Ray tracing is an innovative technology bro! It’s totally worth it losing half your fps for it bro!
Thursday, 13 Mar 2025
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The reason HL2 looked that good was because every map had *baked in* raytracing. Instead of doing it in real-time, it did it at compile. Also the use of things like cubemaps and all. This is why well-made Source maps still hold up pretty well.
Mister obvious out
tbf half life 2 is an anomaly visually speaking, it looks way better than most games released in that time period
I wasn’t much of a fan of it either until Indiana Jones. I think it looks pretty damn good
this is pretty obtuse
For those that have played Alan Wake 2 with all the eye candies know this image is doing a massive disservice l.
Thing is, most ray tracing doesn’t come across in screenshots.  It’s more about how the light reacts realistically to the environment and camera.  And when it’s on you can absolutely tell the difference. Â
This meme just smells like copeÂ
Damn this sub has really gone to shit
This is a garbage comparison OP.
I’ll agree that RT is a performance hog and isn’t always worth the hit in performance, but Alan Wake 2 was absolutely gorgeous.
Claiming HL2 is better is cope of the highest order.
Where raytracing really shines is interiors. I remember I was playing cyberpunk with RT on, and in one part (interior) my fps tanked way too much so I turned it off, and holy moly the difference was so massive I thought I was playing on low graphical settings.
Pcmasterrace user doesnt understand 3d rendering. Whats new?
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I get the point, but its not a fair comparison by a long shot. Source games bake-in their reflections, so they cant reflect dynamic objects like characters, explosions and all that moves
Depends on the game and what you use it on a maxed out pc with cyberpunk or Alan wake looks insane but consoles are not there yet and really should when waited another gen for it
Now take a look at Cyberpunk with full path tracing (RT overdrive mode) vs without. You need a game that properly implements it for it to matter.
I feel like that’s always been the biggest issue with selling Ray Tracing, especially early on. Those Half-Life 2 reflections are technically faked compared to the RT reflections, but they’re faked really well and the difference really doesn’t feel worth dropping your fps in half.
At least with CP2077, the difference between RT and non RT is about 20-30fps and I leave it on since it looks really good and I’m still over 60.
Im confused, what are you getting at?
You keep using those words. I do not think they mean what you think they mean.
I’m convinced half of ppl hating on raytracing have 8gb cards.
Old PC gamers and being willfully obtuse, name a more iconic duo.
You’re brain dead
He who has not tasted grapes says sour.
Reflections in HL2 were possible due to the advent of pixel and vertex shaders with DirectX 8.
In HL2, only DX 8 and DX 9 have reflections and other dynamic shading effects, but not DirectX 7, which made the game look like it was from 1998.
Raytracing is not at all about reflections.
If you get it, you get it.
If you don’t, you save a butt ton of money
Entirely depends on the implementation. Cyberpunk looks objectively better with raytracing.
Screenshots are stupid for comparing lighting. Â
How it affects the light in real time and in motion is far more interestingÂ
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rasterisation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_tracing_%28graphics%29
the RTX makes the reflections happen automatically, the reflections are painstakingly programmed in for HL2. Eventually, once the average consumers GPU is powerful enough for a good amount of ray tracing development costs will plummet. They’ll finally get rid of all the old methods and just go with flicking the switch and correcting errors they see.
You better take pics of actual improvements and not the least best picture of this technology. Bad meme, go to bed!