NVIDIA Unveils GeForce Experience

[Fourstaff]

Originally Posted by m1dg3t

People should take the time to learn their system's

People do that with everything they own, cars, musical instruments, etc. Most of the time people are just uninterested in tinkering, prefering for it to "work out of the box".

[m1dg3t]

Originally Posted by Fourstaff

People do that with everything they own, cars, musical instruments, etc. Most of the time people are just uninterested in tinkering, prefering for it to "work out of the box".

The %age of people who "tweak" their hardware (whatever it may be) is very slim compared to the rest of the market and part of the reason why is because of instances just like this. People are either content with the performance or can't be arsed to inform themselves and make the change's on their own.

This is just my opinion of course and another detractor/factor for me to stay away from Nvidia. Hopefully ATi does NOT implement a similar system in the future otherwise we'll all be playing Xbox/PS3 style

I don't take survey's and i don't submit info. We pay them good $$$ to develop hardware & software, they should earn it

[cadaveca]

This is far too basic to ever take off.


Let me know when it will automatically download and install the perfect driver for each app prior to it loading the app when you start it, and then it'll be useful.


Talk about aiming low....

[Jurassic1024]

I'm sorry but I think this is cool as hell. If it doesn't do more harm than good that is.

[Jurassic1024]

Originally Posted by cadaveca

This is far too basic to ever take off.


Let me know when it will automatically download and install the perfect driver for each app prior to it loading the app when you start it, and then it'll be useful.


Talk about aiming low....

Who knows, this could be the start of that. nVIDIA is technically a software company, so this could be good.

[Fourstaff]

Originally Posted by m1dg3t

The %age of people who "tweak" their hardware (whatever it may be) is very slim compared to the rest of the market and part of the reason why is because of instances just like this. People are either content with the performance or can't be arsed to inform themselves and make the change's on their own.

This is just my opinion of course and another detractor/factor for me to stay away from Nvidia. Hopefully ATi does NOT implement a similar system in the future otherwise we'll all be playing Xbox/PS3 style

I don't take survey's and i don't submit info. We pay them good $$$ to develop hardware & software, they should earn it

Of course they will still allow full control, its just for people too lazy or can't be arsed to tinker who will make good use out of this. Also, I think this is going to be an automatic process, where you will be asked if you want to help your fellow gamers by submitting the settings you use. You say that they are getting good money to develop software and hardware, I agree with this, but there is a bewildering amount of different hardware combination that its impossible for them to optimise for each system, and they can only provide a crude recommendations. This is where this system comes in to play.

[cadaveca]

Originally Posted by Jurassic1024

Who knows, this could be the start of that. nVIDIA is technically a software company, so this could be good.

I doubt it. I told them to do that like over 5 years ago, and now we get this. I told them straight out...put the driver right in the game, quit screwing around. All I got was puzzled looks.

Like I said, aiming low. Great ideas, of course, but poor execution.

And it's not "technically"...they ARE "a software company, who also sells hardware". Direct quote.

[Benetanegia]

Originally Posted by m1dg3t

This is just my opinion of course and another detractor/factor for me to stay away from Nvidia.

Ding ding. That is the reason you don't like this, liking it was not ever an option for you. You didn't even tried to understand it. It's not something they are forcing on you. You can just use it or not. Do you stay away from games who have a "load default settings" button? This is nothing different except that instead of going to some arbitrary default settings, it goes to the settings that have been statistically "proven" best for your setup. I've never used default settings, never even hit the low/medium/high overall presets that many games have on top, and always went directly to the features list, so will I use this? No. Is it good, yes, for everyone except enthusiasts.

- It's good for users, because they will get a better experience than what default offers just by pressing a button.

- It is A LOT better for developers, because they will be able to use higher settings and features: those with lower end cards will play on low (unlike today), no need to tweak the default/medium settings so that it runs well on most PCs, aka low end cards. Also new features would make more sense, since they will be used more often by gamers. I didn't know it, but now I know why developers are so reluctant to including new features: maybe even 80% of people who could have used them, don't, even if their hardware could, because they just use the default settings. What's the point of including a feature 80% of people won't use because it can not be the default option?

- Better for PC industry because PC gaming being simpler might attract those who now go with consoles because they perceive it as the easy option.

Hopefully ATi does NOT implement a similar system in the future otherwise we'll all be playing Xbox/PS3 style

If anything this will make developers more inclined to offer new features, because they will actually be used by most and because no matter what amount of settings the game has, it's not going to overwhelm anyone. Only those who want would need to tweak dozens of different settings. Maybe a lot of developers use very few graphic setting options so as to not overwhelm the mainstream audience, since you can usually still tweak every single feature through the config file.

[TheMailMan78]

I guess I'm that "80%" because I never mess with control panel adjustments. I just play with in-game settings and see what the best FPS I get is and run with that. Also me just messing with in-game settings give my FAR better graphics then consoles. I honestly never have had to mess with the control panel.

[Frick]

Originally Posted by m1dg3t

The way i see it is; Nvidia is taking the enthusiasm out of being an enthusiast!

Only enthusiasts play games now?

Originally Posted by m1dg3t

ATi

You really have to get over this.

[Fourstaff]

Originally Posted by TheMailMan78

I guess I'm that "80%" because I never mess with control panel adjustments. I just play with in-game settings and see what the best FPS I get is and run with that. Also me just messing with in-game settings give my FAR better graphics then consoles. I honestly never have had to mess with the control panel.

I think it means 80% of the people doesn't even adjust the game settings in game. You are the 20%, because you actually adjust anything at all

[Benetanegia]

Originally Posted by TheMailMan78

I guess I'm that "80%" because I never mess with control panel adjustments. I just play with in-game settings and see what the best FPS I get is and run with that. Also me just messing with in-game settings give my FAR better graphics then consoles. I honestly never have had to mess with the control panel.

Originally Posted by Fourstaff

I think it means 80% of the people doesn't even adjust the game settings in game. You are the 20%, because you actually adjust anything at all

^This. From what I've read everywhere, it will tweak in-game options (and probably CP options too of course). So yeah, you are actually part of the 20%.

if you follow the link to the source, it says:

One of PC gaming’s strengths is the ability to configure graphics in-game, letting players with very different hardware and software setups enjoy the same title. The flip side is a bewildering array of graphics sliders with names like "radial blur quality" and "distant object detail" that users need to tweak in order to [...]

@Cadaveca

Also in the source:

With a piece of GeForce Experience software on their PCs, players will be able to simply click a button in order to download the optimal settings, along with the newest drivers.

Isn't that close enough to what you want?

IMO that's better than what you suggest tbh. Come on, isn't it annoying when you just want to play a certain game a few minutes, but Steam wants to patch it? it would be the same and most people would just disable that option by default (which is what I do with nearly ever SP game I own).

[pjladyfox]

Originally Posted by syeef

1. As a Software Developer, it is hard

2. Nvidia won't be able to do it because they don't know how each developer has designed their games (as in which files and how to benchmark).

3. Games developers won't do it because it would be a waste of their time and money and if each game has its own benchmark tool, it will be redundant; think of HD space waste.

+1 for truth on this.

The fustrating part about all of this is that, with QA for the most part being outsourced, trying to find ANY external testing company who REALLY knows their stuff regarding gaming and PC hardware compatibility is incredibly difficult. Most will fall into one of two camps:

- Unit testing: Where a "unit", in this case a desktop PC either OEM or hand-built, is used amongst a pool of testers. They then work down a "checklist", most commonly known as a test case, to use during their testing cycle. Typically this the most commonly found kind of hardware compatibility especially in those companies who outsource their QA testing.

- Benchmark testing: This is the lesser known, and based upon my experience dying, example of hardware compatibility testing. This kind of testing is very similar to what hardware reviewers use with a few key differences:

a. It is geared more towards testing the individual hardware components than the overall configuration
b. The tester will have a low (read: min spec), mainstream, and recommended set of configurations. A typical mix of this will have a Intel/NVIDIA "set" of systems and AMD/ATI for the other
c. That, based upon the experience of the tester, will mix and match some configurations to ensure that sticking an NVIDIA video card in an AMD motherboard will not cause a game to choke

The bigger and more well financed QA groups will have an internal team, with a hardware catalog to test with, but sadly this is slowly dying. This is somewhat depressing when I recall having a conversation with a QA outsource vendor the company I was with at the time had a difficult time wrapping their head around identifying performance-related issues and instead just provided "test case results" that centered around the failed "unit" that they were using and left it up to the developer to try and figure out what the issue was. o_O Sadly, the expertise involved with PC hardware testing is not sticking around the industry due to either being laid off in preference to outsource testing (with EA being one of the bigger companies that did away with a good portion of their internal testing teams from what I understand) or the persons with the requesite knowledge not wishing to work the long hours and poor financial benefits to keep the knowledge in the industry.

[m1dg3t]

Edit: Most game's i have have an inbuilt "optimizer" anyways, which i never use.

Originally Posted by Frick

Only enthusiasts play games now?

Yes. Gaming enthusiast's.

Everyone should have minimum computing skill's, it only make's sense in a society that is so technology dependant/based.

Take me for example; when i was young and wanted to play games on a PC i had to know some basic coding (Commodore) otherwise i could NOT play! Now i, and million's of other people, just pop in a disc and it does everything for me/us!

Am i smarter now? NO. I am dumber.

If i got into programming this would be moot but as tech matured the need for me to work with programming was removed and i never pursued it because of the lack of a need for it.

Originally Posted by Frick

You really have to get over this.

There is nothing to get over! It was an excellent move for both companies, for me AMD = CPU/APU & ATi = GFX plain and simple.

[Fourstaff]

Originally Posted by m1dg3t

Edit: Most game's i have have an inbuilt "optimizer" anyways, which i never use.

the other 80% of the gaming community uses them, so you can see why they are trying to build an adaptive optimiser.

Originally Posted by m1dg3t

Yes. Gaming enthusiast's.

No, gaming is meant to enjoyed/used by everyone, not just the enthusiasts. Just like driving, you don't need to be a car enthusiast to know and want to drive around.

Originally Posted by m1dg3t

Everyone should have minimum computing skill's, it only make's sense in a society that is so technology dependant/based.

What is minimum computing skill? The ability to turn on the PC? The ability to use a web browser to look for good stuff? I see minimum skill as the ability to use programs which you desire, but not necessarily know the program in and out, and that excludes the ability to tinker with the settings.

Originally Posted by m1dg3t

Take me for example; when i was young and wanted to play games on a PC i had to know some basic coding (Commodore) otherwise i could NOT play! Now i, and million's of other people, just pop in a disc and it does everything for me/us!

Am i smarter now? NO. I am dumber.

No, you are not dumber, one of the inconveniences of your life has just been removed. Once upon a time if I want food I have to grow my own food. Now I just pop to the nearest supermarket. Does that make me dumber? Not really, it leaves me to pursue something else, one of the wonders of modern technology. I am free to troll without needing to worry about whether I have food later.

Originally Posted by m1dg3t

If i got into programming this would be moot but as tech matured the need for me to work with programming was removed and i never pursued it because of the lack of a need for it.

I have friends whose job depends on their ability to code like a boss, and others who doesn't even know how to use a computer properly outside MS Word and the occasional web browsing. Both group leads successful lives, and to me that indicates programming is not something you need to know to live and enjoy your life, just like you don't really need to know how to fly a plane to enjoy air travel, or the need to understand logic systems to be able to enjoy using a microprocessor. You can certainly get more out of it if you pay more attention, but that is not a need.

[m1dg3t]

Originally Posted by Fourstaff

I am free to troll.

GTFO of here

[jewie27]

The first thing I do when I log into a new PC game is turn all graphics settings as high as possible. I never turn any settings down because I have two GTX 580's in SLI.

[pjladyfox]

Originally Posted by m1dg3t

Edit: Most game's i have have an inbuilt "optimizer" anyways, which i never use.

You and others would be pretty surprised to hear how most of these "optimizers" work. Come to think of it, outside of some of the bigger "blockbuster" titles most of these work something like this:

- Engine programmer asks Compatibility or hardware vendors for list of "hardware identification codes" or in laymans terms the list of video cards that each driver from NVIDIA and ATI ship with.

- Said engine programmer plugs in these codes into the section of the game where the options settings reside; usually in the form of some kind of .INF file

- Once said engine programmer has all of this integrated into the options settings for the game they tie in the default resolution and other settings so that when that video card is identified by the "optimizer" it will populate the settings tagged in the .INF file

Some companies will make some modicum of effort, working with either their internal/external compatibility team or the hardware developers like ATI/NVIDIA, and will use what those groups have found will give what they consider ideal settings for maximum performance and visual quality. The games that you see that ship with some kind of benchmarking tool, like Far Cry or Crysis for example, use what most would consider a fully-functional "optimizer" that uses the in-game benchmarking tool to populate the settings to the .INF file.

Sadly, in most cases the above situations are in the minority, and usually just use the default settings that the game needs to run and leave them alone. The reality is that unless the game is guaranteed to be a AAA title and will sell millions this level of effort will be reserved for those games with all others being left with a feel-good placebo "optimizer" that does nothing. -_-

[D007]

I think this is a huge point for console owners. I hate console but I did love, to just drop in a cd and wala.. Good to go..