Video Game News and Miscellany

I don't hate it but I really like the standard "PS" controller design and losing it kinda sucks. I know most people found it too small so I get it but I'm not loving this. Can't really say until I get my hands on it though.
 
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figmentPez

Staff member
I'm really enjoying seeing the progress of fully ray-traced lighting in games. The official RTX version of Minecraft (a collaboration between nVidia and Microsoft/Mojang) achieves much better performance than the fan-made ray-tracing mod.

If you've already seen this type of stuff, the video doesn't offer a whole lot new. Though at 29:45 they show off something I haven't seen done before, making a kinda rudimentary camera obscura. It's not good enough to show much detail or contrast, and has some temporal lag issues, but 8 block high letters made of light blocks can project themselves legibly through a one-block "pinhole" into a dark room, which is pretty impressive at this point in ray-tracing.

 
One of the biggest things that full-on raytracing will add to games is that developers will no longer have to think about/prepare for potential ambient lighting/shadow issues, because the game engine will just... handle it.

Unrelated, but also gonna include this:


--Patrick
 

figmentPez

Staff member
One of the biggest things that full-on raytracing will add to games is that developers will no longer have to think about/prepare for potential ambient lighting/shadow issues, because the game engine will just... handle it.
I'm not sure about that, I think it might cause more problems for a while, as game devs will have to adjust to thinking about lights in a new way. I suspect that lighting design might become an even bigger part of game development, and that more games might have a dedicated lighting designer. I think it's going to become apparent pretty quickly that just relying on light sources that just happen to be there in the scene is not going to cut it, and that there's still going to have to be cheating with lights to make things look good. Possibly even more cheating and fakery than before.
 
I'm really enjoying seeing the progress of fully ray-traced lighting in games. The official RTX version of Minecraft (a collaboration between nVidia and Microsoft/Mojang) achieves much better performance than the fan-made ray-tracing mod.

If you've already seen this type of stuff, the video doesn't offer a whole lot new. Though at 29:45 they show off something I haven't seen done before, making a kinda rudimentary camera obscura. It's not good enough to show much detail or contrast, and has some temporal lag issues, but 8 block high letters made of light blocks can project themselves legibly through a one-block "pinhole" into a dark room, which is pretty impressive at this point in ray-tracing.

I thought about checking this out, since I have the hardware to run it. But I've never played Minecraft and don't own a copy of it. I thought I could try it since it was a beta, but you need to own a copy of the game. And I don't really want to spend $40 Canadian on something that would be a glorified tech demo for me. I've just never had an interest in Minecraft.
 

figmentPez

Staff member
I thought about checking this out, since I have the hardware to run it. But I've never played Minecraft and don't own a copy of it. I thought I could try it since it was a beta, but you need to own a copy of the game. And I don't really want to spend $40 Canadian on something that would be a glorified tech demo for me. I've just never had an interest in Minecraft.
I was going to offer to let you borrow my account, but I've only got the Java edition, and you'd need the Win 10 version.
 
Mick Gordon's done with Bethesda they messed him around so hard on the soundtrack to Doom Eternal. They can fuck anything up.
 
FF7R spoilery news from Kitase and Nomura.

I guess even Zack's alive now too.
Maybe. But not quite.

Whatever happened with the fates at the end caused some sort of fuckery across multiple timelines/universes. The one where Zack survives is heavily hinted to be an alternate universe because they show Stamp, the Shinra mascot dog, as a different breed to what he is in Cloud's world
 
This video hit me in the childhood. Jeremy Parish's Works series are excellent in general and he finds such weird tidbits and histories behind all these games chronologically. This one however is just about how the NES fandom evolved over the decades. It's great.

 
On the one hand, cool, cool setting, cool cool.
On the other hand...Viking assassins? A viking using a wrist weapon? Armor types from about the fifth to the eleventh century used all mixed? Argh my historical side is bleeding.
 
On the one hand, cool, cool setting, cool cool.
On the other hand...Viking assassins? A viking using a wrist weapon? Armor types from about the fifth to the eleventh century used all mixed? Argh my historical side is bleeding.
I think historical accuracy went out the window a few games ago.
 
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