[Fernando]

I'm aware that this might not be a problem to some people here but i've tried different TV setups ( Samsung LCD - 720p - 60hz - HDMI ) and ( Samsung LCD - 1080P - 120hz - HDMI ) and the screen tearing in this game is unbearable!!!


I try to ignore it but the amount of screen tearing in Alan Wake from start to finish is downright disgusting, especially on closed environments. It really hurts the gameplay experience (at least for me).

I hope someone can answer this; is Remedy going to do something about this issue? I've read that games can be updated to fix the screen tearing. A recent case of this was the game 'Darksiders' and this is what the developer had to say:

Quote:

"It's something that's really not a difficult fix for us and so we're going to implement a patch to resolve the problem. We're fairly certain it'll happen really soon so look out for it."

P.S. I don't really care what Digital Foundry said about Alan Wake's tearing. I just know that i've tried different setups and my Alan Wake tears like Hell.

[JTX]

I've noticed ALOT more tears on my second play through. It would be nice if they sent out a patch to fix it but I don't see it happening. Hopefully they'll have it fixed for the dlc and season 2 (really really hoping there's a season 2)

[Pauloselhombre]

Thing is, do you prefer tearing or slowdown? Because, I'm guessing the game engine is a little bit ahead of what the 360 can cope with, so unless a patch were to actually tweak the entire game engine it's likely that any solution would just be a trade-off. I'm sure that design decisions + engine tweaking could possibly minimise the problem in a sequel, but I doubt there's that much more that can be done.

[Stark Viking]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pauloselhombre

Thing is, do you prefer tearing or slowdown? Because, I'm guessing the game engine is a little bit ahead of what the 360 can cope with, so unless a patch were to actually tweak the entire game engine it's likely that any solution would just be a trade-off

If we pretend that it is the 360 lacking the power, they should just tone it down

[Salt The Fries]

I didn't notice the tearing until 4th Episode and even then it was so marginal that it didn't distract me in the slightest.

[ancient]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pauloselhombre

Thing is, do you prefer tearing or slowdown?

The problem is, Remedy should have given player's a simple choice: "VSync always on or not" as a setting. Some prefer smooth frame rate over tearing. Some like it vice versa.

Remedy decided not to give a choice... and this turned out to be a wrong decision.

The human eye cannot notice a difference between 25 or 30 FPS (the threshold level is 16 FPS). So if the frame rate has to dip temporarily, and the player agrees with it, let it be.

[Matt S]

While I am not a fan of screen tear myself, we really dont know the reasons behind the decision to not include such options.....keep in mind Remedy is a small company......

[Salt The Fries]

The threshold level is 24 FPS.

[ancient]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Salt The Fries

The threshold level is 24 FPS.

The biological threshold for a human eye is 16 frames per second:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flicker...lay_frame_rate

24 frames per second is the standard movies are using - kind of a safe margin.

[Nilamo]

Do you people have bionic eyes or something, there is little tearing from what i've seen, certainly not enough to be whining about.

[M.O.T.H.]

The screen tearing was noticeable but didnt really bother me until the 4th episode, where it was nearly constant throughout. Especially inside the clinic.

Episode 4 was so bad ass, though. My favorite one so far, but the tearing was pretty terrible.

[Fernando]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nilamo

Do you people have bionic eyes or something, there is little tearing from what i've seen, certainly not enough to be whining about.

Well sir, that might be your case and there's a lot of things that could change the outcome of the screen tearing issue. Such as your TV, settings, Resolution..bla bla. You may not notice enough tearing to whine about it but in my play-trough it was very evident the amount of tearing the game produced from chapter 1 to chapter 6 *chapter 4 being the worse i think*

Like i said, some people might not have this issue but from what i've seen and my personal experience the tearing was nasty. We can't expect everyone to have the same amount of tearing.

I can accept the bad lipsynching but the tearing was too much for me. I just can't feel happy playing a game that starts cutting my image up and down every time i move the right stick.

[Pauloselhombre]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nilamo

Do you people have bionic eyes or something, there is little tearing from what i've seen, certainly not enough to be whining about.

To be honest, while it doesn't bother me, it did happen a lot throughout the game for me, particularly anytime you pan the camera around in most of the daytime scenes.

Edit: I'd be intrigued to hear exactly why there are performance spikes at those points, considering that the Xbox doesn't seem to be working overtime. I'm fascinated by the tech of the game engine generally, even though I probably wouldn't understand half of it, as it really does generate the most fantastic environments, but seems to struggle here and there. Perhaps the daytime scenes involve realistic sunlight and atmospheric diffusion, which would explain why the engine copes better in the dark, despite the many extra effects that the darkness brings? Anyhoo, I'm speculating wildly now, so I'll shut up

[Gbraga]

I heard that if you set the dash to 720p it solves the tearing problem, played it with 720p setting and no tearing.

I'll play it in 1080p in my 2nd playthrough to see if I can notice any difference.

[JTX]

I'm playing in 720p and the tearing is very noticeable espicially in the beginning of episode 4

[DvsDevise]

It's there, but it's not something that bothers me personally.

Note: I only just finished episode 3.

[shwhjw]

I've never noticed any at all :/

[northernlights]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ancient

The human eye cannot notice a difference between 25 or 30 FPS (the threshold level is 16 FPS).

I don't know the science behind this, but I'm pretty sure I can see the difference between 25 and 60 frames per second in video games.

Oh and I haven't noticed screen tearing while playing AW. Few FPS drops and weird, really rapid and small (few pixels) camera shaking (not the "cinematic handycam shaking") during cutscenes - yes.

[Matt S]

I had my 360 dash set to 1080i, but i'll check out the 720p theory

[Salt The Fries]

What's the best resolution for AW anyway? I'm playing at 720p, but I wondered if 1080i would be any better? 1080p is certainly a no-go, because it would look the worst on a big screen, I think.

[Matt S]

720p is probably the best bet.....I did change mine, and the screen tear is still there..

[Maniac]

I noticed the tearing myself. I'm suprised it happens in HDMI. In the bts documentaries you can see the game is locked at 30fps....

I'm puzzled.

[MoldyClay]

I didn't notice tearing until Episode 4, and it was after I looked up what it even meant.

Though, it wasn't noticeable enough to me.

Granted, I'm using a standard def TV, so maybe I have less problems by default.

[jasonjkay]

I mainly notice it in daylight or when im indoors. The easiest way for me to cause the affect to appear is to quickly step from side to side, or quickly look around. I do notice the affect quite often, and it is a bit off putting.

[Maniac]

Quote:

Originally Posted by northernlights

I don't know the science behind this, but I'm pretty sure I can see the difference between 25 and 60 frames per second in video games.

This is correct, and even though we can't process over 60hz, we can NOTICE the difference when something is over that threshold. However, while we can easily see the difference between 60 and 120hz, I don't think we would notice the difference between 120hz and 240hz, but I could be wrong there.

[Sokrates89]

Hi all, even though this thread has been dead for a while it's nice to see I'm not the only one having these issues. I thought I could just switch the game copy but seeing as you all are having these problems it might not work. Because the tearing is really messing up my gaming experience, at some points the tearing even removed half of the screen (upper part).

Probably going to try getting my money back to be honest. :-(

[MikkiRMD]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sokrates89

Hi all, even though this thread has been dead for a while it's nice to see I'm not the only one having these issues. I thought I could just switch the game copy but seeing as you all are having these problems it might not work. Because the tearing is really messing up my gaming experience, at some points the tearing even removed half of the screen (upper part).

Probably going to try getting my money back to be honest. :-(

The problem you are describing is not what they are talking about. Your game is clearly behaving in a very abnormal manner. As I said, I suggest you return it to the store you bought it from and ask for a replacement, and if that doesn't fix the problem, you might have a hardware problem.

[spiderfan96]

I personally only experienced two technical problems. One was when crossing the bridge at the beginning of the first chapter, i fell off and I could walk on water. The second was when the sheriff and barry were trying to get up in to the elevator and Alan had to hold the button for them, the obstruction didn't fall and the two NPC's kept running at the wall while I stood by the button that wouldn't work.

[MetzoPaino]

I've never noticed screen tearing, even on other videos where people point it out.

Perhaps when I next play through it on a big plasma screen (rather than the medium sized LCD I played Alan Wake on the first time) I will finally know what everyone keeps complaining about.

[jbrighty]

maybe remedy should uncap the framerate which causing the screen tearing. It happened with Darksiders at first then they patched it. went better but not perfect anyways

[AwaitingAWake]

I love this game....but....I am on my second playthrough and just got to the beginning of Chapter 4 and, Wow!, the tearing is awful! I remember it from the first playthrough....but I don't remember it being this bad. Glad to know it's not just me....sort of. I kind of wish it was just me and not the game.....will check my resolution....but, wow.

[nomad333]

In Episode 1 is was realllly noticeable when Alice was driving.
The FPS cap is a concept.
I can tell the difference if something is at 60fps or 24fps, it's something you pick up only after time, same as sound.

[dalegt4]

to be honest i dont notice any, i have played the game through 3 times and havent noticed any, maybe im not looking for it, maybe i just dont see it. i dont know.

im using a samsung ue40b7000 led tv with the motion plus on my own settings and dont see any tearing.

but maybe im not looking for it i dont know, wouldnt be bothered anyhow, the game is top

[PotentialTERROR]

Any update on this issue Remedy?

Is this something you're likely to fix with a patch or will we just have to get used to it?

If you have any remedies (no pun) it'll be greatly appreciated

[Wampiro]

Could be some resolution related?

I remember that the first Dead Rising has an HUGE (very, ****ing HUGE)problem with tearing if you don´t configure the Xbox AND yout TV at the exact resolution it works (maybe 720p? I can´t ermember that detail, but anything different - higher or lower- got you tearing big time). Once you get the corrects settings, worked fine (had a LITTLE tearing that didn´t affect the gameplay).

Maybe with Alan Cake (love that name) works similar, if you don´t configure everything allright... maybe someone from Remedy could check it (or refute it).

Just bought the game, by the way. I´m not at home so I really didn´t play it yet.

[Wampiro]

Double post, my bad.

I played all the way through the first chapter yesterday, didn´t see any tearing issues O_o Only a ****ing lot of forest

But I played it it in "SD", in my brother´s LCD TV (19 inches I think), maybe the tearing comes with the component/HDMI, higher resolutions...

By the way, the end of chapter 1 leaves an incredible obvious (probably fake) explanation to the Alan Wake´s state. I wish the real explanation to be moar interesting xD

[Hukka55]

Yeah, you're in for a real treat (and a real noodle-baker).