Fan Modder Manages to Get Demon’s Souls Running at 60 FPS in 4K Resolution
The only catch is that a PlayStation 3 emulator is required to pull it off.
Those familiar with FromSoftware’s Dark Souls predecessor Demon’s Souls will be happy to know that if they have a powerful enough computer and a physical copy of the game, they will now be able to enjoy the title at 4K resolution running at a staggering 60 frames per second! Through the use of PlayStation 3 emulator RPCS3, not only can fans get the game to run in the PS3’s native 30 FPS, but double that akin to more powerful consoles like the PlayStation 4.
Programmer Whatcookie revealed the news of his latest patch release last week, which was able to unlock the 60 FPS upgrade without affecting the rest of the game. He also released a trailer showing off how smooth the gameplay is, which you can view below.
In his blog post, Whatcookie describes how back in 2017, Demon’s Souls ran at barely 20 FPS in RPCS3 and he thought “it will be so incredible when the game is playable at 30FPS… maybe in 2 years or so.” He elaborates that it didn’t take long to get the game running at this original console framerate, leading him to think “that it would only be a matter of time before someone out there would make a 60 FPS patch.” However, no patch yet existed by 2019 so Whatcookie took it upon himself to make it happen using his experience creating a patch to unlock the framerate for Nier.
“I assumed that a framerate patch for Demon’s Souls must be impossibly difficult since the only 60 FPS patch that was made broke the game speed and caused everything to run twice as fast,” he surmises. “On a complete whim, I decided to try running Demon’s Souls with the new generic FPS unlocking methods by developer eladash. I knew that since the game used a fixed timestep instead of delta time, the game wouldn’t be playable at proper game speed, but I was curious about just how much faster Demon’s Souls was compared to two years ago. Since I’ve had the same quad core desktop PC since the start of 2017, I would be able to see just how much the software has improved.”
As it turns out, increased processing speeds over the last few years can now sustain Demon’s Souls running at a near-consistent 60 FPS. All Whatcookie’s patch has to do is reduce the amount of time that happens in-game by half during every frame. This way everything feels and moves normally instead of twice as fast. Whatcookie states that “if you have a Ryzen 3000 or i7 8000 series desktop CPU then you can reach 60 FPS 99% of the time,” adding that “as the emulator continues to improve further, the system requirements will continue to drop lower and lower.”
Demon’s Souls was a PS3 exclusive back in 2009 and remains one of the only FromSoftware games unavailable on PC. Furthermore, the game’s online services were shut down quite some time ago and with creator Hidetaka Miyazaki uninterested in pursuing a remaster or remake, this emulation may be one of the few ways fans will be able to enjoy the game in the future. Now with the game running as smoothly as it ever has, here’s to hoping fans will next be able to restore online services so Demon’s Souls can be played as originally intended. Either way, color us impressed.
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