A ray trace occlusion against depth buffer, a very similar to how POM traces it's shadows.
Actually, it could be nice addition to ray traced shadows as RT doesn't fit well with tessellation, might even speed things up a bit as you could bypass tracing on shadowed pixels.
Interestingly it was forgotten technique for a long time, first implementation I have seen was on PC intro/demo during Pentium 1-3 era.
Ironically, pre release all the game press had convinced themselves this game was going to be a lame Ubi-style open world game, but now that it's out their biggest complaint is it doesn't ape generic ubisoft open world games enough...
I played a few hours tonight and like it quite a bit. It was somewhat choppy in the beginning hour, most of which I put down to UE4 not being great for open world style games (streaming stalls during fast traversal), and that they're doing all the cut scenes in engine which results in an annoying number of load screens as the story is getting off the ground. They probably could have masked this with prerendered cutscenes to hide loads, but it's already a 60+ GB game and that could have ballooned the file size considerably. On the plus side, you'll see mods you added to your guns in cutscenes this way.
But one it lets you loose in the world everything is pretty smooth sailing. The shooting, melee, stealth, crafting and driving are all tons of fun. The world is incredibly detailed and beautiful. The story, acting and music have all been quite good. There's some open world jank, but that's par for the course, and none of it has been terrible like faceless people, flying donkeys or key abilities simply being broken.
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Deleted member 11852
Guest
I like the Ubisoft formula, being a fan of Far Cry, Assassin's Creed (until it became RPG-ified) and Watch Dogs. An open world ready to explore with a story carrying you through it, with some dynamic systems at play so things don't get too predictable and some side activities for minor grind to develops your skills/abilities is right up my street. Throw in the apocalypse settings and I'm so in.
It's why State of Decay works for me, it's one of those games where I can just have fun messing about while not really progressing the game in any meaningful way. I like the whole chipping away at the world, making things better.
Saw Avengers End Game tonight and thoroughly enjoyed it. Days Gone will wait for tomorrow.
It was nice to watch the DF impressions. I'm glad they liked it (and the SSS / HDR made an impression :~) - they got a few minor things not quite right but I'll let it pass 
I appreciate the positive comments on how the game looks, I really do.
I cut together a video of me running around one of my favorite areas in the game. There is a little row of abandoned rental cabins in the far west of the lost lake region. The art team did a really fantastic job so I wanted to show it off little a bit.
No spoilers, just 12 dull minutes of me running around, while admiring details on base PS4
I got lucky and managed to avoid enemy distraction on my sight seeing tour
Cheers
I appreciate the positive comments on how the game looks, I really do.
I cut together a video of me running around one of my favorite areas in the game. There is a little row of abandoned rental cabins in the far west of the lost lake region. The art team did a really fantastic job so I wanted to show it off little a bit.
No spoilers, just 12 dull minutes of me running around, while admiring details on base PS4
I got lucky and managed to avoid enemy distraction on my sight seeing tour
Cheers
D
Deleted member 11852
Guest
It was nice to watch the DF impressions. I'm glad they liked it (and the SSS / HDR made an impression :~) - they got a few minor things not quite right but I'll let it pass
If I may, you should tweet or DM them. In school we learn from trying then others more knowledge correcting any mistakes. I'm sure DF would appreciate knowing what they missed or misinterpreted. Put that like, it's be mean not too! :sly:
I'm ready to dive-in into this game in about an hour, but it looks like you play these types of games much like I do. I like to take my time, look around, be cautious for the ever-present threat and, quite frankly, just soak up the world. Post apocalypse is a favourite genre and I've never seen such a well presented one.
I also know of a forum where people would love to hear about that, plus any other technical detail the dev might wanna share.
Ike Turner
Veteran
Days Gone is an impressive looking gem. Whether the end game is a masterpiece or not doesn't change the fact that the art, animation, shading, environnement, lighting, etc teams did a fantastic job. Perf Optimization (which seems to be an issue still) must have been a really pain in the ass given its use of UE4.It was nice to watch the DF impressions. I'm glad they liked it (and the SSS / HDR made an impression :~) - they got a few minor things not quite right but I'll let it pass
I appreciate the positive comments on how the game looks, I really do.
I cut together a video of me running around one of my favorite areas in the game. There is a little row of abandoned rental cabins in the far west of the lost lake region. The art team did a really fantastic job so I wanted to show it off little a bit.
No spoilers, just 12 dull minutes of me running around, while admiring details on base PS4
I got lucky and managed to avoid enemy distraction on my sight seeing tour
Cheers
Ike Turner
Veteran
For his mental health I would strongly advise Graham to never post there..
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Deleted member 11852
Guest
Spent an hour yesterday and a couple this morning and loving it. I've only accumulated a couple of skill points so I'm still weak and vulnerable which makes you makes every encounter with more than a handful of freakers and intense experience.
The world is great and very atmospheric. Every noise and movement has me freezing and scanning imminent danger. I look forward to slowly powering myself up. I missed clearing the nests in Crazy Willies in the tutorial mission and went back later at night.
Bad idea.
edit: earlier watch my other half lure into long grass and knacker about 30 freakers, clearing main area then nuking two nests and shotgunning the sleepers in the face. Out of the two of us, I think she would have a much better chance of surviving an actual apocalypse. 
The world is great and very atmospheric. Every noise and movement has me freezing and scanning imminent danger. I look forward to slowly powering myself up. I missed clearing the nests in Crazy Willies in the tutorial mission and went back later at night.
Bad idea.
edit: earlier watch my other half lure into long grass and knacker about 30 freakers, clearing main area then nuking two nests and shotgunning the sleepers in the face.
Out of the two of us, I think she would have a much better chance of surviving an actual apocalypse.
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djskribbles
Legend
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/artic...s-gone-defeats-mortal-kombat-11-to-claim-no-1
Metacritic user score is currently 6 points higher than the critics score and rising, which is a bit unusual. Hopefully word of mouth gives it some legs... seems like a good game.
I would say better than decent for a new IP. That's 60-70k according to era. Congrats to @Graham and the Sony Bend team.
Metacritic user score is currently 6 points higher than the critics score and rising, which is a bit unusual. Hopefully word of mouth gives it some legs... seems like a good game.
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Deleted member 13524
Guest
Some reviewers bombed the game because the protagonist is a straight white male, the protagonist's wife apparently says something sexist and erm.. she bends over in a scene.
This.
A few days ago I had to shake my head over a thread full of hateful racist comments about bombing MK11 scores,
Jax stopes slavery from happening, and the triggered came a howling.
Yup and I'm going to have a little rant now and it will be a one and done deal. Sorry
The problem with these reviews or opinions is not that they wrong about the way the world and society should change but how they expect everyone to be exactly like them. There's a line from the Eurogamer review where the author says no woman would ever do what Deacons wife does or says in the game and that's bullshit. People do stupid shit all the time. It's becoming a major pain in my ass that people who critique books or games or whatever somehow project themselves on the characters and then proceed to say it's sloppy writing because no person would ever do that. I'll say it again people do and say stupid shit all the time and there shouldn't be outrage when a character in a work of fiction does.
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Deleted member 11852
Guest
As I've written before, I've long since stopped reading reviews (incl. watching videos) for the reviewers final score-ified opinion on the game, what I'm after is an idea of the moment-to-moment gameplay and functional mechanics - which videos are better suited too as toy can watch how the game plays rather than have somebody describe it badly.
I'm really unsure who modern reviews are written for. Reviewers are people who are completely absorbed in the videogaming world and each game review has to be played to death to a very short deadline. And they have to play a lot of games - most games that come out.
This isn't how most gamers experience games so the reviews experience of playing games is not going to be anything like mine. Also, having watched a lot of livestreams of the folks who review these games, they are mostly really poor at videogames.
Days Gone is delivering on the promise that RDR2 failed to deliver on, which is I can explore a gorgeous atmospheric world, which is very dangerous but where the game gives me option to be cautious or reckless, which makes a noticeable difference to how the game plays. At no point, have a mistakenly punched my horse (or the Days Gone equivalent) or shot somebody I wanted to talk too (or the Days Gone equivalent). I feel in control, even though death really isn't that far off.
I'm really unsure who modern reviews are written for. Reviewers are people who are completely absorbed in the videogaming world and each game review has to be played to death to a very short deadline. And they have to play a lot of games - most games that come out.
This isn't how most gamers experience games so the reviews experience of playing games is not going to be anything like mine. Also, having watched a lot of livestreams of the folks who review these games, they are mostly really poor at videogames.
Days Gone is delivering on the promise that RDR2 failed to deliver on, which is I can explore a gorgeous atmospheric world, which is very dangerous but where the game gives me option to be cautious or reckless, which makes a noticeable difference to how the game plays. At no point, have a mistakenly punched my horse (or the Days Gone equivalent) or shot somebody I wanted to talk too (or the Days Gone equivalent). I feel in control, even though death really isn't that far off.
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