What do gamers actually think about Ray-Tracing?

[Space Monkey]

Looking forward to the day we all move to the retro gaming and vintage hardware section.

So 2026 it is then

 

[Zarax]

Honestly 2026 is going to be interesting, I have two possible scenarios in mind:

1) The so-called "World Models" happen and the current trend continues. Datacenters will eat the consumer market and we will relive the 1980s when we were happy to get 2nd hand office machines.
2) Foundational models start going from radical to marginal improvements like GPT5. Small large language models + search or RAG running on-premises start getting traction on consumer level hardware while most AI players are forced to raise prices to satisfy investors. AI boom slows down and consumers will get a slice of repurposed datacenter hardware.

In both cases we'd have to worry about keeping our jobs (due to either AI or economic crisis) but I know I will be actively working to push scenario 2, optimized small models can handle most business scenarios and we're a few security incidents away from business attitude going not so AI friendly.

 

[I kill Bunnies]

I barely notice the difference ray tracing makes in Cyberpunk. I certainly notice the FPS dropping.

 

[Nasher]

Things are going backwards and developers are worried. PC gaming is on the rise again, but people are playing old games on old hardware. They aren't buying new stuff. Which also means new features like ray-tracing aren't really progessing much.

We are going to end up with the games industry collapsing I think.

Look at the massive losses some releases have made over the past few years.

 

[Dicehunter]

Things are going backwards and developers are worried. PC gaming is on the rise again, but people are playing old games on old hardware. They aren't buying new stuff. Which also means new features like ray-tracing aren't really progessing much.

We are going to end up with the games industry collapsing I think.

Look at the massive losses some releases have made over the past few years.

I routinely play games from 10+ years ago, When I was at home a few days ago, Currently not, I was getting into Omikron The Nomad Soul which is an RPG from 26 years ago.

New stuff just seems cheap, There's no soul to it.

 

[gpuerrilla]

New stuff just seems cheap, There's no soul to it.

Doesnt help that they keep 'remaster'-ing old releases or copy pasting games with a slightly different skin. We now know from the tiny subset of games that worked RT well enough how it could perform. As you mention, the gameplay, story/atmosphere has to be there foremost.

 

[steve5424]

I routinely play games from 10+ years ago, When I was at home a few days ago, Currently not, I was getting into Omikron The Nomad Soul which is an RPG from 26 years ago.

New stuff just seems cheap, There's no soul to it.

The most interesting game I've played in recent years has been Atomic Heart. Definitely some effort put in to it.

 

[Tinek]

2) Foundational models start going from radical to marginal improvements like GPT5. Small large language models + search or RAG running on-premises start getting traction on consumer level hardware while most AI players are forced to raise prices to satisfy investors. AI boom slows down and consumers will get a slice of repurposed datacenter hardware.

Sadly, most current datacentre AI hardware can't be repurposed by consumers, it will go to another AI datacentre or to the landfill.

Also, currently AI is funded by governments too (Trump, EU etc.) so it's not going to slow growth for many years now still, they simply pivoted already to military use and will start putting hardware and resources into that - a LOT of monies sit in military budgets.

 

[humbug]

Recently i've bought ARC Raiders, Ashes of Creation, BF6, FC6, Cyberpunk, Hell Divers 2, Serious Sam 4, Balders Gate 3, Dune Awakening and a few others....

There are a few that i want to buy, Black Myth Wukong, Indiana Jones, i'll get those when i have a GPU that can run them at high settings.

I liked them all but they are not long term games, i'm already burned out on them all.

There is only one game primarily that i keep going back to, despite its problems, and i've had it for nearly 13 years now.

The only other game that will be long term for me, when it comes out, i think, will be Sanctuary: Shattered Sun, a remake or continuation of Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance, made by the same people, which is another game that i have played for many years and keep going back to.

 

[Kaapstad]

I routinely play games from 10+ years ago, When I was at home a few days ago, Currently not, I was getting into Omikron The Nomad Soul which is an RPG from 26 years ago.

New stuff just seems cheap, There's no soul to it.

This ^

Modern games just seem to lack Gameplay.

 

[Zarax]

Mount & Blade 2 (excellent with HDR!) and Jagged Alliance 3 are the only modern stuff I play currently.
Other than that, Diablo 2 Resurrected (the only RT title I play) and I'm back to mod Rome Total War (the 2004 one) and Freespace 2 along with the occasional Warzone 2100 to see what new releases bring.
I have a few titles on wishlist but it's all stuff I'd buy with >75% off.

 

[cyclonus10]

people are playing old games on old hardware.

Ha ha, got myself a PS5 Pro just before Xmas, installed the God of war games, the Spiderman games, Ratchet and Clank, Returnal, all pro enhanced games and the only 2 games I have actually played so far? COD MW remastered and Wipeout. Both Pro enhanced but PS4 Pro enhanced.

 

[Nasher]

This ^

Modern games just seem to lack Gameplay.

Yep, very shallow and limited replayability. No mod support etc.

Multiplayer seems to have gone backwards in many cases as well. Look at what games like UT, HL2 (still very popular due to mods) or Tribes offered 20+ years ago compared to the pathetic MP content now. You get a handful of badly designed, small maps, a pathetic player count and no mod support. Boring.

The high end gaming market is dying, because AAA releases are terrible now. Nvidia and AMD know it, gamers know it. The only ones who seem oblivious are the big developers. Look at the specs of the Steam machine, it's mid range stuff. That's what people are buying, so Valve knows it too.

 

[Nitefly]

I think that in a world of doom scrolling, social media and endless opinions, porn on your phone etc., … (e.g. consumption gluttony), many things just don’t hit as well as they used to.

I’ve woke up this morning with my mind racing for ‘something to do’ yet feel like nothing is worth the energy.

There’s just no way my adult (yet childish) mind feels like throwing endless hours at a video game in the same way as I used to. But, nostalgia is an easy (empty?) way of connecting back to a time when I did feel such excitement… so it’s easy to look back to those times and think games were ‘better’.

Anyway, the games that I get the most out of these days are the ones that offer something completely different, even if they are short.

My recent ‘best game’ award goes to… Animal Well.

 

[Vinno]

Multiplayer seems to have gone backwards in many cases as well. Look at what games like UT, HL2 (still very popular due to mods) or Tribes offered 20+ years ago compared to the pathetic MP content now. You get a handful of badly designed, small maps, a pathetic player count and no mod support. Boring.

Tribes 2 for me is still probably the best MP game I ever played for the reasons you just laid out. I remember jumping into random servers with user-made maps and just exploring stuff with my mates. Good times.

 

[Nasher]

Tribes 2 for me is still probably the best MP game I ever played for the reasons you just laid out. I remember jumping into random servers with user-made maps and just exploring stuff with my mates. Good times.

Yea maps and most mods were server side, so there was no downloading. It was great. They actually thought about player driven expansion back then. Could have 128 players too and it ran well even on dial up. Now we have games with 16 players and some even struggle with that somehow :/

Tribes Ascend killed off the series with cash shop, only official servers, no mods nonsense.

UT99 also had loads of depth, people are still playing it.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Yep, very shallow and limited replayability. No mod support etc.

Multiplayer seems to have gone backwards in many cases as well. Look at what games like UT, HL2 (still very popular due to mods) or Tribes offered 20+ years ago compared to the pathetic MP content now. You get a handful of badly designed, small maps, a pathetic player count and no mod support. Boring.

The high end gaming market is dying, because AAA releases are terrible now. Nvidia and AMD know it, gamers know it. The only ones who seem oblivious are the big developers. Look at the specs of the Steam machine, it's mid range stuff. That's what people are buying, so Valve knows it too.

Planetside 2 had huge maps and 100s of people fighting over a single point! It was an amazing experience in it's heyday.

 

[Calin Banc]

This ^

Modern games just seem to lack Gameplay.

Don't know about that. It's been a long time since I've seen / heard about "dumbing down", lack of gameplay or gameplay over graphics arguments, etc. In part is what gamers expect and accept, part is what devs can or are willing to do. You can't ask from developers more than gamers want or hint that they do.

 

[Calin Banc]

Planetside 2 had huge maps and 100s of people fighting over a single point! It was an amazing experience in it's heyday.

And performance was crap + if I remember correctly it was F2P...

 

[melmac]

This is rubbish talk about games. Gamers have never had it so good, there is so much choice now. I bet most of you here have a backlog of games that you have played for five minutes before going back to replay an old game you like or, more than likely, have never launched even once.

Think about all the amazing games released in the last 10 years and then try to convince me that there are no good games out there.

Like, without even thinking too hard, here is a list of 15 or so games.

Witcher 3 Wild Hunt,
Baldur's Gate 3,
Cyberpunk 2077,
Kingdom Deliverance,
Titan Fall 2,
Red Dead Redemption 2,
Horizon Zero Dawn,
Alan Wake 2,
Europa Universalis/Crusader Kings games,
Elden Ring,
God of war 2018,
God of War: Ragnarok,
Hollow Knight,
Divinity Original Sin 2,
Satisfactory.


Here are five from this year alone.

Expedition 33,
Kingdom Come Deliverance 2,
Arc Raiders,
Hollow Knight: Silk Song,
Hades II.


There are tons of games that I have left out. There are countless Indie games. Haven't included VR games or Console/handheld exclusive games. IF you can't find a good game in this day and age it's because you haven't looked or can't be bothered.

If you think modern games have no gameplay, it's not the games, it's you, you are jaded and living in the nostalgia of the past and how every game was better back then. It's a known thing as you get older you find comfort in things gone by.