^True that

Still looks like fun, or at least, very novel. But AMD GPU owners need not apply, so that's me out for the time being. Unless it runs on like a 1030 🤣 I think that's my best nvidia card.

badmojo wrote on 2022-04-03, 06:00:

I skeptically downloaded and tried out this DOOM ray tracing mod for prboom yesterday and instantly fell in love with it. I was going to post a screenshot but there's really no point - it's the real-time lighting that makes it amazing so a picture doesn't give you any sense of it. It's the most fun I've had with DOOM for years - I've already finished episode 1. I just followed the install instructions on the github page, including DLSS and the high-quality FLAC music suggestions, and it worked like a charm. My only complaint is that the damage feedback isn't working yet but I assume that will come.

https://github.com/sultim-t/prboom-plus-rt/releases

It doesn't work on my end, I guess my GPU is too old (GeForce 1070), despite using the latest drivers. 🙁

xcomcmdr wrote on 2022-04-03, 18:30:

badmojo wrote on 2022-04-03, 06:00:

I skeptically downloaded and tried out this DOOM ray tracing mod for prboom yesterday and instantly fell in love with it. I was going to post a screenshot but there's really no point - it's the real-time lighting that makes it amazing so a picture doesn't give you any sense of it. It's the most fun I've had with DOOM for years - I've already finished episode 1. I just followed the install instructions on the github page, including DLSS and the high-quality FLAC music suggestions, and it worked like a charm. My only complaint is that the damage feedback isn't working yet but I assume that will come.

https://github.com/sultim-t/prboom-plus-rt/releases

It doesn't work on my end, I guess my GPU is too old (GeForce 1070), despite using the latest drivers. 🙁

They're talking about ray tracing, so I assume there's an unspoken implication of Nvidia RTX cards only.

I liked it back when "System Requirements" used to be a standard thing accompanying PC software.

The GTX cards were supposed to be receiving RT support via a driver update - they can't do DLSS via software though. I have no idea to be honest, I didn't buy this card because of RTX I just needed a faster card and haven't done any reading about how ray tracing works, all I know is that DOOM looks more rad than it used to.

It's early days for this mod so maybe it will become more compatible over time.

I watched a demo of it on Youtube and it certainly looks cool. Anything giving enjoyable modern extensions to good retro stuff is a + in my book. Slightly unchuffed that my old hardware counts me out on this occasion 🤣 but that's the 2 edged sword of PC freedom we enjoy. Freedom to have whatever configuration we want, and also, freedom to have that configuration not run a particular thing.

Just means I'll be there in a few years. Which is fine, because right now, I'm still very busy with huge libraries of software from between 3 and 40 years old.

Baldur's Gate
Chapter 5 flew by in just a few hours. I assumed the main quest here would be longer, but it's really just a few required tasks with a ton of optional stuff. I think my party might be a bit underleveled at this point, as I've only been exploring places when I get actual leads within the game, so I'll probably buy some drinks at some inns and see if anyone is looking for help. I'll probably also at least go explore the named locations in the wilderness; I went around unlocking every wilderness area, but didn't bother exploring them unless I had some in-game reason to do it.

That last fight at the end of Chapter 5 was brutal, and I was not equipped at all for it. Instead of going around to get the prebuff spells I'd need to get through it, I decided instead to just send my thief hiding in shadows past the encounter to see if the game would actually let me skip it... and to the game's credit, it did! Pretty impressed with this game.

RT is activated by the game engine itself and not the Nvidia drivers, so if RT isn't there, it's not properly initializing the DirectX/Vulkan hooks for it.

Finished Steins;Gate 0. Good but not as good as the first one.
Haven't decided yet what I want to play next.

I finally finished Pathfinder: Kingmaker today. I'm finding it very difficult to put in words how I finally feel about it. There were parts of it that felt like a 2/5 game and some that were quite 4/5 but at the end of the day was a very uneven 3/5 experience. It's let down by a very poor pacing and ultra-weird difficulty spikes, poor writing and boring characters (except Nok-Nok who is god-tier good), a very annoying kingdom management mechanic, a very min-maxy and exploitable system and a story that feels like someone threw a bunch of adventure modules into the kitchen sink and made them into the plot of a video game, with all the problems that would cause. All in all, it's a rough ride. However, they really pulled off the ending. A lot of things I did during the game ended up altering the ending slides considerably, and the ultimate fate of everything can change wildly depending on what kind of character you play and choices you make. I played a Lawful Evil Cleric and got an incredibly satisfactory ending. The landing improves my final opinion to 3.5/5, and I will try the sequel sometime.

I've played through episodes 1 and 2 of DOOM using the RTX mod for prboom and had a lot of fun. There are issues with it that need fixing before I'll go back for more - damage doesn't register visually and the night vision goggles glitch out the whole screen, etc - but it looks great overall and the dynamic shadows really added another dimension to the gameplay.

badmojo wrote on 2022-04-06, 11:47:

I've played through episodes 1 and 2 of DOOM using the RTX mod for prboom and had a lot of fun. There are issues with it that need fixing before I'll go back for more - damage doesn't register visually and the night vision goggles glitch out the whole screen, etc - but it looks great overall and the dynamic shadows really added another dimension to the gameplay.

Untitled4.jpg Untitled1.jpg

Really cool concept and the effect is impressive, but I don't know if I'd ever want to play it that way. Personal preference and all, but I always find it really awkward to play old games like this where some of the assets or effects are "updated" and other stuff is left alone. The effect ends up being jarring to my mind, so I usually try to go for authenticity instead where possible (in visuals/sound, if not necessarily genuine hardware).

NovaCN wrote on 2022-04-06, 13:16:

I always find it really awkward to play old games like this where some of the assets or effects are "updated" and other stuff is left alone. The effect ends up being jarring to my mind, so I usually try to go for authenticity instead where possible (in visuals/sound, if not necessarily genuine hardware).

I get exactly the same feeling when playing the Doomsday engine (Jdoom) with sprites. Tried the 3D models at one point, but they look rather horrible.

badmojo wrote on 2022-04-06, 11:47:

I've played through episodes 1 and 2 of DOOM using the RTX mod for prboom and had a lot of fun. There are issues with it that need fixing before I'll go back for more - damage doesn't register visually and the night vision goggles glitch out the whole screen, etc - but it looks great overall and the dynamic shadows really added another dimension to the gameplay.

Untitled4.jpg Untitled1.jpg

These screenshots highlight everything I thought were wrong with the implementation. That looks more like a 90s disco than the Phobos base to me.

Phobos? You mean the first episode of Doom didn't take place at a disco club???

Well, after spending many months bouncing all over the place, I finally finished Return to Castle Wolfenstein. It was OK I guess. It looked as good as the Quake 3 engine ever did, and had that smooth game feel of most Carmack engines. But it's reliance on boring old hitscan enemies, especially increasingly bullet spongey and ambushy enemies, really made the combat encounters tedious and boring. The "lopers" and super soldiers mix things up slightly, but not enough. All in all, it was OK I guess. I found myself caring so little by the end I did in fact cheat through the last 5 minutes of the game, as well as a boss. I'm slightly embarrassed by that fact, but the game had a very, lets call it unnuanced idea of what difficulty should be. And the boss that instantaneously hitscanned me to death in an enclosed arena, with no possible way I could discern to hit without being hit, flipped that switch in my brain that said this was not a serious game to be played seriously.

I'm sure someone out there has beaten it on the hardest setting without taking damage once. That person is not me.

I played Dawn of War: Dark Crusade for a bit too, but lost interest. I was playing as the Necrons, and wow are they boring. Even before I got stuck, I was seriously not enjoying them. Then I tried to take a level 8 Space Marine tile, and just got horribly monkey hammered by two very teched up bases. I was able to get my play style refined enough to quickly take out one of them, but then the other was just insurmountable. I tried some misdirection to decapitate their base HQ, but they were too quick to immediately have another under construction which would keep the match going long enough for them to circle back to their base and crush me. After that I could never rebuild swiftly enough to defend against their counter attack. So I mostly stopped caring. Maybe I'll try again as a different, more fun to play race. I never played Tau either.

I also built an arcade cabinet, but that's a story for another time.

NovaCN wrote on 2022-04-06, 13:16:

Really cool concept and the effect is impressive, but I don't know if I'd ever want to play it that way.

That's exactly what I said when someone suggested I try it 😁

I'm playing Firewatch and I have a lot to say about it.. But before I do, I need to pick a new RPG to play next:

- Arx Fatalis
- Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Original or Director's Cut)
- Fallout 3 (GOTY)
- Fallout: New Vegas (GOTY)
- Planescape: Torment (Enhanced)
- Torment: Tides of Numenera
- Wasteland 2

appiah4 wrote on 2022-04-11, 08:44:

I'm playing Firewatch and I have a lot to say about it.. But before I do, I need to pick a new RPG to play next: […]
Show full quote

I'm playing Firewatch and I have a lot to say about it.. But before I do, I need to pick a new RPG to play next:

- Arx Fatalis
- Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Original or Director's Cut)
- Fallout 3 (GOTY)
- Fallout: New Vegas (GOTY)
- Planescape: Torment (Enhanced)
- Torment: Tides of Numenera
- Wasteland 2

I think Firewatch is an ok game if you don't mind walking simulators, the kind you'll play only once ever and preferably pay less than 10 bucks for it.

- Arx Fatalis is great, a bit janky but still fun and atmospheric game. I really wish there were more Ultima Underword type of games out there.
- Deus Ex: Human Revolution is also good. Most seem to prefer the Director's Cut more but I personally prefer the original. I never minded the boss battles, I like the golden "piss filter" as it was dubbed, and the DLC that was built into the main game really screws up the pacing at the end of the game.
- Fallout 3. Yeah better if I don't say anything, post Morrowind Bethesda is not my favorite studio ever.
- Planescape: Torment: One of my all time favorite games ever. Well, the Sigil part is, then they ran out of time and money and the post Sigil is a "ohshitohshit need to get the game finished NOW" -fest.
- Torment: Tides of Numenera. I hope you like reading phone books, this is the video game equivalent of that.
- Wasteland 2. Never played, never will, not my cup of tea but apparently a good one.

My thoughts on the matter.

Oh, and I'm currently playing The Wolf Among Us, my favorite Telltale game and the upcoming sequel is honestly the only new game I'm looking forward to play. Eventually that is, I think it's one of those Epic launcher exclusives and I've had enough of all those launchers.

Edit:
I somehow skipped over Fallout: New Vegas, great game and I like it a lot. The engine is crap and so is the combat, but the content more than makes up for that.

I don't playing walking Sims but I thought Firewatch was good.

For Fallout 3 and New Vegas make sure you play it with Tale of Two Wastelands.

I found an old French Arkanoid game named Mecanoid 97 and the gameplay + the single soundtrack fascinates me. It's so simple yet so immersing.