So was SSAA. But like SSAA, Raytracing isn't worth it yet, the visual uplift just is too small to for it's performance hit. And again, only very few games actually make use of RT right now, and even much fewer still in any meaningful way. Using Raytracing right now as main value to define how good a GPU is, is like what Intel is trying to pull with their real life performance crap on CPUs. It's just too early for RT to be the be-all, end-all. Give it a year or two for the tech and it's implementations in games to mature and then RT should be on the frontpage of the benchmarks. But right now? No, not yet.

I do agree that the Gamers Nexus route is a good one to show where RT is right now, though. But it also shows where RT is right now with Minecraft RT, and that current hardware won't be nearly powerful enough for more graphically extensive games to not totally tank the performance with RT.

*** NEW CONTEST ***

Guru3D 2020 December 14th contest - Win a K71M Outemu Mechanical keyboard from I-Rocks https://www.guru3d.com/news-story/guru3d-2020-december-14th-contest-win-a-k71m-outemu-mechenical-keyboard-from-i-rocks.html

RT actually won't be viable for at least the next 2-3 generations. While the GPUs are going to get stronger, the requirements for RT will increase with it. I think it needs another revolution in RT that reduces performance requirements by magnitudes. Maybe something like DLRT. Or what I would prefer myself, a dedicated RT accelerator card. Waiting for GPUs to do RT well is like waiting for Intel integrated graphics to play Crysis at 4k.

Now I'm curious what the Intel Xe graphics in Tiger Lake can pull in Crysis

No, you're not. Nobody is. Not even Intel engineers.

Okay so I tried the modified performance files with CP 2077 and it works! https://www.nexusmods.com/cyberpunk2077/mods/107?tab=description

I used this as I cba to mess around with config files and custom exe's (drag all into the exe folder) and boom game is now playable at 1440P high/medium settings at 60fps. Looks great and performs as it should now. Not too shabby on an aging GTX 1070.

So modders are fixing the game for them as well, they really want to become the next Bethesda Games!

Haha true more money spent on advertisements and endorsements over bug testing it seems!

It's about on par with the Radeon in the Renoir CPUs, even beating them sometimes.

In other words, Intel and AMD have switched positions compared to 2015, with CPU power going to AMD and the better integrated graphics going to Intel now

Another week, another round of news:

Let me tell you that the PC Secret Santa thread is open! If you want to join, come here: https://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread/243930/the-11th-semi-annual-pc-secret-santa-event/

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

Cyberpunk 2077’s sales have already exceeded its huge development and marketing costs
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/cyberpunk-2077s-sales-have-already-exceeded-its-huge-development-and-marketing-costs/
Yesterday, we informed you about Cyberpunk 2077 surpassing one million concurrent players on Steam. And today, we have some additional details about the game’s sales. According to CD Projekt RED, the game’s pre-orders and day-1 sales have already exceeded its huge development and marketing costs. In other words, Cyberpunk 2077 is profitable in just one day.
>> How could it not be profitable with 8 million pre-orders!

GOG doesn't have any new sale, with the Weekend Sale still lasting for another couple of days. We all know what that means.

Steam has one new daily deal: Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire is 60% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/560130/Pillars_of_Eternity_II_Deadfire/

Fanatical has two new deals:

• The Star Deal is The Banner Saga 3, 75% off for the next 24 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/the-banner-saga-3
• And the new Deus Ex bundle featuring the 4 games brings up to 98% discounts for the next 14 days. The games are split in three Tiers of 2, 3 and the 4 games: https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/deus-ex-bundle

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

Weta’s mind-blowing Unreal Engine 4 project is available for download
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/weta-mind-blowing-unreal-engine-4-project-download/
Epic Games has announced that the Meerkat short film, recently created by Weta Digital that showcases Unreal Engine’s new production-ready Hair and Fur system, is now available as a sample project. Users can download the entire scene and see firsthand exactly how it was created in the behind-the-scenes feature.

Steam hits new concurrent user high at 24.7M
https://www.pcgamer.com/steam-hits-new-highest-concurrent-user-count-247m/
Steam has surpassed previous concurrent user counts to a new height of 24,776,635 players today, per tracking site SteamDB. This new high beats records set in March of this year as Steam use skyrocketed amid global stay-at-home orders and lockdowns due to the coronavirus pandemic. This spike is probably more complex, but the onset of the winter season, renewed lockdowns in some countries, and the release of Cyberpunk 2077 are all likely contributors. Cyberpunk alone boasted more than a million concurrent Steam users earlier this week, a record for a singleplayer game on the platform.
The growing popularity of CS:GO also contributes a significant portion. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive first broke 1 million players in March with a peak of 1.2 million and just as quickly fell back down, but its average player counts have remained much higher than past totals throughout the year. It's now steadily climbing back towards the 1 million average players mark.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

ENBSeries Mod may add Ray Tracing to Deus Ex Human Revolution, first comparison screenshots
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/enbseries-mod-may-add-ray-tracing-to-deus-ex-human-revolution-first-comparison-screenshots/
Last month, ENBSeries creator, Boris Vorontsov, shared some screenshots, showcasing some new ENBSeries graphical features for Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Boris was able to enable Detailed Shadows, Ambient Occlusion, Screen-Space Reflections. And yesterday, Boris shared some screenshots, showing some lovely experimental Ray Tracing effects.
For these Ray Tracing effects, Boris used 5 rays per pixel. Moreover, he did not use any denoiser (which explains why the screenshots are so grainy). Boris hopes to make this Ray Tracing solution usable with minimal number of bugs in order to integrate it in GTA5 and Skyrim for Patreon users.

Poom is a pixelated 1980s version of Doom you can play right now
https://www.pcgamer.com/poom-is-a-pixelated-1980s-version-of-doom-you-can-play-right-now/
The Pico-8 is a virtual machine and game engine dreamed up as a way of emulating the design limitations of the 1980s, a fantasy videogame console that never existed but which anyone can create games for today. Celeste, for instance, began life as a Pico-8 game, and there's a Pico-8 version of Wolfenstein 3D. And now, in the grand tradition of porting Doom to literally everything, here's Poom, a Pico-8 version of Doom.
You can play Poom right now in your browser, using the arrow keys to move and either X or spacebar to shoot, with Z to strafe or open doors. (It also supports mouse, and other control schemes are available.) There are six original levels and they all nail the feeling of original Doom. So does the music, which is chiptune covers of the original soundtrack. It's the work of Frederic Souchu and Paranoid Cactus, and it's rad as hell.

GAMING NEWS

Persona 5 Strikers will be using the Denuvo anti-tamper tech
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/persona-5-strikers-will-be-using-the-denuvo-anti-tamper-tech/
SEGA and Atlus have launched the Steam store page for Persona 5 Strikers, revealing that the game will be using the Denuvo anti-tamper tech. This does not really surprise us as the previous Persona game, Persona 4 Golden, is also using Denuvo.

Star Wars Squadrons Update 4.0 released, adds new free content to the game
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/star-wars-squadrons-update-4-0-released-adds-new-free-content-to-the-game/
Motive Studios has released a brand new update for Star Wars Squadrons, that adds some new free content to it. According to the release notes, Update 4.0 adds the New Republic B-wing and Imperial TIE defender. Furthermore, it brings Custom Matches, and adds the Fostar Haven map to Fleet Battles and Dogfight.

Cyberpunk 2077 Patch 1.04 available for download, improves stability, reduces vehicle pop-ins
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/cyberpunk-2077-patch-1-04-available-for-download-improves-stability-reduces-vehicle-pop-ins/
CD Projekt RED has just released a new patch for Cyberpunk 2077. According to the team, patch 1.04 reduces vehicle appearance pop-ins, and improves stability, including various crash fixes. Furthermore, this update modifies the flashing effect on braindances to reduce the risk of inducing epileptic symptoms.

BioShock 4 may be an open world RPG according to Cloud Chamber’s recent job listings
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/bioshock-4-may-be-an-open-world-rpg-according-to-cloud-chambers-recent-job-listings/
Back in December 2019, 2K Games officially confirmed that a new Bioshock game was under development. (...)
Now, several new job listings suggest that the next BioShock game may take place in an open-world environment with emergent systems, and advanced AI. Cloud Chamber has listed a set of new job descriptions implying the new sequel is going to be an open world role-playing game.

Immortals Fenyx Rising Update 1.03 released, adds Ultra Quality settings, improves performance
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/immortals-fenyx-rising-update-1-03-released-adds-ultra-quality-settings-improves-performance/
Ubisoft has released a new update for Immortals Fenyx Rising. According to the release notes, Update 1.03 adds new Ultra Quality settings on the PC. Furthermore, this patch brings stability and performance improvements on all platforms.

Electronic Arts has acquired Codemasters
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/electronic-arts-has-acquired-codemasters/
Electronic Arts announced today that it has reached an agreement with the Board of Codemasters for the recommended acquisition of Codemasters. In the transaction, Codemasters’ shareholders will be entitled to receive 604 pence (approximately US$7.98*) in cash for each ordinary share of Codemasters with an implied enterprise value of US$1.2 billion. The acquisition is anticipated to be completed in the first quarter of calendar 2021.
>> R.I.P. Codemasters, you'll be missed. Shikamo has made a thread about it.

New leaked Resident Evil 8 Village screenshots surface, showing a terrifying enemy
https://www.dsogaming.com/pc-performance-analyses/new-leaked-resident-evil-8-village-screenshots-terrifying-enemy/
It appears that a new set of development screenshots have been leaked for Resident Evil 8: Village. These screenshots showcase a monster that will be in the game, and that’s no other than the Molded from Resident Evil 7.

Resident Evil 8: Village’s entire plot and ending have been leaked online
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/resident-evil-8-village-entire-plot-ending-leaked-online/
Man, Capcom cannot catch a break these days. Yesterday, we shared some leaked screenshots for Resident Evil 8: Village. And today, we discovered that the entire plot for this new Resident Evil game, including its ending, has also been leaked.
>> Don't worry, they've decided to not share the details to not spoil us.