Edit: I think my original comments were a bit too reactionary, so I've toned it down. Some of my original sentiments still remain, however.
I don't understand this has prompted the defensive reaction it has. It's worth remembering when going in:
This is a free, novelty tech demo for high end Nvidia GPUs
- Yes, it will run like crap on anything less than a 3080 with the bells and whistles on.
- Yes, the textures were all modified to prioritize showcasing that tech over original art.
But it neither replaces the original game nor costs anything. I'm sure a modder will make a new version of the textures that both works with the tech and looks closer to the original.
It's fun. If you can run it, give it a shot.
I've seen a lot of comments (and video essays) that — whether intentional or not — give the impression that this project was iill-conceived or done without any heart, and I can agree that some visual changes don't maintain the original visual identity and atmosphere.
However, despite being attached to Nvidia, this really is a small team "mod." Prototype projects like this don't generate revenue and were likely justified with an advertising fund. The labor required likely wasn't huge, as this was one testbed for their upcoming "Remix" technology, but the effort of creating a whole game's worth of uprezzed assets probably still made this a very 'inefficient' use of that advertising fund.
What I'm saying is that this wasn't comparable to Fortnite's switch to UE5, as a recent comparison I've seen. That game and the engine are Epic's main business now. Nvidia is a hardware engineering group that needed a showcase project running quickly. Critique it as you will, but keep that context in mind.
I don't understand this has prompted the defensive reaction it has. It's worth remembering when going in:
This is a free, novelty tech demo for high end Nvidia GPUs
- Yes, it will run like crap on anything less than a 3080 with the bells and whistles on.
- Yes, the textures were all modified to prioritize showcasing that tech over original art.
But it neither replaces the original game nor costs anything. I'm sure a modder will make a new version of the textures that both works with the tech and looks closer to the original.
It's fun. If you can run it, give it a shot.
I've seen a lot of comments (and video essays) that — whether intentional or not — give the impression that this project was iill-conceived or done without any heart, and I can agree that some visual changes don't maintain the original visual identity and atmosphere.
However, despite being attached to Nvidia, this really is a small team "mod." Prototype projects like this don't generate revenue and were likely justified with an advertising fund. The labor required likely wasn't huge, as this was one testbed for their upcoming "Remix" technology, but the effort of creating a whole game's worth of uprezzed assets probably still made this a very 'inefficient' use of that advertising fund.
What I'm saying is that this wasn't comparable to Fortnite's switch to UE5, as a recent comparison I've seen. That game and the engine are Epic's main business now. Nvidia is a hardware engineering group that needed a showcase project running quickly. Critique it as you will, but keep that context in mind.
2 Comments
@SenkaiKasa : Very fair, and I was probably reacting more than analyzing as I think I should. I definitely agree that people shpuld say how they feel about it.
I guess I just felt a weird inconsistency between the seriousness of the criticism being levied at it and it's significance as a piece of art. Not really sure why it bothers me, other than maybe a bad reaction I've developed to the "raytracing is a fad" crowd.
I guess I just felt a weird inconsistency between the seriousness of the criticism being levied at it and it's significance as a piece of art. Not really sure why it bothers me, other than maybe a bad reaction I've developed to the "raytracing is a fad" crowd.
SenkaiKasa
1 year ago
it is a pretty inconsequential release in the grand scheme of things, but when portal with rtx exists to showcase a technology that "visually overhauls" games with raytracing and ai upscailing, i think it should be fair for fans of the original portal to express the degree to which they think the visual overhaul is successful or necessary. the changes in this release result in significant (and arguably generic) atmospheric differences to the original which, to a game like portal where the atmosphere is what defines the core experience, is not going to go unscrutinized.
sorry if this comes off antagonistic in any way, i just hope you see why it's okay for fans of something to feel uncomfortable with the changes portal with rtx brings.