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PC Half-Life 2 RTX demo free and out today

Madmick

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You'll have seen the notice for this if you've opened the NVIDIA app this week. The new driver arrives today to accompany it (572.83).

The in-progress mod overhauls the graphics from Valve’s 2004 FPS opus, complete with DLSS 4 support, ray tracing, and enhanced textures.

The demo is roughly two hours long, and includes a chapter from Ravenholm and one from Nova Prospekt. Once it’s installed, you can test out the new graphical features by first selecting “New Game,” then the Ravenholm chapter. After you complete it, the RTX-enabled Nova Prospekt chapter will unlock, and you can access it the same way. A release date for the full experience has not been shared.

 
That looks fantastic. I am curious to see how some of the larger outdoor environments will look, though. I don't get the current pushback to baked lighting. I think realism always is best for immersion.
 
GPU upgrade incoming...
Yeah, it's no joke. First thing I did was turn down the DLSS mode to "Performance" from "Quality".

I have to say, if this is a sign of things to come, it won't just be GPU prices that will have us flustered, we're all gonna be howling for the drop in SSD prices to accelerate. 41.4GB for just two chapters (of an upgraded 25-year old game) is pretty nuts. And that's just the size of the mod on top of the base game (10.4GB). The original game is 21 chapters. If 300GB per AAA is the coming norm, this $90 per TB for Gen5x4 drives ain't gonna cut it. That's nearly $30 per parking space.
 
Yeah, it's no joke. First thing I did was turn down the DLSS mode to "Performance" from "Quality".

I have to say, if this is a sign of things to come, it won't just be GPU prices that will have us flustered, we're all gonna be howling for the drop in SSD prices to accelerate. 41.4GB for just two chapters (of an upgraded 25-year old game) is pretty nuts. And that's just the size of the mod on top of the base game (10.4GB). The original game is 21 chapters. If 300GB per AAA is the coming norm, this $90 per TB for Gen5x4 drives ain't gonna cut it. That's nearly $30 per parking space.
My time to shine.

Y'all want some SSDs?

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My time to shine.

Y'all want some SSDs?

View attachment 1087606
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