By the time I got around to playing Half Life the graphics were so dated that I found it difficult to enjoy (that's obviously a personal preference thing...). I was excited, for a moment, at the possibility of finally enjoying what I'm told is one of the greatest games ever made...until I realized that I do not (and will not any time soon) own a 50xx series graphics card. I suppose a GeForce Now subscription is a possibility.
Half-Life 2 RTX
61–70 of 88 posts
Re: Half-Life 2 RTX
#62The trailer ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j31ISEd8xRM ) actually shows the old lighting has much more mood and atmosphere.. RTX is far too bright. Ravenholm is supposed to be scary!
This is mostly a consequence of designing the ambiance using the tools of the time. You really need someone to go in and relight every environment with RTX in mind now, to properly take advantage of the capabilities.
I had a similar experience when I bought an OLED gaming monitor. It has perfect black, but when you go to play any game, they've all been lit assuming LCD screens, so blacks are really grey and the superior OLED contrast is basically useless.
Simply inserting the new tech isnt enough. The games need a redesign incorporating these new technological capabilities.
Re: Half-Life 2 RTX
#63I know it's a bit silly to criticize something offered for free -- I'm glad it's there for those who want it! -- but I really feel like something of the original aesthetic has been lost in translation here. The before-and-afters aren't always flattering to the new version; everything is glowing orange. Darker atmospheres have become brighter.
It reminds me of the Alan Parsons quote "Audiophiles don't use their equipment to listen to your music. Audiophiles use your music to listen to their equipment"
Yeah, well, HN top-posters mirror popular opinions to obtain upvotes rather than using upvotes to make correct opinions popular :P
(I'd like to draw attention to posts down-thread from people who have actually played the damn thing, who seem to agree that the overblown lights are more prominent in the marketing material than in the actual game.)
Re: Half-Life 2 RTX
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
While I think the ray-traced version looks better in a technical sense, it seems to me that they have completely forgotten to apply darkness and shadow appropriately in the scenes to create an immersive atmosphere. Keep all the new tech and dial the ambient lighting down. That would look way better. Make it feel dark, uncertain and risky again. You’re not supposed to know what’s in that corner or that room before it…
I've always wondered that by gaining the ability to simulate light (or basically anything) in a more accurate manner, we reduce artists' ability to control the final result. Back in 2D times, an artist could just set a pixel to a given color, and it would be that color, in early 3d, they had the ability to paint in shadows/highlights or control the texture colors directly. With the physically based workflow, they had…
Theater and movie set designers have to work with this constraint too. They seem to manage.
Re: Half-Life 2 RTX
#65Does anyone have any details on how this was implemented? I thought that Source was a closed source engine. They rewrote the rendering pipeline using only the sdk?
Maybe they relied on the source engine leaks from a decade ago?
For some reason, I am very curious how this was pulled off.
Re: Half-Life 2 RTX
#66The trailer ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j31ISEd8xRM ) actually shows the old lighting has much more mood and atmosphere.. RTX is far too bright. Ravenholm is supposed to be scary!
Lighting demo gonna lighting.
Re: Half-Life 2 RTX
#67I know it's a bit silly to criticize something offered for free -- I'm glad it's there for those who want it! -- but I really feel like something of the original aesthetic has been lost in translation here. The before-and-afters aren't always flattering to the new version; everything is glowing orange. Darker atmospheres have become brighter.
With ray tracing Nvidia made a new technology that breaks everyone's PC performance then they sold the solution to that broken performance as a card upgrade with better ray tracing hardware. Even though the Ray tracing doesn't necessarily look any better, just different, we now have to upgrade cards to solve the broken PC performance Nvidia caused themselves...
It looks awesome.
Re: Half-Life 2 RTX
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can someone who has played it tell me if they really lit up most/all of Ravenholm like this or if they are just showing us a few lights cranked to 12 in the promotional material?
Digital Foundry have a side-by-side playthrough and discussion of Ravenholm comparing HL2 RTX and the launch-day HL2 from DVD on a period-correct machine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHRS0TO89UI
Man, this reminds me of watching the E3 HL2 physics demo as a teenager all over again.
Re: Half-Life 2 RTX
#69[deleted]
Re: Half-Life 2 RTX
#70I know it's a bit silly to criticize something offered for free -- I'm glad it's there for those who want it! -- but I really feel like something of the original aesthetic has been lost in translation here. The before-and-afters aren't always flattering to the new version; everything is glowing orange. Darker atmospheres have become brighter.
With ray tracing Nvidia made a new technology that breaks everyone's PC performance then they sold the solution to that broken performance as a card upgrade with better ray tracing hardware. Even though the Ray tracing doesn't necessarily look any better, just different, we now have to upgrade cards to solve the broken PC performance Nvidia caused themselves...
I think what parent is complaining about is the "Art Direction" rather than the technology itself, and I think I agree. Some of the feeling and mood been lost in the translation, sadly. I'm sure if they had some better art direction (maybe they didn't have a person from Valve to help with this?), it could have been a lot better in that regard, even with ray tracing and the rest.