Nah, it's time to complain that they don't know how to optimize games anymore.
HalfLife 2 runs at a great FPS with everything turned on to full (except HDR, and no AA because 1280x1024 resolution seems to hide aliasing well enough).
Then there's games like FEAR, which I agree do have fancy graphics (but not enough ahead of HL2), that somehow need 1024x768 resolution and medium settings (DX8 shaders :( ) to get even a bareable framerate out of them.
Oblivion is equally weird. Sure, it does look amazing and have enormous draw distance (thus justifying the tiny resolution that I need), but their shadow system is almost the worst shadow system I have ever witnessed.
The shadow detail setting controls the number of shadows drawn in a frame -- and the speed difference between low and a bit over that is ridiculous. The shadows in FEAR, on the other hand, are either not drawn or drawn for everything (including, at higher settings, the environment... if I recall correctly).
Not only that, but Oblivion's shadows feature those strange glitches (presumably specific to some particular cards) with shadows going through walls, and look no better than those of anything else.
Thus, their shadow system is somehow less optimized than that of FEAR, Source, or even Doom3 while looking, at some points, much worse. (Since when have shadows faded into sight? And how do shadows from a single light source manage to overlap eachother?)
I'm not upgrading until I see something that really impresses me AND runs like garbage.
Oh yes, and Ghost Recon...
I haven't payed much attention to it, myself. What's it like? I saw an ad for it and I must say it looked depressinly pointless. The ad featured a CG sequence that looks like it's in-game (but isn't, of course) in which guys shot eachother.
It looked really awesome. It must be a great game because people shoot eachother, except this time textures manage to be at full res. and looping/repeated animations are cleverly concealed by the game engine.
Obviously, I need to be proven wrong.
There must be SOME story... or something... in there!
HalfLife 2 runs at a great FPS with everything turned on to full (except HDR, and no AA because 1280x1024 resolution seems to hide aliasing well enough).
Then there's games like FEAR, which I agree do have fancy graphics (but not enough ahead of HL2), that somehow need 1024x768 resolution and medium settings (DX8 shaders :( ) to get even a bareable framerate out of them.
Oblivion is equally weird. Sure, it does look amazing and have enormous draw distance (thus justifying the tiny resolution that I need), but their shadow system is almost the worst shadow system I have ever witnessed.
The shadow detail setting controls the number of shadows drawn in a frame -- and the speed difference between low and a bit over that is ridiculous. The shadows in FEAR, on the other hand, are either not drawn or drawn for everything (including, at higher settings, the environment... if I recall correctly).
Not only that, but Oblivion's shadows feature those strange glitches (presumably specific to some particular cards) with shadows going through walls, and look no better than those of anything else.
Thus, their shadow system is somehow less optimized than that of FEAR, Source, or even Doom3 while looking, at some points, much worse. (Since when have shadows faded into sight? And how do shadows from a single light source manage to overlap eachother?)
I'm not upgrading until I see something that really impresses me AND runs like garbage.
Oh yes, and Ghost Recon...
I haven't payed much attention to it, myself. What's it like? I saw an ad for it and I must say it looked depressinly pointless. The ad featured a CG sequence that looks like it's in-game (but isn't, of course) in which guys shot eachother.
It looked really awesome. It must be a great game because people shoot eachother, except this time textures manage to be at full res. and looping/repeated animations are cleverly concealed by the game engine.
Obviously, I need to be proven wrong.
There must be SOME story... or something... in there!