[Farid]

Summary of what you really need to know:

Rage is a 21th century console game developed by B3D forumites's one true idol, John Carmack and his team at id Software. It's a 20 GB shooter with some buggy racing intertwined set in a post apocalyptic world. The game uses Mega Texture [Read Richard excellent article on that texture virtualisation technology here!].

According to some Bethesda hyperbolic PR the game can be summarized by the following:

RAGE, the highly anticipated first-person shooter from legendary developer id Software, [..] has already won numerous awards at E3 2010, including ‘Best Overall Game of Show’ from IGN and three ‘Best of E3’ Game Critics Awards including ‘Best Console Game’. RAGE features intense first-person shooter action, breakneck vehicle combat, an expansive world to explore and jaw-dropping graphics powered by id’s revolutionary id Tech 5 technology.

A trailer:



Actual example of "jaw-dropping graphics powered by id's revolutionary id Tech 5 technology" running on alien/un-categorized technology called a "Personal Computer"



Here's the use'r specsbefore anyone asks:
Core i7 720QM, 5870M 1GB DDR5, 6GB DDR3 RAM, 7200RPM HDD.

Links:

Old Thread:
http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=54819

Old Thread: Talk about the released game starts here:
http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread...=54819&page=44

Metacritic page:
http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/rage

Ars article:
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2011/1...ever-gamed.ars

So, just to sum up my nine plus hours with the [Xbox 360 version of the] game so far:

• No story to speak of
• No characters that make an impression
• Linear
• Broken save system
• Dull mechanics
• Tedious quests
• Weak shooting
• Stock weapons
• Racing is fun
• Minigames are enjoyable
• Very pretty

Some useful fixes for the PC version (It seems there's one!) from the Steam forum:

http://forums.steampowered.com/forum....php?t=2154053

http://forums.steampowered.com/forum....php?t=2159167

PC Perspective article on Rage PC performance:
http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphic...aluation-Day-1

RPS review (more positive tone):
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011...age-pc-review/

I.Eat.Games - A review by B3Der warcrow:
http://eat-games.blogspot.com/2011/1...-reviewed.html

[swaaye]

I tried to run the game on my X1950XTX. It doesn't even load up. The classic blue id Software program meltdown window displays various errors and dies due to no support for 'GL_ARB_draw_elements_base_vertex'. I guess this means the game requires OpenGL 3. Although in reality it requires bleeding edge OpenGL support as evidenced by the driver issues.

Next I'm going to swap in the old 8800GT.

[bigtabs]

I hate to criticize the modship here as you all do wonderful jobs for no financial reward.... but... you've killed off an already existing thread to promote your idea of what Rage is because you seemed not to like the crits it was getting in there? I'm not sure I see the good in this. I trust there is one and I'm mistaken, but I'd love to know what.

[Malo]

That whole Personal Computer platform and its multitudes of different configurations are not something easy to handle for a new development house like id, so don't be too harsh with your criticism of the IBM/Compatible Personal Computer version.

hehe I laughed good. The Wii icon is also another subtle touch

[bigtabs]

Oh crap, look I don't want to be rebellious or take the thread OT. Farid has put a lot of effort into the info he's giving us, so sod it, this thread's as good as any. I just hope we're allowed to voice our varied opinions in this one.

/edit Okay embarrasment time, I've clearly missed the point. Can I report myself?

[Farid]

bigtabs, I more than welcome your discontentment with this thread, because it's obviously negatively slanted. So, people who think the game has redeeming values are welcome and in fact should express their positive views.

I've started this thread, because we've said quite a few time that once a game get released, we should start a new thread and leave the news/preview thread behind. And since nobody went ahead with the Rage thread, I did. And well, obviously, it was bound to be tainted by my special kind opinionated prose.

To be truly honest, I'm really disappointed in how the PC version turned out, I'm not just trolling for the fun of it. I was planning on grabbing the PC version Friday after leaving work. But after reading so many complaints about the PC version from the US folks who got the game earlier, I'm now in the "how could you do this, id?/Et tu, id?" camp.

I mean, folks with much better rigs than mine suffer from terrible stuttering and textures pop-ups that wouldn't look out of place in early Sega Saturn games. This is not good, and I'm not going to be sympathetic with id for this. With that said, I repeat again, I've never been a fan of herd behaviour, so every opinions are welcome. Some folks can and should be optimistic about future patches and rewritten ATI OpenGL drivers (it's been a while, by the way) and so on, while remaining focused on the redeeming entertainment values of the game itself.

[bigtabs]

Sorry Farid, it seems you missed my edit where I realised what you'd actually done.

[swaaye]

If you have a NVIDIA card, there really aren't many issues. In fact the only one I know of for sure is the vsync weirdness that's solved by forcing it in the control panel. The texture pop-in is annoying but comes in exchange for some mind blowing outdoor visuals fit onto hardware with very limited RAM and storage.

I read negative complaining about every game that comes out. Crysis 2 is hated yet I found it entertaining. Crysis 1 is apparently a mindless tech demo. Deus Ex HR is hated by some even though it's pretty clear that it is an excellent game overall. Fallout 3. STALKER. Bioshock. Doom3. Every game is ripped apart for every reason that one can imagine. If you haven't played a game I don't think it's wise to go on a witty tirade about how bad it is.

[Malo]

It would've been nice if id + AMD would have got together far sooner to both sort out any issues with drivers, and to provide an AMD Transcoding solution as well to assist. It's obviously helping out lowering CPU usage for texture fetch from MT.

Of course that didn't happen. Not exactly the first title where Nv have gone the extra mile to provide benefit to their users whilst AMD did.... something else?

[swaaye]

There is a post somewhere (a link in the other thread) where it was mentioned that OpenCL had performance problems so they gave up on it. They started with CUDA C and then tried to use OpenCL too. NVIDIA doesn't care about or need OpenCL so blame AMD, I guess. What year are we on now with our advertised AMD GPGPU processors that rarely do GPGPU?

edit-
here is the post
http://www.shacknews.com/chatty?id=2...#item_26824104

[Farid]

Originally Posted by swaaye

If you have a NVIDIA card, there really aren't many issues. In fact the only one I know of for sure is the vsync weirdness that's solved by forcing it in the control panel.

I read negative complaining about every game that comes out. Crysis 2 is hated yet I found it entertaining. Deus Ex HR is hated by some even though it's pretty clear that it is an excellent game overall. Fallout 3. STALKER. Bioshock. Doom3. Every game is ripped apart for every reason that one can imagine. If you haven't played a game I don't think it's wise to go on a witty tirade about how bad it is.

I have an AMD GPU on my main rig, and looking at screenshots with checkered rendering issues all over the map doesn't infuse me with a lot of hope for the game on my PC.

Also, it doesn't take much for me to get sardonic and humourous about games. Especially games I haven't yet played. When I play and dislike them, I actually rage more than I get witty about it. rage about it. Rage, get it? It's funny because it's a pun on the name of the game we're talking about.

[swaaye]

Originally Posted by Farid

I have an AMD GPU on my main rig, and looking at screenshots with checkered rendering issues all over the map doesn't infuse me with a lot of hope for the game on my PC.

There's no denying that an AMD owner should be asking hard questions of AMD and id Software. My 6950 loads textures slower, can't render models properly sometimes and the game crashed for the first time while I was gaming on it. But considering the game runs well on NVIDIA cards probably means that most of the questions should be going at quiet little floundering AMD. It feels like Doom3 release day all over again in some ways.

[I.S.T.]

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011...age-pc-review/ RPS' review, seems to mostly disagree with the Ars review.

Which, well, sane people should. Ben Kuchera can't write his way out of a paper bag, doesn't know shit and never has.

[Malo]

Originally Posted by swaaye

There is a post somewhere (a link in the other thread) where it was mentioned that OpenCL had performance problems so they gave up on it. They started with CUDA C and then tried to use OpenCL too. NVIDIA doesn't care about or need OpenCL so blame AMD, I guess. What year are we on now with our advertised AMD GPGPU processors that rarely do GPGPU?

edit-
here is the post
http://www.shacknews.com/chatty?id=2...#item_26824104

Ah great, thanks for that. It doesn't mention whether id and AMD discussed the OpenCL implementation to see if there could be optimisations done to improve the performance though.

[Davros]

Originally Posted by Farid

It's a 20 GB shooter with some buggy racing intertwined set in a post apocalyptic world.

Whats buggy about the racing ?

[hoho]

Originally Posted by Davros

Whats buggy about the racing ?

I think he might have meant that you are driving a buggy

[swaaye]

Found on Steam forums.
http://forums.steampowered.com/forum....php?t=2159339
Today, 12:32 PM

Originally Posted by DerrickG

Almost all the issues with RAGE are hardware/driver related and not an issue with the game itself.

Please note the following from Bethesda:

• ATI and NVIDIA are working on updated drivers that should be released today/tomorrow that will fix multiple issues.
• Bethesda is working on an update to allow for users to customize their video options which will solve many of the issues users are having.
• For the latest information please visit http://www.bethblog.com

Thank you for your patience with this matter. All parties are working as fast as they can to correct the problems with RAGE.

It's amazing that this stuff has to happen after release.


Unverified Vsync tweak. Warning NV has Vsync set to force off in the game profile. I just use force on.
http://forums.bethsoft.com/index.php...#entry18743528

Issues w/ screen tearing
+r_swapInterval 1

The launch options can be found by right-clicking on RAGE in Steam and selecting "Properties". Then click on "Set Launch Options" in the dialog that pops up.

[Farid]

Originally Posted by I.S.T.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011...age-pc-review/ RPS' review, seems to mostly disagree with the Ars review.

Which, well, sane people should. Ben Kuchera can't write his way out of a paper bag, doesn't know shit and never has.

Thanks for the heads up, I've added that review to the OP. With that said, the RPS review seems to emphasize the same issues Ars' review did (bland, samey, problematic on PC). It's just that RPS' reviewer remains positive in front of the overall experience the game provides.

And yes, I, too, would be more willing to trust the RPS folks on the topic than Ars'.

In terms of quality, I honestly didn't expect an incredible game, nothing shown about the game could have made me think it was to be a masterpiece. I expected a solid experience, better than the okay-I-guess Doom 3, but nothing more. And it seems id delivered on that front. Now, I'm more disappointed with how the PC version performs out of the box and how limited the option panel looks (at least they didn't encrypt the .ini files).

Davros, like hoho said, I'm talking about the dune buggies you're driving in the game.

[swaaye]

Get this - I just tried it on my old 8800GT 512MB that I have at work in a Phenom II X2 box. It pulls 60 fps at 1680x1050. I even tried the 8K texture tweak and it is still at 60fps most of the time with the exception of some stuttering when I do a sudden 180. This is barely fitting in 512MB (GPUZ says around 500MB VRAM usage).

[Svensk Viking]

Originally Posted by swaaye

Get this - I just tried it on my old 8800GT 512MB that I have at work in a Phenom II X2 box. It pulls 60 fps at 1680x1050. I even tried the 8K texture tweak and it is still at 60fps most of the time with the exception of some stuttering when I do a sudden 180. This is barely fitting in 512MB (GPUZ says around 500MB VRAM usage).

You don't happen to have the HD4200 as well? Would be cool if someone tested with that(it's the min spec after all)

[Sxotty]

I have already contributed enough to the other thread. If you want to close the thread you should at least take the posts from it.

[Man from Atlantis]

i wonder does it work a dedicated cuda capable card only for transcoding.. just like a physx card ? it doesnt work at just cause 2 though..

[swaaye]

Originally Posted by Svensk Viking

You don't happen to have the HD4200 as well? Would be cool if someone tested with that(it's the min spec after all)

I have a 3850 in the boss's kids' home comp but that's all I have around for old AMD PCIe hardware other than the X1950. AMD drivers are problematic in general right now though.

[Richard]

As is apparent from the article Vy Farid linked to in the OP I was pretty bullish on MT. So, four years later, even on high-end nvidia hardware with gobs of ram and video ram being able to see textures fade in is... disappointing... to say the least. That's one advantage the first-generation MT tech in ETQW had over id Tech 5's: the MT LoD management was locality-based not frustum which meant you'd only see the fade in artefacts when running (or rather driving) pretty fast in a straight line. Seeing the artefact every time you turn your mouse must be distracting.

When we published that article my personal feeling was that MT was going to change the face of graphics because its drawbacks: huge storage (not allowing open world games - we even singled out Oblivion, little did I know there was a chance ES5 could use id Tech 5) and lower texel density because of that storage problem, seemed like good trade-offs for getting unique texturing (check), rock-bottom and constant memory requirements (nope, consoles are getting pounded, even top-end PCs with 4 times as much videomemory as consoles have RAM require huge caches). Even the baked lighting would be offset by the 60hz performance (which is a problem even for high-end pcs because of "API overhead").

Over time we learnt that AF would be a problem and the constant mention of DVD storage issues made it apparent texture resolution would take a bigger hit than we had antecipated.

The other thing I'm most disappointed is the lack of graphical options in the menu. All the keynote time spent on describing how the IHVs implemented a new way to reduce tearing could be better spent putting a VSYNC option in. Reliance on heuristics to determine quality options for PC should have sent alarms ringing in Carmack's head.

In the future, I just hope id learns from this. Especially for DOOM which always was the id Tech 5 game I was really looking forward to. At the very least Carmack should smash some skulls over at NV/AMD. Yes, nvidia, even they had to rush out a driver after the game's release. Or better yet, as Carmack said many times the renderer is API agnostic because of its multiplatform nature go ahead and ship for Direct3D, even as an alternative renderer (Unreal 1 style).

[digitalwanderer]

Originally Posted by Farid

Some folks can and should be optimistic about future patches and rewritten AMD OpenGL drivers (it's been a while, by the way) and so on

ftfy