than the cost of an XBOX360 suggests that you need not be rich in order to enjoy the system on something better.

 

[strikeselect]

Don´t know if it has been posted, yet, nevertheless there are some "tips" published by Capcom:

1. Change the settings of the screen.
2. Use a componente cable instead of a standard composite cable
3. Set the tv-screen on widescreen also if the tv isn´t a widescreen tv.

http://www.gamefront.de/

tip for Capcom:

FIX YOUR ****ING GAME

 

[Beer Monkey]

Hell, an arcade game like Outpost Kaloki X has user-selectable fonts.

 

[future_pinoy]

I just came across this thread no more than 20 seconds ago. I'm not going to read through all the posts here, but I will only say this:

You have no business buying an Xbox 360 (or PS3 for that matter) if you're not going to be using it with an HDTV.

End of story.

basically MS and Capcom is telling us owners of 14" TV sets (and i'm proud of it) to take a hike, so much for mass market support, sorry to break it to you dude, not every on this world is as rich and smart (sarcasm) as you ...

 

[Patrick Bateman]

tip for Capcom:

FIX YOUR ****ING GAME

I know, I can´t understand, that the size of text-data would be so much that a patch is too big to downlod. I mean, they let the people download whole demos with graphics, sounds, videos and shit...

 

[LuCkymoON]

I have a 40" SDTV and I can read the text just fine. It seems to be a problem with people that have small SDTVs.

 

[Patrick Klepek]

Hey, I wrote this article.

Damn you, Kohler. And while I'd agree the text certainly doesn't make Dead Rising unplayable (and it doesnt't really hinder the gameplay much, just the experience), I find Capcom's attitude completely inexcusable. If they'd simply fessed, ala Ubisoft with King Kong and said 'crap, we f'ed up' at least they're admitting the issue, instead of hiding behind HD.

 

[future_pinoy]

I have a 40" SDTV and I can read the text just fine. It seems to be a problem with people that have small SDTVs.

basically that is the whole point, Microsoft forgot to realize how many 14" to 17" TVs are still out there in the wild and owners are not willing to purchase HDTV's yet, maybe 5 to 6 years from now.

 

[jacktion]

MAN WHAT A MISLEADING PHOTO. There's no way in hell it looks like that on any decent SDTV. The text is small and pretty damn hard to read for me, but that's just a horrible exaggeration.

How do you exaggerate a photo? I think you misspoke.

 

[Flo_Evans]

I get the feeling in 5 or 6 years some of you are going to be laying down $900 for an xbox 720 and still complaining about how it looks on your 17" TV :lol

 

[future_pinoy]

I get the feeling in 5 or 6 years some of you are going to be laying down $900 for an xbox 720 and still complaining about how it looks on your 17" TV :lol

nyah, 5 to 6 years from now I plan to have a gorgeus HDTV set, and I don't plan on on buying an XBOX 720 because there ain't going to be one, unless of course they can find a solution to the dilema they are in today, or millions upon millions of 14" to 17" TV set owners are going to be pissed and will bury the XBOX name to ground.

 

[Flo_Evans]

how bout this: I will send anyone that is unable to play dead rising a perfectly good 15" CRT. I have like 4 of them. You just pay for shipping and buy a VGA cable.

 

[LuCkymoON]

nyah, 5 to 6 years from now I plan to have a gorgeus HDTV set, and I don't plan on on buying an XBOX 720 because there ain't going to be one, unless of course they can find a solution to the dilema they are in today, or millions upon millions of 14" to 17" TV set owners are going to be pissed and will bury the XBOX name to ground.

What amkes you think the same wont happen on the PS3? You could easily get a used 19" CRT computer monitor for less or the same as a 17-21" SDTV.

 

[rs7k]

question


i have a SDTV, like, 27 inches? or so, might be bigger, idk.

i was thinking about getting DR, but not with this shit.

how much would an s-video cable help me? should i get it for gaming in general? how much of an improvement is it?

S-Video will make a huge difference in image quality. I couldn't go back to composite at all after a year of playing in S-Video. Everything will look sharper and cleaner than on composite. The difference from S-video to component on a regular tv is minimal though.

The difference from composite to S-video is like the one from RF going to composite.

 

[DarkAngelYuna]

Honestly I'd bet that the VGA/HD::360 ownership ratio is higher than 1.

If you're tv cost $80 you shouldn't be able to afford a $400 video game system anyways.

 

[koam]

On my 27in SD, the text is BARELY readable. Most of the time, i'm squinting and guessing what some of the words are. It's a real pain in the ass and I gave up on the game because of it. Well I did finish it technically but I botched up the story because i didn't know what one of my missions were.

You get that stupid walkie talkie going off every 2 minutes and you're struggling to read what it's saying while trying to avoid zombies you can't kill (cause you're on the walkie talkies). In addition, the text scrolls by fast so when you're struggling to read, you end up missing a lot.

I also call BS on the no-patch reasoning. How hard is it to resize the text? It's not like they need to retype all the text.

Oh, and buying a new TV is not a solution, that's completely retarded. You're paying a shitload for the new console, $10 more for the game and then, you're expected to buy a new TV just because Devs are too lazy to test in SD and Microsoft lacks quality control.

 

[Patrick Klepek]

I also call BS on the no-patch reasoning. How hard is it to resize the text? It's not like they need to retype all the text.

In all honesty, it probably isn't that easy to change the text; we're not talking about a Microsoft Word document. Not that it's anymore excusable, but let's not exaggerate too much here.

 

[koam]

In all honesty, it probably isn't that easy to change the text; we're not talking about a Microsoft Word document. Not that it's anymore excusable, but let's not exaggerate too much here.

All those text bubbles are stored in classes or objects in the source code. A class/object has properties that you can set or pass (including defaults). It's really not that difficult to code. If they're not using classes/objects then I seriously have to question their programming style.

 

[bill0527]

nyah, 5 to 6 years from now I plan to have a gorgeus HDTV set, and I don't plan on on buying an XBOX 720 because there ain't going to be one, unless of course they can find a solution to the dilema they are in today, or millions upon millions of 14" to 17" TV set owners are going to be pissed and will bury the XBOX name to ground.

http://biz.gamedaily.com/industry/feature/?id=11488

He continued, "In fact, Xbox 360 is the killer app for HDTV adoption. It's driving HDTV monitor sales. A recent study concluded that 9 out of 10 Xbox 360 owners have either purchased or intend to purchase an HDTV in the next six months. And 90 percent of them say that it was Xbox 360 that is the primary reason for making that purchase, 90 percent of them say it's about Xbox 360."

My only suggestion is that its time to upgrade your display if you're going to spend $400 or $600 for a gaming console. You can buy a full-blown HDTV set or you can go the cheap route and get a 17" or 19" LCD monitor and a VGA cable for around $200. If you can come up with $400, $500, or $600 for a gaming console, do yourself a favor and come up with a couple more bills and get a decent display to go along with it.

Its called progress, and it hits everyone at some point. Just the other day I was thinking of purchasing a new video card for my 3 year old PC, but as it turns out, all the best video cards are now PCI-E, and I'm stuck with an AGP motherboard. I can either shell out the scratch to upgrade the whole thing or just live with what I've got.

 

[RuGalz]

All those text bubbles are stored in classes or objects in the source code. A class/object has properties that you can set or pass (including defaults). It's really not that difficult to code. If they're not using classes/objects then I seriously have to question their programming style.

You never know with Jpn developers. (And that's only half joking...)

 

[Patrick Klepek]

I'm picking up an HDTV this Christmas as the prices continue to drop, but the people saying you have no excuse to have the money for purchasing an Xbox 360 but not an HDTV are spouting madness. Between paying for school, books, rent, food and other mandatory living expenses, I'm able to scrape enough together from my job so I can afford an Xbox 360 -- can someone explain to me what the point of an HDTV would be if I could only play PS2, Xbox and DVDs on it? I'd rather take the awesome games, thanks.

 

[loosus]

I don't think the resizing of the text itself is really the issue (because that could be done). I think the bigger issue is ensuring that it doesn't break the game at any point because of the increase in size. If the rest of the game was designed with the text being size X, then the size increase may break menus and whatnot or cause cosmetic problems in unexpected places. At the very least, I think the text would need to be manually broken by a human to make sure that it's broken in the best spots.

 

[PjotrStroganov]

Are people in PAL land facing the same problems or is the higher resolution enough to read the text?

It would also be helpful if people mentioned wether they are using composite, component or RGB scart.

 

[123rl]

Are people in PAL land facing the same problems or is the higher resolution enough to read the text?

It would also be helpful if people mentioned wether they are using composite, component or RGB scart.

I know a couple of people who are playing the PAL version (using RGB scart) on 28" 16:9 CRT TVs and they say the text is too small. It isn't enough to spoil the game but they have to squint to read it

 

[bill0527]

I'm picking up an HDTV this Christmas as the prices continue to drop, but the people saying you have no excuse to have the money for purchasing an Xbox 360 but not an HDTV are spouting madness. Between paying for school, books, rent, food and other mandatory living expenses, I'm able to scrape enough together from my job so I can afford an Xbox 360 -- can someone explain to me what the point of an HDTV would be if I could only play PS2, Xbox and DVDs on it? I'd rather take the awesome games, thanks.

And as already pointed out multiple times, you have cheaper alternatives other than several hunderds or thousands of dollars on an hdtv. You're a college student so I assume you have a PC. You can get a VGA cable for $40. If you've got a laptop, that obviously won't work, but Newegg has 17" LCD monitors for $150, so buy one of those and a VGA cable and you've only spent $200 for a great hi-definition solution. Its worth it. I can't stress enough that ITS WORTH IT. Trying to game on one of these next generation consoles without a hi-definition display is like trying to drive a car with only 3 tires and a bare rim.

 

[Patrick Bateman]

S-Video will make a huge difference in image quality. I couldn't go back to composite at all after a year of playing in S-Video. Everything will look sharper and cleaner than on composite. The difference from S-video to component on a regular tv is minimal though.

The difference from composite to S-video is like the one from RF going to composite.

Umm, how is it with a "Advanced SCART Cable" that uses a RGB-modus over the scart-place.
Is this working well or is a S-Video-cable better?


I mean this one:

http://www.spielegrotte.de/index.php?kat=100078&anr=39633

Sorry, description is in German.

 

[plagiarize]

And as already pointed out multiple times, you have cheaper alternatives other than several hunderds or thousands of dollars on an hdtv. You're a college student so I assume you have a PC. You can get a VGA cable for $40. If you've got a laptop, that obviously won't work, but Newegg has 17" LCD monitors for $150, so buy one of those and a VGA cable and you've only spent $200 for a great hi-definition solution. Its worth it. I can't stress enough that ITS WORTH IT. Trying to game on one of these next generation consoles without a hi-definition display is like trying to drive a car with only 3 tires and a bare rim.

most college students have lap tops these days. lord only knows why. they're more expensive and much more stealable.

 

[koam]

I'm picking up an HDTV this Christmas as the prices continue to drop, but the people saying you have no excuse to have the money for purchasing an Xbox 360 but not an HDTV are spouting madness. Between paying for school, books, rent, food and other mandatory living expenses, I'm able to scrape enough together from my job so I can afford an Xbox 360 -- can someone explain to me what the point of an HDTV would be if I could only play PS2, Xbox and DVDs on it? I'd rather take the awesome games, thanks.

I think most of those people have jobs *and* still live with their parents. I've got a mortgage under my name and also own a car, and the thought of spending $1500 on a console + HDTV is completely out of the question. The 360 is my roommate's and I technically do have an old HDTV that I bought when I was living at my folks home but at the moment, I can't fit it in the living room until i finish my renovations. I'm basically stuck on SDTV until that gets done.

Videogames are a hobbie that many of us have enjoyed for a long time now. We're used to spending $200-300 on a console, another $50 on a game and that's it. Why is it that all of sudden, we're spending $400 on a console and forced to upgrade our TVs to be able to play the games properly.

The other major problem is that HDTVs still aren't ****ing standardized yet. HMDI is still getting revisions, only 5% of sets even support 1080p. I bought my TV about 3 years ago and it doesn't have HDMI because it didn't exist yet.

most college students have lap tops these days. lord only knows why. they're more expensive and much more stealable.

I hope you're being sarcastic.

 

[Patrick Klepek]

And as already pointed out multiple times, you have cheaper alternatives other than several hunderds or thousands of dollars on an hdtv. You're a college student so I assume you have a PC. You can get a VGA cable for $40. If you've got a laptop, that obviously won't work, but Newegg has 17" LCD monitors for $150, so buy one of those and a VGA cable and you've only spent $200 for a great hi-definition solution. Its worth it. I can't stress enough that ITS WORTH IT. Trying to game on one of these next generation consoles without a hi-definition display is like trying to drive a car with only 3 tires and a bare rim.

My parents have an HDTV, I've played my 360 on it; I have a decent-sized TV capable of 480p in my apartment's living room, and I'm not about to start hiding in my room just so I can masturbate to HD-resolutions like the rest of the GAF elite. I realize HD is fantastic, leaps and bounds above SDTV, but nowhere on Dead Rising, nowhere on my 360's box, does it say 'HDTV required for 360 experience' -- 360 is supposed to be the catalyst for moving HDTVs, not making them a requirement to enjoy the experience.

 

[Skilotonn]

because saying you're not defending something while applying a fresh coat of damage control is still actually defending it...

...

Damage control?

I already thought my last post went over your head, this one just confirms it...

Again, the text problem sucks for SDTV users, and Capcom should've done/should do something about it (and from most of these posts, it's not as bad as the topic makes it), but my point is why buy a HD console when you can't appreciate it on the TV you own? How in the hell is that damage control?

Should I mention that when the PS3 comes out that it's gonna be the same thing again to avoid your ridiculous accusations? Damn.

Playing/watching HD media on a SDTV that makes it looks like crap is a waste - that is my point, and I am not defending Capcom or MS or Sony or anybody. My message can't get any clearer than that... if you still don't get that, there's nothing else I can do for you...

 

[SEBA]

I had no problem with the text in the demo at least. Did they change it in the final game?