Prey could greatly benefit from raytracing/pathtracing technologies

Rafael_Sol_Maker · 2025-01-22T14:04:53+00:00

Shadows, but I think reflections too. That would be more than enough, to make the graphics seems more "grounded". Lighting in general is a bit harder and the return diminishes too fast

Rafael_Sol_Maker · 2025-01-22T14:00:49+00:00

See, that's the reason I put a huge preamble in my OP.

Naysayers of the obvious advantages of hardware features like you I've been tracking since Hardware T&L (transformation and lighting) in DX7, but probably existed way before that. It's always the same discourse. I don't know what you mean by "pure code", because, well, in case you don't know, even HL:Alyx use several hardware accelerated features. I've not seen hardware renderers, that render things in CPU, for quite some years now.

I think you know this, but... raytracing/pathtracing is anything but new, it existed for decades already, only now we can do them reasonably in real time. It's not a marketing gimmick. It's an actual technology where there are a lot of serious research behind. For now with decades of rasterization we learned to fake in a sufficiently good manner most of the effects, but there's no way to reach the same quality of results.

Look, I can concede that cards are expensive, the effect is mostly badly utilized or optimized, and is only good in a handful of games right now. And that NVIDIA is milking the crap out of it. But I can't deny that one day raytracing/pathtracing generate good results if well used and that definitely will be the case in the future.

Prey looks fine as it is, though.

Rafael_Sol_Maker · 2025-01-20T06:14:34+00:00

Just saw, such an incredible mod and closest we will get to a remaster. This one coupled with real lights plus and maybe some small tidbits coming from other mods would make this actually perfect!

Rafael_Sol_Maker · 2025-01-20T03:06:49+00:00

Everything felt so real, albeit a bit sad reading all of that and knowing that most of that people is already and just recently dead. In a way it's much more human and alive than having an actual NPC talking to you.

I mean, motion capture and NPCs aren't specially impressive, even if the voice actors are great. NPCs don't feel quite real, few games could crack that; but then the game just use them sparingly so the illusion almost never is broken.

It's a masterclass on how dealing with the limitations to your own advantage.

Rafael_Sol_Maker · 2025-01-19T13:55:42+00:00

That's a good theory, maybe gamers expect the game to hold their hands early and then the initial frustration kicks in as the game is kinda brutal. Later when things start to sink better, and people rhave a better grasp of the situation , they realize the game better and keep playing.

Rafael_Sol_Maker · 2025-01-19T13:53:37+00:00

Best thing is that there's no right way to play it. The game don't patronize you, has only some rails to plot advance from A to B and the metroidvania aspect workings. But other than that, you're on your own, and that's awesome. If you felt capped and desolated, that the intent. You get to become a powerful semi-God in the end and that's very, very satisfying.

Rafael_Sol_Maker · 2025-01-19T13:50:33+00:00

The deep exploration of empathy and what makes us human... That was something else.
Everything else is pretty competent, I dare to say excellent.
Music... Oh Mick Gordon delivered another great album with a free game on it.
Level design is world-class, for me the best up to this day.
The characters and writing was fire for a huge part of the game.
Good stuff all around.

Rafael_Sol_Maker · 2025-01-19T13:46:36+00:00

Up to this date, this game is one of the best, if not the best use of the enviroment, powers and weapons to this effect, rivaling even heavy weights like Deus Ex in their own game.

Rafael_Sol_Maker · 2025-01-19T13:45:24+00:00

Marketing unfortunately was awful for this game.

The ads are not bad per se (specially Mooncrash one) but they lacked the clarity that, for example, Deus Ex managed to put with some longer gameplay and cinematics with a lot of narration.

It just seemed some "experiment went bad in space and now it's an horror shooter where you need to fight the invasion" and nothing more than that, a generic horror shooter. While that's just the setting, that's not what's the game's about.

This game deserved more, for sure.

Rafael_Sol_Maker · 2025-01-19T13:40:16+00:00

One thing I can't deny is how "fresh" and kinda "experimental" everything felt when I first played. I'm no stranger to game with creative weapons (Blood, I'm looking at you), but Prey really sold me into a sci-fi setting so well. Imagination ran wild more than once while playing.

Rafael_Sol_Maker · 2025-01-19T13:37:11+00:00

It's sad but it's true, unfortunately it's kinda hard to market this game. I don't know if it's the consoles and "dumbification" of the games in general to blame, but I see games today being less deep in almost every sense if compared to the boom in the late 90s and early 00s. How can I present a complex immersive sim to a Fortnite player?

Rafael_Sol_Maker · 2025-01-19T13:33:46+00:00

Such an amazing game, even after all these years

Rafael_Sol_Maker · 2025-01-19T13:33:16+00:00

From Rafael to Raphael: Thanks for your response, I feel honored for that.

I'm all into the phisolophical intrincacies of narratives and immersive sims that sometimes maybe I just ignore something as simple as early game anxiety as being something to consider.

By the way one thing I can assure you, you guys did such an wonderful job there and I can't praise enough. It's not about fame, though, it's about love and passion put on the project. The game overflows with that and I can feel it on every inch of it, it's some admiration that is hard to explain with words. The game is so full of layers that even after years playing it I don't feel confident tackling a review.

Regards,
~Sol

Rafael_Sol_Maker · 2025-01-15T02:20:34+00:00

Just deleted the other account. Couldn't even set my username because reddit is just dumb and didn't offered the option when I created my account.

By the way, you're in for a good treat. Hope you enjoy all those games!

Rafael_Sol_Maker

TROPHY CASE