F.E.A.R. Demo Thread


Recommended Posts

definatly had more elements in this game than doom 3's comparison on being scary, plus the water effects are amazing too bad my system is ou, tdated and doesnt play this game well. first time i was loaded into the interactive level after the intro i was instantly noclipped fell threw thew ground.

Bah, I can't even run the demo. I just get:

"A required security module can not be activated. This program can not be executed."

The multiplayer beta ran fine... now I've tried uninstalling that, reinstalling the demo, restarting, compatability mode, etc. The annoying thing is that it works fine on my old computer (A64 3000 / 9800Pro) but not on my gaming computer. :(

I loved the demo, and I think it ran pretty fine for a system like mine: (posting this makes me feel so obsolete, everyone and their topnotch systems :p) AMD XP 2500+ Barton + 512mb ram + 9800 Pro 128mb). The settings I played at were aumatically detected + a few manual options (soft shadows enabled, detailed chars, etc). The resolution was 800x600 if I recall correctly.

With my cheapo Radeon 9550 (Althlon XP 3000+, 768mb ram just for basic spec comparison), I was recommended 640x480 with most things on medium to low detail... I found that my framerate was always low enough that running it on ultra high detail made little difference. Needless to say that it is pretty unplayable to me during firefights at least. The only thing that really slows it down are all the effects and explosions going off with all their top-notch nifty graphics.

With my cheapo Radeon 9550 (Althlon XP 3000+, 768mb ram just for basic spec comparison), I was recommended 640x480 with most things on medium to low detail... I found that my framerate was always low enough that running it on ultra high detail made little difference. Needless to say that it is pretty unplayable to me during firefights at least. The only thing that really slows it down are all the effects and explosions going off with all their top-notch nifty graphics.

586338048[/snapback]

agreed, can't wait for my 6800GT and 2GB of memory to come...

well lets start from the top

1) FEAR is a PC game, post it then in PC gamer section

2) There is a main thread for FEAR https://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?show...view=getnewpost post it there

3) you don't need .net framework for fear

4) you haven't mentioned what video/sound cards you have

5) demo specifically asks for directx 9c (june)

In order to install and play F.E.A.R., your system must meet or exceed

the following minimum system requirements:

? US version of Windows® 2000/XP with latest service pack installed

DirectX® 9.0c June Edition (Included) or higher

? Pentium® 4 1.7 GHz or equivalent

? 512MB RAM

? 64MB DirectX® 9.0 compliant video card with pixel shader support

? A Monitor that can display in 4:3 aspect ratio

? 1.4GB free hard drive space for installation

? Additional hard drive space for a Windows® swap file and saved game

files.

? CD-ROM or DVD drive

? 100% Windows® compatible computer system (including compatible

32-bit drivers for CD-ROM, video card, sound card, and input

devices)

? 16-bit DirectX® 9.0 compliant sound card with support for EAX 2.0

? Windows® compatible Mouse and Keyboard

I cant believe no one in here is having the problem im having with it.

http://forums.vugames.com/thread.jspa?thre...tart=0&tstart=0

Every time I boot up I get a message "License data is invalid! , Please contact Customer Support for further instructions".

I rebooted after install. Running a AMD 3500+ /1GB RAM /6800GT

Maybe its cause I'm running Vista. Should I try to install in compatability mode, or would that not make a difference?

Man Im frustrated :angry:

maybe you shouldn't run a beta os, thats about over a year away from official release?

586338896[/snapback]

Please, like im asking the impossible. BF2 runs on it, and I highly doubt all the other 24 folks who posted the same problem are all running Vista as well. :rolleyes:

It could be why, Im not saying its not. However, logic tells me that some are having the same issues on XP, so whats the reason is what Im asking.

Look on the thread, VU dosent even know.

As an update to my "performance" rant, I will say these things...

A) This game, no matter how BAD the MP Beta was, the single player is really what I was wanting this game to be like. MP just reminds me of Doom 3's multiplayer. The demo really had me going, and it quit waaaayyy too soon, but had a very nice ending. This, my friends, is one helluva game that is really going to bring new elements to FPS games for the near future. Bullet time, no matter how old it may seem from the Matrix, other movies, and of course Max Payne, is now in an actual First Person Shooter, not a 3rd person shooter, which is really quite something to experience. The effects and gameplay at top notch and bring so much more excitement and "big bang" realism to the game. Maybe some Painkiller-esque rock music in the back would have done this well in at least one or two action scenes only to fade out to atmostpheric whines.

B) No matter how BAD the performance is on ATI cards (it seems nVidia cards do a bit better, maybe not...) I am hoping drivers and possibly game patches can fix this. If this game can only run at lower-than-native resolutions on top notch video cards, there has to be something wrong. What I've read so far is shadows really take down the FPS, I haven't yet experimented, but it just doesn't do a game like this justice to have shadows turned off. But yes, this is definately Max Payne meets Doom 3 and I love it!

by disable shows you mean soft shadows? or shadows all together

586338852[/snapback]

The difference is night and day, with shadows enabled (even at minimum detail) it runs around 20 fps average with dips as low as 10, setting all other options to medium doesn't seem to help either. Without shadows I can set everything to max and get 50 fps on average. I know shadows make a pretty big difference in the game's atmosphere and look but it's literally unplayable with them on.

The difference is night and day, with shadows enabled (even at minimum detail) it runs around 20 fps average with dips as low as 10, setting all other options to medium doesn't seem to help either.  Without shadows I can set everything to max and get 50 fps on average.  I know shadows make a pretty big difference in the game's atmosphere and look but it's literally unplayable with them on.

586339178[/snapback]

You sure? Cause I get almost no fps diferences between shadow detail/turned off/on (9800pro). But if i turn on soft shadows my fram rate basically halves.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • The machines are starting to fight back any way they can.
    • No news articles about the Arch Linux repo being majorly infected with malware?!?
    • Waymo recalls self-driving software after cars enter closed freeway work zones by Paul Hill Waymo, the self-driving car maker owned by Alphabet – the parent company of Google –, has recalled some of its fifth-generation Automated Driving Systems (ADS). It did so after some of its cars drove through closed construction zones. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the affected vehicles were capable of driving through a closed freeway construction zone and continuing to drive at speed. The listing on the NHTSA website says that Waymo is currently developing a solution to fix this issue, but in the meantime, freeway driving is being restricted. Waymo will update its ADS software so that vehicles can detect when they can avoid entering construction zones. According to the Safety Recall Report, on April 20, 2026, Waymo’s Field Safety Committee began meetings reviewing an event from April 11, 2026, and five events from April 19, 2026, where Waymo’s autonomous vehicles didn’t recognize and drove past ramp closure signs into the pre-planned freeway construction zones. This took place in Phoenix, Arizona. Separately, on May 18, 2026, seven Waymo vehicles entered freeway lanes with active construction in the San Francisco Bay Area by driving between cones that were placed to show the lane was closed. On the back of both of these events, Waymo restricted freeway driving until it could address the issue. In June, Waymo’s Safety Board reviewed the issue and additional information related to ADS performances around construction zones; then, as a result, it decided to conduct a recall. This development is not good for Waymo as it adds to a growing list of technical hiccups its cars have experienced. Ultimately, it will lead to more scrutiny from lawmakers around the world who will be more cautious about letting autonomous vehicles on their roads without tighter regulation. For readers in areas where Waymo operates, does this news make you more wary about stepping into one of these vehicles?
    • I'm still on Windows 10 22H2 because I didn't want to deal with all the issues in Windows 11, so I waited almost a week before installing the latest Patch Tuesday update (KB5094127), I went ahead and did it, and it was a huge mistake—ever since then, my File Explorer has seen a performance drop of about 30% when transferring large files... Once again, Microsoft has outdone itself! This update cannot be uninstalled, either through the Control Panel (via Settings) or by accessing Advanced Startup Options. The only possible alternative would be to use system restore points, but I’d have to reinstall all app and driver updates (and there’s no guarantee it would work). Or there’s the “nuclear option” of a in-place repair without losing files or apps, but even then, all my customizations would be lost! Microsoft just can’t help but mess everything up! Way to go, Microsoft! But I still don’t want your c****y Windows 11!
    • Microsoft: Windows 11 could finally solve a major issue across AMD, Nvidia, and Intel GPUs by Sayan Sen While Microsoft has been trying to improve it, Windows 11 is definitely not flawless, as even today some issues are taking a year to publicly acknowledge. However, one area of trouble that may finally see much better results soon is graphics driver crashes. Work on graphics driver timeouts, also called Timeout and Detection Recovery (TDR), is not new as the latest WDDM 3.2 also has specific improvements regarding it. Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) version 3.2 is supported on Windows 11 24H2 and 25H2. However, with the upcoming version 26H2, TDR crash diagnosis could go to the next level as Microsoft is introducing a new DirectX 12 API feature called "DirectX Dump Files". Similar to how system memory dump files work when a system crashes or freezes or encounters any such major issue, DirectX Dump Files (DDF) will essentially record a snapshot of the GPU execution right at the moment a graphics-related crash or hang or freeze occurs, so that developers can better understand and diagnoze these TDR and timeout detection errors. The dump will be available as a .dxdmp file for analysis and it will be a comprehensive dump file generated with detailed insights about the hardware, drivers, Windows, as well as the affected application. This should be another welcome change in this department. Earlier at GDC 2026, when the technology was first debuted, Microsoft had shared more details regarding it. The company had explained how DDF is designed to gather data from every layer of the graphics stack into a single file, eliminating the need for developers to manually correlate logs from multiple tools. As mentioned above, the dump can contain a lot of useful details like GPU hardware state information such as register values, shader program counters, page fault virtual addresses, shader memory data, and command buffers. Alongside that, it also captures DirectX runtime and kernel information, including D3D objects, pipeline state objects, device error data, adapter details, and CPU call stacks. Microsoft says the feature has been built around two primary use cases: retail device removals and local device removals. The former allows developers to collect crash information from end users' systems in the field, while the latter helps QA teams and developers investigate issues on test machines. Developers will also be able to include up to 2 MB of custom application data through new D3D12 APIs, providing additional context for troubleshooting. In addition, Microsoft is introducing three dump collection modes ranging from zero-overhead capture, which has no runtime performance impact on supported hardware, to higher-detail modes that collect more vendor-specific debugging data. On compatible Tier 2 hardware, zero-overhead dumps will be enabled by default, meaning developers may begin receiving useful crash diagnostics without making any code changes. The table below explains the three tiers: Tier Description NO_OVERHEAD Enables crash capture with no runtime cost and is suitable for broad deployment MEDIUM_OVERHEAD Provides a balance, capturing additional diagnostic data with moderate impact HIGH_OVERHEAD Collects the most detailed GPU and driver state available, enabling deeper investigation at the cost of higher runtime overhead In terms of availability, the company expects broader release to be around the fall of 2026, which should be right around the time when Windows 11 version 26H2 lands. Right now, DirectX Dump Files are available as a preview and currently, only AMD has the compatible AgilitySDK Developer Preview driver version 26.10.07.02. You can find the official announcement post here on Microsoft's website.
  • Recent Achievements

    • Week One Done
      Eurosoft10 earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Month Later
      Eurosoft10 earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • One Year In
      Skeet Campbell earned a badge
      One Year In
    • One Month Later
      Sharbel earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • First Post
      BizSAR earned a badge
      First Post
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      598
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      190
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      79
    4. 4
      Michael Scrip
      76
    5. 5
      Steven P.
      70
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!