No Man's Sky

Outfit- and General- News Section
No Man's Sky
13 Aug 2016 08:07

Good morning everyone!
Pete here with a slight hangover from a night partying instead of playing this absolutely freakishly expected game.
Why? It wouldn't start after install and I decided: large fair > broken game.

So far, the PC launch has been a troubled one for NMS and it seems that you need three things to run it (if you want to play it now and not after the next sale):
- graphics card with drivers as new as possible.
- 8GB of DDR3 RAM. And best not more than that.
- an intel i3 core or an AMD chipset built after Oct. 2011.

Why?
- If your graphics card is from intel or if it's got less than 2GB of memory - you won't play. Not supported. If it's an nVidia card of the 480 and later series or an AMD 7870 (and better) running the 368.81 and whatever the current AMD version is - it should work.
- Seems that some folks with 16GB DDR4 RAM can't play either. So that was either the same guy posting under three different accounts or there's some issue with too much RAM. Luckily I didn't upgrade my CPU and main board and RAM...
- intel and AMD had creative differences about which commands their cores should be able to execute. intel decided to upgrade the older SSE3 library with a whole array of new commands to a new and shiny library called SSE4. AMD decided to NOT use the same commands but instead went for SSE4a. CPUs that do not at least support SSE4.1 won't understand the commands the game engine gives. But if you didn't go the "AMD REBEL" or "intel's too expensive" route when buying your rig: it should work.

Otherwise: Wait until that 15-person-studio Hello Games recompiled their game code with Legacy SSE support baked in and some of the other framerate issues (capped at 30 for first start for example, which can be changed in options) are solved.
My problem so far is the core. Never should've saved those 50€ back then!
Some people will go straight to hell.
With VIP ticket and free drinks...
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Smile! Life stays the same shit but it's definitely more fun!
User avatar
The2ndPete
 
Posts: 1358
Joined: 12 Feb 2013 21:09
Location: NW Germany


Re: No Man's Sky
14 Aug 2016 16:06

Did you manage to start it up?

I decided to play a bit Elite Dangerous, as it should be (will be) like the extended Version of NMS.
User avatar
r0xt4r
Site Admin
 
Posts: 413
Joined: 15 Jan 2013 20:42


Re: No Man's Sky
15 Aug 2016 04:29

Nope.
Nothing so far.

Hello Games released an experimental patch that removes the need for SSE4 (which Phenom II CPUs don't understand) and the game code is down to requiring SSE2 only now.
The crux about it is the Havoc Physics engine, which relies on sSSE3 - another intel exclusive...

Baehrserker on the other hand ran into a "system too good" wall. Apparently his machine is so overpowered that it tries to process the code faster than the code understands, thus making the game unplayable for him.
Best bet: wait 2-3 months and get it on a winter/holiday sale.

I'll try to upgrade my rig with an intel processor this week (something I wanted to do a long time, in fact back in my PS2 days) and I'll report back if that brought any progress.
...if I don't blow my system up with that upgrade. Chances are 50:50, seeing that I short circuited one of two motherboards I ever built into cases myself...
Some people will go straight to hell.
With VIP ticket and free drinks...
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Smile! Life stays the same shit but it's definitely more fun!
User avatar
The2ndPete
 
Posts: 1358
Joined: 12 Feb 2013 21:09
Location: NW Germany


Re: No Man's Sky
15 Aug 2016 17:39

Aren't you supposed to now about electronics and such? ;-)
“Sometimes it's better to light a flamethrower than curse the darkness.” ― Terry Pratchett
"less complaining, more killing" ― Finilie
GBX, because banter is our weapon of choice
User avatar
t0di
 
Posts: 882
Joined: 17 Aug 2013 22:03
Location: Germany


Re: No Man's Sky
16 Aug 2016 04:43

Knowing which input a programmable CPU requires to actually start a 150kW engine of mass plastic shredding and knowing the intricacies of how a CPU is executing orders given to it by someone thinking that every CPU ever should understand orders written in the two most actual versions of a code library is like comparing knowledge of how to drive a car and understanding the process of iron mining and steel cooking...
On the plus side this made me learn quite some stuff about central processing units and their various differences depending on who made them.

John Walker of RockPaperShotgun made a nice review of all the flaws of No Man's Sky and why he still likes it and keeps playing:
This basically is a "PC can do so much better, why isn't it used? Are you pulling a trolley with a Lamborghini?" article
The main points are
- bad draw distances (thanks to the PS4s "best console hardware ever" not being that super compared to PCs)
- big lack in consistent story (if you don't examine EVERYTHING in your starting crash site and understand (not only read) the texts given you're very likely missing parts until you stumble upon them by chance).
- some strange decisions in options (graphics settings, ALT+TAB freeze the game, capped FPS)
- wonky and inconsisten controls (A and D to switch between inventories but Q and E to switch in other menus. Right Click to close some screens, Left Click next to the window for others, ESC never closes any. HOLD some buttons, others work on simple tap...)

And there's some scenery procedurally generated that's just gorgeous:
The great sights of procedurally generated worlds
Some people will go straight to hell.
With VIP ticket and free drinks...
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Smile! Life stays the same shit but it's definitely more fun!
User avatar
The2ndPete
 
Posts: 1358
Joined: 12 Feb 2013 21:09
Location: NW Germany


Re: No Man's Sky
20 Aug 2016 09:38

My review is finally up here.
Some people will go straight to hell.
With VIP ticket and free drinks...
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Smile! Life stays the same shit but it's definitely more fun!
User avatar
The2ndPete
 
Posts: 1358
Joined: 12 Feb 2013 21:09
Location: NW Germany



Return to News

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 6 guests


cron