The unthinkable has happened, a PC gamer is slowly starting to like consoles more than his beloved computer.
Neil writes: "Just been paid? Fancy getting a new game added to that backlog of shame? The Xbox Deals With Gold and Spotlight Sale is back with even more discounts on a variety of great Xbox titles. If you've got time in your life for a new gaming experience, the following bargain basement titles are available for your cut-price purchasing between 4th-10th August 2020."
Rage from id Software and Bethesda Softworks was largely overlooked, yet its handcrafted FPS open world and memorable characters transcend genre convention.
YouTube’s members ‘Digital Dreams’ and ‘Jose cangrejo’ have shared some videos, showcasing Pascal Gilcher’s Reshade mod – which adds Ray Tracing/Path Tracing effects – in some really old games such as Star Wars The Force Unleashed, Crysis 2, RAGE and Resident Evil 6.
I'm still learning how to look for the differences. At first I was focusing on shadows for some reason but I don't think that changes much, is it reflections that change?
It is supposed to be simulating how light actually works- so yes if light is reflecting off a surface accurately it should show reflection or an effect that matches what you are looking at in the environment. Next time you play a game look at a puddle of water there may be just a "baked" in texture that if you aren't paying attention seems like it is reflecting but it isn't. I would say though if the light is reflecting more accurately I would think that would give more accurate shadows as well.
I am still not 100% sold on it- it looks okay but I can't get over the hardware price jump for better reflections..
While games won't look immensely better, it opens up more possibilities overall. Understandably, the price jump is huge. But, that can be said for being at the forefront for any new technology. I'm currently using a 2080ti and while I've played a few games that enable it, the gpu also plays everything else incredibly well so it's not like you're buying this tech for ONLY that option. Enthusiasts will pay top dollar to check out the newest things, but this will eventually become an everyday consumer and by then they'll have optimized and become a lot cheaper.
Ray/path tracing can be used how the developer wants it to be. Tracing can be used to calculate shadows/lighting, reflection and even audio, where audio waves are calculated on the bounce off material types to simulate enviroment and echos accuratly.
Should also keep in mind that this ray/path tracing system is different and less accurate option from Nvidias RTX branded type. McFly's is a reshade that layers over the top of the game and therefor the quality will vary drastically. For example you can see nice reflection in the Star Wars demo here but it then introduces colour clipping with the light saber. On a video of GTA 5 for example it was incorrectly projecting a reflection of a red car onto the road which caused a very faint red glow on the ground around the car.
If you want to see a good example of a game developed with ray tracing reflection and lighting in mind then you could look up the youtube video of "Control - Exclusive E3 RTX GAMEPLAY Trailer".
It supposed to add more realistic light Not actually more light effects and explosions
I hate to say it but I’m fine with fake lights, shadows, reflections. I just kind of like the effect, it’s also great it saves resources for other things.
I’ve been checking out some original Xbox games on x360/x1x and the engine has fake light streaming in through a stained glass window, and I love it even though I know it’s not real time lighting. Heck it even shifts as I move about.
I’ve about convinced my self rt and hdr just doesn’t work for me. Before hdr I would even complain damn why are the headlights killing me they are so bright.
I notice most frame rate, then jaggies, then resolution; with the last two interchangeable depending.
Other day watched an enthusiast rave over 4k and the poor guy was in 1080p. I played the same game the night before and thought wow this is clean, I wonder if it’s 4k, but knew differently and I thought wow even resolution is not always important. The next day he apologized and was surprised he could be fooled.
How come the lightsabers don't give off any light? Even in the EA star wars game the guy uses it to light up a dark cave. I guess if it is using frostbite it will support rtx cards.
to the author.. I dug the article but gotta say that the title is a bit misleading as to what its actually about. I went into it thinking you were changing from being a PC gamer to a console gamer, but that is opposite of what you claim in your summation.
sometimes its good to switch from one to the other for a bit. And even to just focus on other things other than games for a few years.
I enjoy both PC and console. Honestly been buying more stuff on PC lately though. With all the next gen talk it makes me question the backwards compatibility of next gen hardware. I hope Sony/MS realize the importance of it because I know there are a lot of people like me that will sell current hardware to offset the cost of something new. I'm confident the next Xbox will have bw compatibility because Xbox is basically a PC but PS3 is a bit of different beast. If Sony go with a different arch to make it easier to develop for it may pose problems.
and rage didnt work on ati cards very well because amd completely butchered opengl support in the last year or so, it seems they have it working now, but its months later.
"A recent example comes from I.D. Software’s Rage that refused to play nice with my ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT graphics card."
I don't even need to say more.
As for the online stuff, I like the ability to choose servers, I hated P2P gaming on console, where the person with the shittiest connection would get chosen as host.
Price, $600 ps3 at launch, $400 360 at launch, by the time new console come around your pc is pretty much outdated, so why not spend a bit more and get a decent pc. I mean it's not like you only play games on pc, you listen to music, download stuff, and watch movies.