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Observation

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Revision as of 20:06, 6 August 2020 by Beastman95 (talk | contribs) (changed 120fps to true)
Observation
Observation cover
Developers
No Code
Publishers
Devolver Digital
Engines
Unity 2017
Release dates
Windows May 21, 2019
Reception
Metacritic 79
OpenCritic 76
IGDB 82
Taxonomy
Microtransactions None
Modes Singleplayer
Perspectives First-person
Genres Adventure
Themes Sci-fi, Space
Observation on HowLongToBeat
Observation on IGDB
Observation guide on StrategyWiki
Observation on MobyGames
Observation on Wikipedia

General information

Official developer support page and FAQ - for all games from No Code
Official Discord server - includes a dedicated Observation channel
GOG.com Support Page
Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Epic Games Store
DRM-free after installation through Epic Games Launcher (notes may include more details)
DRM-free when launched from the executable.[1]
Windows
GOG.com
DRM-free
Windows
Humble Store
Epic Games Launcher
Windows
Microsoft Store
Microsoft Store
Xbox Play Anywhere, Xbox Game Pass for PC
Windows
Steam
Icon overlay.png
Windows

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\No Code Studio\Observation
Microsoft Store
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/906100/pfx/[Note 1]

Save game data location

System Location
Windows %USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\No Code Studio\Observation\SaveGames\
Microsoft Store
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/906100/pfx/[Note 1]

Save game cloud syncing

Video

Graphics settings.
Graphics settings.

Graphics feature State Notes
Widescreen resolution
Intentionally letterboxed at every aspect ratio.
Use the community mod to remove the black bars.
Multi-monitor
Hor+, and Vert- by letterboxing; mouse pointer confined to 16:9, forcing to use other input devices to navigate the main menu.[2]
Ultra-widescreen
Hor+, and Vert- through letterboxing; mouse pointer confined to 16:9.[2][3]
4K Ultra HD
[4]
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Enable windowed mode and use the -popupwindow parameter (or see the glossary page).
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Part of every graphics preset from Simple and up, with no separate option.[5]
Anti-aliasing (AA)
FXAA, SMAA, TAA.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
Limited to the monitor refresh rate.[6]
High dynamic range display (HDR)
See the glossary page for potential alternatives.
The game engine may allow for manual configuration of the game via its variables. See the Unity page for more details.

Input

Controls settings.
Controls settings.

Audio

Gameplay settings.
Gameplay settings.

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Most of the environmental sounds are not captioned.
Mute on focus lost

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
French
German
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Russian
Spanish
Brazilian Portuguese

Issues unresolved

Controls hints cut off at wider resolutions

Temporarily setting the game resolution to one with less width will allow to see the hints.[10]

Resolution selection limited to 16:9

The list of resolutions available for selection may be limited to the 16:9 aspect ratio.
Select the highest available resolution above native to have the game set to native[11]

(e.g. selecting 3840x2160 at 3440x1440 will have the game set to 3440x1440 without it being reflected in the listed resolution)

Issues fixed

Controls settings arrow isn't functional

Instead of clicking with the mouse, press the arrow button on the keyboard or the controller to access the Camera Control bindings.[12]

Pressing X at prompt doesn't work

The game will display a button prompt with an X on it. ← Backspace is the actual button to press.[13][14]

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 11
Shader Model support 4.0
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Audio FMOD

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 7
Processor (CPU) Intel Core i3-3240 3.4 GHz
AMD FX-4300 3.8 GHz
System memory (RAM) 4 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 12 GB
Video card (GPU) Nvidia GeForce GT 640
AMD Radeon HD 7750
A 64-bit operating system is required.


Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/906100/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (906100) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.
  2. For example, ← Backspace is not listed among the Controls but used to back out of objects inspection; R for Response is not documented; some of the functionality of Space is remappable but even when fully remapped, the game will require its use to close the SamOS interface.

References

  1. Verified by User:Rose on 2019-05-21
    Closed the launcher, removed its folders and launched the game without issues.
  2. 2.0 2.1 Verified by User:Rose on 2019-05-21
    Screenshots taken at 5760x1080, 3840x1080 (both custom), 2560x1080 and 1920x1080, then compared.
  3. Verified by User:Rose on 2019-05-23
    Played through the game at 2560x1080 without notable issues.
  4. Verified by User:Rose on 2019-05-21
    Used a custom desktop resolution of 3840x2160, got to select it in the menu, and it lowered the FPS.
  5. Verified by User:Rose on 2019-05-21
    Found this out by extracting the game files.
  6. Verified by User:Rose on 2020-05-24
    Tested at 65 Hz and 75 Hz, reaching 75 FPS at the latter. Disabling Vsync had no effect.
  7. Verified by User:Rose on 2019-05-24
    Quickly moving the mouse resulted in little change on the screen, while moving it slower resulted in much more distance traveled.
  8. Terrible mouse smoothing - last accessed on 2020-05-22
  9. 9.0 9.1 9.2 Verified by User:Rose on 2019-05-23
    Tested with an Xbox 360 Razer Onza controller.
  10. Verified by User:Rose on 2019-05-23
    At 2560x1080, the SamOS hints are partially cut off but visible. At 5760x1080 there are no signs of them.
  11. Observation letterboxing remover - last accessed on 2020-05-23
  12. Verified by User:Rose on 2019-05-21
    It works, and it seems to be the only way to access the extra keybindings.
  13. Verified by User:Rose on 2019-05-21
    This appeared when inspecting a document. A No Code developer said this on Discord: "It's an X inside the backwards arrow - that's what backspace looks like on most keyboards"
  14. Stuck on the first document scan? Read this! - last accessed on 2020-05-22