GAF's favorite Alex, in IGN's Expert Explains ray tracing to three levels of gamer

Buggy Loop

Buggy Loop

Gold Member
Fully sponsored by Nvidia and basically a promo.

Even as a PC enthusiast, pro path tracing and all that, I cannot explain why but the video is so awkward.

It gets a bit better when they get to trusted techy portion but still nothing is really explained how ray tracing works! He's mainly giving definitions Nvidia technologies.



The first part is borderline comical

Alex : ".. and denoising technology to clean up a ray tracing image has existed for a long time but ray reconstruction is a more fine grain version of that that actually uses machine learning running on the GPU so it's like an AI program that knows how to clean up images, it can recognize shadows, it can recognize reflections, it can recognize the sunlight bouncing off this wall here and it can say oh I need to clean up this pixel in this way"

IGN's Nash "right so that GPU, which is like look it's huge, that's almost like got a computer in the computer"

QJziVof.jpeg


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"yea.. uhm"

Anyway, no hate on Alex on my end personally, but I'm sure GAF will go fucking nuts.

I guess there's a crowd for basic explanations of tech they've never seen on PC too, but yea, just feels awkward.
 
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I don't like watching awkward videos.

I will just imagine that he explained everything in the coolest way possible, and that they actually cared.
 
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Liopleurodon said:
I don't like watching awkward videos.

I will just imagine that he explained everything in the coolest way possible, and that they actually cared.
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Might just be my perception but the "expert" part while not really explaining ray tracing and just giving nvidia tech definitions is...I don't know. I guess more peoples will comment.

Some peoples in the youtube comments seem to appreciate it so there's a crowd for that I guess. I'm a bit jaded maybe.
 
don't understand what so hard about just reading up on it yourself instead of listening to some assholes on youtube
 
Buggy Loop said:
Might just be my perception but the "expert" part while not really explaining ray tracing and just giving nvidia tech definitions is...I don't know. I guess more peoples will comment.

Some peoples in the youtube comments seem to appreciate it so there's a crowd for that I guess. I'm a bit jaded maybe.
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...

I will try to muster some courage, and watch that video, I have some experience with video games awards shows.

Here goes nothing...
 
Okay, so I watch the video, and it really wasn't awkward at all, IMO.

Alex is also very knowledgeable, and knows how to explain it slowly, and calmly, together with the actual gameplay.
His enthusiasm about technology is showing, which is also a nice thing.

Myself, I am not all that crazy about ray tracing, butt video did make me a bit more interested in it.

Anyway, good video, good explanation, glad I decided to watch it.
 
Not gonna watch it, but I don't expect anyone from DF to understand how RT works.
I'll keep saying it, they are good for performance analysis and pixel counting, but they do not understand the tech and they are not experts, they just have the right tools.
 
Danknugz said:
don't understand what so hard about just reading up on it yourself instead of listening to some assholes on youtube
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I do agree that people need to Google their own answers a lot more, but I will say that these days finding something genuinely helpful can be more and more difficult. The search engine optimisation and AI generated slop is a massive detriment to the Internet.
 
People here hating on Alex for no reason at all. Dude knows what he's talking about and seems like a fun guy to hang with.

Show some respect to a fellow human being.
 
Or you can just ask ChatGPT to explain raytracing to you in three ways - like you're five, like you're a gaming enthusiast and like you're a graphics designer at a renowned studio - and be done and knowledgable in under a minute.
 
I don't know why people have a problem with Alex but him being in a sponsored video makes me doubt his credibility in this case.
 
Alex is not particularly knowledgeable about hardware or rendering tech.
But of course, if he goes to a place like IGN, where ignorance rules, then he will look like an expert.
And that is also why some people here think he is an expert. Simply because they don't know any better.

For a better simplified explanation about what ray tracing is, here is a video.


And for people who want a more complete explanation about how a GPU renders, here is a University professor, with a ton of videos explaining every stage.
www.youtube.com

Cem Yuksel

Cem Yuksel is a computer graphics researcher and a professor in the School of Computing at the University of Utah.
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com
 
SJRB said:
Or you can just ask ChatGPT to explain raytracing to you in three ways - like you're five, like you're a gaming enthusiast and like you're a graphics designer at a renowned studio - and be done and knowledgable in under a minute.
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explanation for 5 yrs old

Imagine you have a flashlight (that's the ray) and you're shining it around your toy room at night. You point it at your toy car, and the light bounces off the car and into your eyes so you can see it.

Now, pretend your computer is trying to draw a super-realistic picture of that toy room. Instead of drawing everything quickly and roughly, it pretends that it sends out tiny invisible flashlights (rays) from your eyes (the screen) into the scene to see what each one hits.

  • If a ray hits a red ball, it says: "Aha! Red ball here!" 🎯
  • If it hits a shiny mirror, it bounces off and looks again to see what the mirror is showing. 🪞
  • If it goes through a window, it bends the ray a little, just like real light does. 🪟✨
This is how ray tracing makes pictures look super real—with reflections, shadows, and lights behaving just like in the real world.
 
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The expert at (gas)lighting. Will never forget this shit



As if we didn't have games like RDR2 with in shadow gameplay and DTOD.
 
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It is a sponsored video for sure but it is explained very well with good examples. It is Raytracing for dummies and the IGN guy definitely is/act like one.
And all the people who know better than Alex, please do direct me to your YouTube channel where you explain the tech way better than Alex in a non-sponsored video. Appreciated..
 
Shaki12345 said:
People here hating on Alex for no reason at all. Dude knows what he's talking about and seems like a fun guy to hang with.

Show some respect to a fellow human being.
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I remember in one of DF's podcasts him hating on "questionable, problematic and too revealing" protag clothes in stellar blade, he deserves everything coming his way, not to mention like some1 already mentioned him gaslighting mediocre graphics in last halo.
 
PeteBull said:
I remember in one of DF's podcasts him hating on "questionable, problematic and too revealing" protag clothes in stellar blade, he deserves everything coming his way, not to mention like some1 already mentioned him gaslighting mediocre graphics in last halo.
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Just because he has a different opinion than yours?

Wow man.
 
Shaki12345 said:
People here hating on Alex for no reason at all. Dude knows what he's talking about and seems like a fun guy to hang with.

Show some respect to a fellow human being.
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He missed the mark with his silly TLoU2 PC video just a day ago. Also he purposefully ignores a lot of context in his videos. He also blows out stuff out of proportion a lot.

I would rather listen to the engineer like Cerny than this walking Stutterstruggle Drama Queen.
 
Danknugz said:
don't understand what so hard about just reading up on it yourself instead of listening to some assholes on youtube
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The hard part actually are those who think it's hard to understand common sense and build their entire career just from being tech ignorant.
 
Shaki12345 said:
Just because he has a different opinion than yours?

Wow man.
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He is woke fuck, i dont critique his tech work at DF(except that simping vid he did for microsofts halo infinite when he was big time damage controlling ), just very bad takes outside of his tech insights, with german men like alex u dont need to wonder germany turned into germanistan last 10 years ;)
They got 1,46 fertility rate(while 2,1 is needed for population replacement), now if u count out all the emigrants from africa/middle east its for sure even worse, but whatever, from my country's pov- our most dangerous neighbours aka germany and russia getting weaker/less populated is never a bad thing, gotta thank mutti merkel for that(she actually had polish grandpa so we always laught how fucked up that was ;)

https://www.statista.com/statistics/295397/fertility-rate-in-germany/ sudden and crazy big drop in fertility rate somehow corelates with time of discovering birth controll pill and feminism spreading its nasty wings, definitely not a coinsidence there :)

Our GAF-bros found out what alex is about:

GjdpEeYXQAAJG7l.jpg


So him not liking female character looking pretty/dressing sexy makes a lot of sense :P

We had a topic about this whole thing btw:
 
PeteBull said:
He is woke fuck, i dont critique his tech work at DF(except that simping vid he did for microsofts halo infinite when he was big time damage controlling ), just very bad takes outside of his tech insights, with german men like alex u dont need to wonder germany turned into germanistan last 10 years ;)
They got 1,46 fertility rate(while 2,1 is needed for population replacement), now if u count out all the emigrants from africa/middle east its for sure even worse, but whatever, from my country's pov- our most dangerous neighbours aka germany and russia getting weaker/less populated is never a bad thing, gotta thank mutti merkel for that(she actually had polish grandpa so we always laught how fucked up that was ;)

https://www.statista.com/statistics/295397/fertility-rate-in-germany/ sudden and crazy big drop in fertility rate somehow corelates with time of discovering birth controll pill and feminism spreading its nasty wings, definitely not a coinsidence there :)

Our GAF-bros found out what alex is about:

GjdpEeYXQAAJG7l.jpg


So him not liking female character looking pretty/dressing sexy makes a lot of sense :p

We had a topic about this whole thing btw:
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Why does his private personality matter if his technical analysis is on point? He can be or do whatever the F he wants to right?

From a gaming perspective he has a lot to bring to the world.
 
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Shaki12345 said:
Why does his private personality matter if his technical analysis is on point? He can be or do whatever the F he wants to right?

From a gaming perspective he has a lot to bring to the world.
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He is not private with his views, bro, u got literal proof he expressed his woke views on DF channel, whatever he does privately in his bedroom its totally not my business, but im allowed to critique stupid takes of his DF publicly posts.
Hell he can have his woke opinions and voice them publicly too, but lets not pretend we cant judge him on that, coz we do, all the time.
 
PeteBull said:
He is not private with his views, bro, u got literal proof he expressed his woke views on DF channel, whatever he does privately in his bedroom its totally not my business, but im allowed to critique stupid takes of his DF publicly posts.
Hell he can have his woke opinions and voice them publicly too, but lets not pretend we cant judge him on that, coz we do, all the time.
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Most of the time he is a well versed professional. The fact this hurts you this much says more about you then Alex imo.
 
Shaki12345 said:
Most of the time he is a well versed professional. The fact this hurts you this much says more about you then Alex imo.
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Most of the time(would say 99%+ of times) i watch his vids, give him thumbs up, im subscribed to DF channel for well over 12 years by now, i was there even before they actually did commentary, at first they did just straight framerate test vids, u can check it all, its on the channel.
But im concious consumer, i am allowed to like what i actually like, and dont like what i dont like, thats called being normal free human being :)

TLDR: When alex sticks to being professional i like it, when his personal views(be it wokeness or simping for microsoft, thats likely coz of some benefits he/DF got) get the better of him, i will be there to call it out.
 
Shaki12345 said:
Most of the time he is a well versed professional. The fact this hurts you this much says more about you then Alex imo.
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Well-versed professionals aren't nearly as consistently and relentlessly biased as Alex is.

Dude can explain some of the features that make up a modern renderer. But Alex's all-consuming hard-on for raytracing makes almost all of his analysis excruciating to watch.

To Alex, if RT isn't used the game looks shit, even when it's clear that it isn't. And when it is used, the game is "OMFG WTF BBQ BEST GAME EVER!!!" when the game in question has huge visual and IQ problems.

You can literally hear the point in any analysis when Alex nuts in his jimmies when given the chance to talk about raytracing. At this point he should just quit DF and start his own channel where he just talks exclusively about the use of RT in various games... with one hand on his cock rubbing furiously.
 
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Grizzled Ghost said:
Who's Alex and why is he hated?
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Alex is a PC enthusiast who recognises the objective advantages of the PC platform and likes to see progress in PC technology and game graphics (that's why Crysis is one or his favorite games). Alex is particularly passionate about RT technology, because he knows that light shapes everything and can dramatically improve game graphics.

Why are some neogafers hating Alex? Unhappy people direct their anger at others for no reason, but especially at someone who likes something they dislike. Alex likes PC platform and ray tracing, while many neogafers are console gamers, who hate raytracing because it doesnt run well on consoles. There are also some PC gamers who hate raytracing because their PC cannot run RT well, or becasue they have no or little knowledge of light and therefore cannot appreciate what RT does. Such people can only see performance cost of raytracing, while completely ignoring what RT brings to the overall picture. For example this guy Radical_3d Radical_3d :

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However, people who have a good understanding of light will easily see and appreciate what RT does. RT is also very scalable and modern high end GPUs can render RT reflections without destroying framerate.

1440p DLSSQuality + FGx2, maxed out settings on my RTX4080S. 215 fps with RT reflections and 215fps with raster reflections.

rt.jpg


raster.jpg


I need to add more RT effects to get much lower performance compared to raster and even then the game is still perfectly playable.

Ultra RT, the most demanding area in entire game.

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Path Tracing

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If RT games would run at 30fps on my PC then I would turn RT off, but since RT games runs very well on my PC I usually play with RT. Only PT games tanks performance noticeably on my PC, but thanks to DLSS even these extremely demanding games are still playable. I played teens of RT games and only turned off RT in a single game SW: Jedi Survivor because of stuttering issues with RT (average framerate was still very good though).

Without RT it's very difficult to achieve realistic lighting. For example this Uncharted 4 screenshot. Samuel Drake is standing in the shadows yet he's well lit. Only people who dont know much about game graphics think that RT is not needed.

u4-2024-12-05-14-59-33-018.jpg


And good example how RT can transform old games. This screenshot used old DLSS (CNN model), but I dont want to download the whole game again just to take DLSS transformer (much sharper) screenshots.


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I think some people might also envy Alex for his work. Many gamers think they know more than Alex when it comes to technology and would love to have a similar job, playing the latest games and testing the latest hardware.
 
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