dark souls demon

In this weekly series I'll show you how to get your favorite Windows-sectional PC games running on OS Ten. For more than information on the programs used, check out the Play Information technology On A Mac explainer. For suggestions and/or questions about whatever game, feel free to contact me on Twitter.

Even though the game is the harsh, evil, despicable spawn of Satan himself, I dearest Dark Souls. The game, and it'due south newly-released sequel, are big hits on dwelling house consoles, but the Windows-exclusive version of Night Souls, called Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition is a giant pain in demon ass fifty-fifty for those with Windows gaming PCs, so how are nosotros going to go information technology running on a Mac? Let'due south come across...

CrossOver

I kind of had a feeling that Nighttime Souls was going to be a problem with CrossOver, and I was right. Despite the game holding a seemingly incorrect Argent ranking on the official CrossOver compatibility list, you won't be able to get the game running on your Mac using this method.

The problem hither isn't so much with the game itself or CrossOver, simply with the game'due south requirement of Games For Windows LIVE connectivity. Games For Windows LIVE has huge issues connecting to the net through CrossOver and the game outright crashes earlier you even get started. On to the next option!

Parallels

After a trying install and several Games For Windows LIVE sign-ins and sign-outs, the game boots up and runs. On my decidedly minor examination machine, the game is what I would consider to be unplayable, which is a huge bummer. No affair what settings I tweaked in Parallels, the game tops out at around xv frames per second, which only isn't workable for a game that requires quick reflexes to avoid untimely deaths.

This isn't necessarily the fault of Parallels, yet, equally Night Souls on PC is notorious for beingness ane of the nigh poorly optimized games in contempo memory. If yous take a more than powerful Mac on your easily, Parallels may very well work for your Dark Souls excursion, merely it didn't work out that way for me.

At this point I considered it a fleck of a personal challenge to get this game running on my lowly Mac mini, and so we moved on to our last and concluding pick.

Kick Camp

dark souls screenshots

As in Parallels, the obnoxious install and update procedure somewhen gave style to actual gameplay. As in Parallels, the game was running below my playability standards, but unlike in Parallels, I would occasionally run across a glimpse of the coveted 30fps mark that I was searching for.

You see, the way Dark Souls was coded forces the game to commit to a certain framerate depending on the resources available. If your PC has ample power to display what is needed, you are locked in at 30fps by default. If not, the game attempts to halve that speed and locks y'all at 15fps. During my Boot Army camp play time I was constantly jumping back and forth between 15fps and 30fps, which made combat and exploration difficult.

There is a tool used by Dark Souls PC diehards that is made to allow super powerful rigs the take chances to run the game at 60fps with maxed out graphics and texture swaps. Information technology's chosen DSfix (Dark Souls fix), and while there was zero chance I was going to exist running the game at 60fps, I was able to use it to help me out a fleck in my Boot Camp Nighttime Souls adventure. Here'due south how:

  • First, download DSfix 22 and unzip it.
  • Now, detect the folder containing your Dark Souls executable file and copy the contents of your DSfix binder into it.
  • Once this is washed, open the DSfix configuration settings file using a text editing program. Here y'all'll be able to tweak the individual settings for DSfix.
  • Notice the Unlock Framerate pick and change information technology from a "0" to a "1" and alter the Frame Rate Limiter from "sixty" to "xxx."
  • Make sure both antialiasing and move blur are disabled.
  • At present save and exit.

Upon restarting Dark Souls, I plant that rather than pushing me all the way down to 15fps when the game sensed information technology couldn't maintain a steady 30fps, the framerate only dipped downward to 25fps occasionally earlier jumping back up to 30fps, which was the new limit I had set. The dip from 30fps to 25fps isn't well-nigh equally noticeable as a collapse all the way to 15fps, and I institute the game to be admittedly playable with these new settings in upshot.

Go on in heed, this is fast-paced activity RPG in 1080p, and I'm running it on a Mac mini with Intel integrated graphics. That'due south a hell of an accomplishment if I practice say and then myself.

Verdict

After an unusually intense install and testing process, I institute a way to go far piece of work, and I'thousand extremely happy with the results. Some diehard PC gamers (which I consider myself to be, too) might whorl their eyes at the centre-of-the-road framerate mark, just for those dedicated to the Mac, and who have never had a chance to play this fantastic game, it'south a perfectly adequate way to feel information technology.