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Northlight technology in Alan Wake 2

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Re: Northlight technology in Alan Wake 2

#71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's fair, as it's your preference. It's my preference too to use steam just because it's where I have the most games and I like keeping things tidy and in 1 place. Though it's not an ideological stance, which "refuse" leads me to believe. I'm genuinely curious about the reason an adult would take that position. Last time I asked (a couple of years ago) on Reddit I didn't get, ummm, mature responses. If there is a…

I agree with you. I want to play Alan Wake 2 on PC and since it is only sold on the Epic Store I will buy it there. If it was on Steam I would have likely bought it on Steam. But it’s not. So in my case at least, this exclusive is effectively driving me to buy on the Epic Store. I find it sort of funny that many (not all) complaints about the Epic Store are the same things gamers complained about when Steam was relea…

I think it is only fair to compare the Epic vs modern Steam. That Steam had the same issues 20 years ago, is kind of irrelevant if expectations have risen.

Re: Northlight technology in Alan Wake 2

#73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it deserves a lot of praise, but also some criticism: * While it may keep their creative vision "pure", the lack of lower graphical settings makes it run pretty terribly on an RTX 3080, which is very frustrating. You can brute-force this problem away with DLSS, but I like native resolution and I'm sick of DLSS being used as a crutch. * The difficulty is all over the place. "Story" mode is likely too easy, whi…

I'm on a 3080 and it ran fine for me. Did you turn off ray-traced direct/indirect lighting? Those really require a 40 series, even at low quality levels. Is your native resolution 4K? At 4K I needed to turn on DLSS, but I was also able to set most of the quality knobs (other than RT) to medium or high, not low. I wonder if maybe you're running into some sort of driver problem.

I turned everything to the lowest available setting, except textures, which I kept on high. I checked and that setting doesn't seem to make any difference on my card.

Native resolution is 1440p.

Most of the time it hovers around 60-ish, but it dips into the 40's occasionally and is overall inconsistent. To me, at 1440p, that's not acceptable.

Drivers are the latest Nvidia offers, but I didn't scrape the old ones out with DDU - hopefully that's not necessary.

Re: Northlight technology in Alan Wake 2

#74
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's fair, as it's your preference. It's my preference too to use steam just because it's where I have the most games and I like keeping things tidy and in 1 place. Though it's not an ideological stance, which "refuse" leads me to believe. I'm genuinely curious about the reason an adult would take that position. Last time I asked (a couple of years ago) on Reddit I didn't get, ummm, mature responses. If there is a…

My reason for refusing to give the Epic store money is pretty simple: Paid exclusives are bullshit. Especially when they're used as fodder to promote "competition", when such things are anything but.

That’s fair. I view it as just business. It certainly doesn’t affect me or any consumer. It only affects Valve, which I don’t care about. Maybe valve should pay developers more. Epic takes far less than steam does from developers, so I definitely understand the appeal to developers.

Re: Northlight technology in Alan Wake 2

#75
post #36

In the first example it's still really jarring how much their feet slide around on the ground, or sliding in place as they walk into an object without moving. I wonder when this will ever be solved. Don't get me wrong, the engine is incredible and the visuals and systems are some of the best we have seen.

I've seen a demonstration of a solution on the YouTube channel Two Minute Papers - it was actually about an algorithm that blended animations so that the transitions looked natural.

I wonder how long it will be before we stop using animation and switch to an actual bipedal physics simulation where the agent actually knows how to walk and jump and run.

Re: Northlight technology in Alan Wake 2

#76
post #47

Am I the only who have no interest in graphics fidelity, but would like to see more physics engines created to play with? Like a fully destructible world would be fun.

There was actually a regress in this respect. Some ten years ago there was a "destructible physics" boom in many big games, but nowadays most games abandoned it. There seems to be a trade-off between graphical fidelity and the opportunity for physics-based manipulation of the environment.

Remedy's previous game, Control, had probably one of the most impressive destructive environments.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12NORuGfcLc

Re: Northlight technology in Alan Wake 2

#77

I would love to know how they feel today about using D in their ecosystem, that is, if they still are, and see what challenges they have faced during AW2 development. For reference: - Using an Emerging Language in Quantum Break ( https://ubm-twvideo01.s3.amazonaws.com/o1/vault/gdceurope201... ); - DConf 2016: Quantum Break: AAA Gaming With Some D Code -- Ethan Watson ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YjLW7anNfc ).

Same, would love to know more about it!

Re: Northlight technology in Alan Wake 2

#78

In the first example it's still really jarring how much their feet slide around on the ground, or sliding in place as they walk into an object without moving. I wonder when this will ever be solved. Don't get me wrong, the engine is incredible and the visuals and systems are some of the best we have seen.

I'm surprised it's still a problem. Years ago a basketball game franchise bragged that the PS3 allowed them to do foot planting with inverse kinematics. Years before that, Shadow of the Colossus shipped on PS2... with IK foot planting.

Re: Northlight technology in Alan Wake 2

#79
post #76
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was actually a regress in this respect. Some ten years ago there was a "destructible physics" boom in many big games, but nowadays most games abandoned it. There seems to be a trade-off between graphical fidelity and the opportunity for physics-based manipulation of the environment.

Remedy's previous game, Control, had probably one of the most impressive destructive environments. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12NORuGfcLc

The game seems to use relatively simple flat geometry, like concrete walls and large glass windows. I would be surprised if they kept the destruction physics with the intricate geometry of Alan Wake 2.

Re: Northlight technology in Alan Wake 2

#80
post #69
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some extremely good GPU devs in Finland, demoscene prob has a lot to do with it. Remedy rocks. Isn’t CD Projekt Red moving to UE5 for future titles? Shame, Cyberpunk was gorgeous - would have loved a multiplayer game with that engine.

Only for the next Witcher series. Cyberpunk 2 (w/e it ends up being called) is still on their in house engine. (Don't ask me for a source, I don't remember where I saw that info)

> Cyberpunk 2 (w/e it ends up being called) is still on their in house engine.

How sure of that are you?

There are several reports that the sequel to Cyberpunk 2077 will be using UE5 as well.

As in, CD Projekt Red have purposely switched all future projects to UE5.

* https://screenrant.com/cyberpunk-2077-phantom-liberty-dlc-la...

* https://kotaku.com/cyberpunk-2077-phantom-liberty-expansion-...

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