Geforce Experience and Gaming Evolved is a chilling reminder of where gaming is going

[dave1029]

I posted this on the Steam Witcher 3 forums but I'd like to re-post it here to see if y'all agree/disagree with my claim and why:

I don't mean this in terms of the developer optimization. I mean the program that auto-optimizes the game. When I first hit auto-optimize, I was expecting it to only turn off the largest resource hogs for the smallest gain. Like in this game for instance, I was expecting shadows to be turned down to medium, foilage distance to high, etc. But on a Titan X SLI setup. Let me repeat this, on a TITAN X SLI SETUP, the thing auto moved almost everything to medium/high. Not a single setting at ultra. Despite if I do the tweaking myself, I can hit 60 for basically no image quality loss even at 4K. Now to my point of why this is chilling.

PC gaming is starting to get more consoley casual. Really now we have programs to auto-consolfy our graphics settings cause we're percieved to be too dumb to do it ourselves? I thought the whole point of consoles, was for people who either didn't have the money for a decent PC build, or those that couldn't be bothered with technical settings crap. I have a friend at a computer store who builds computers for people, and the kids these days are buying these PC's and when he asks what specs they want, most of them only say "I dunno I just want it to play this game." This is a disturbing trend, and I hope developers (cause at this point, PC does get special graphical treatment... even this one did despite the [In Torgue's voice] ZOMG DOWNGRADE) don't start giving PC gamers less options to optimize ourselves because of more and more people complaining on the forums: "wah wah my Nvidia GT 430 can't play this game, I thought Nvidia was the way it was meant to be played, this is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥!"

Only time will tell, and I hope that time will tell as good of a story as CD Red did with this game. Fingers crosssed.

 

[master_shake_]

I don't mean this in terms of the developer optimization. I mean the program that auto-optimizes the game. When I first hit auto-optimize, I was expecting it to only turn off the largest resource hogs for the smallest gain. Like in this game for instance, I was expecting shadows to be turned down to medium, foilage distance to high, etc. But on a Titan X SLI setup. Let me repeat this, on a TITAN X SLI SETUP, the thing auto moved almost everything to medium/high. Not a single setting at ultra. Despite if I do the tweaking myself, I can hit 60 for basically no image quality loss even at 4K. Now to my point of why this is chilling.
PC gaming is starting to get more consoley casual. Really now we have programs to auto-consolfy our graphics settings cause we're percieved to be too dumb to do it ourselves? I thought the whole point of consoles, was for people who either didn't have the money for a decent PC build, or those that couldn't be bothered with technical settings crap. I have a friend at a computer store who builds computers for people, and the kids these days are buying these PC's and when he asks what specs they want, most of them only say "I dunno I just want it to play this game." This is a disturbing trend, and I hope developers (cause at this point, PC does get special graphical treatment... even this one did despite the [In Torgue's voice] ZOMG DOWNGRADE) don't start giving PC gamers less options to optimize ourselves because of more and more people complaining on the forums: "wah wah my Nvidia GT 430 can't play this game, I thought Nvidia was the way it was meant to be played, this is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥!"
Only time will tell, and I hope that time will tell as good of a story as CD Red did with this game. Fingers crosssed.​

quoted for readability.

 

[dave1029]

quoted for readability.

Yeah I don't know why it did that. I just pasted it into notepad and re-copied it to fix it. Weird though.

 

[escrow4]

Why are you auto-optimising on a Titan X SLI setup in the first place? You obviously have money and likely the knowledge to use those expensive parts. If auto don't work don't use it.

 

[2is]

Why are you auto-optimising on a Titan X SLI setup in the first place? You obviously have money and likely the knowledge to use those expensive parts. If auto don't work don't use it.

Agreed, it's not so much games being consolized, it's the user allowing it to be in this case. I don't let GFE auto optimize my games for the same reason I don't allow my motherboards UEFI to auto overclock and auto volt my CPU, because I can do a better job of doing it myself and get exactly what I want.

 

[dave1029]

Why are you auto-optimising on a Titan X SLI setup in the first place? You obviously have money and likely the knowledge to use those expensive parts. If auto don't work don't use it.

Curious to see what settings it would pick.

 

[flopper]

dx12 changes this

 

[Borealis7]

I always un-tick the GeForce Experience when installing drivers. No reminder for me.

 

[Grooveriding]

Just don't install GFE, it's bloatware. Unless you need to record yourself gaming, otherwise it's useless.

 

[skipsneeky2]

Never even took the slightest interest in Geforce Experience.As always,i adjust settings to work with my vram and my 60+ mins fps if and whenever possible.

Kind of silly if sli Titan X users need GE.

 

[tential]

A lot of people use gfe and consider it to be a crucial feature as they are not knowledgeable enough to change settings on their own.

So yes while you guys may not install it I do share ops concerns as its an easy way to make people think their cards aren't good enough who are too gpu illiterate to understand.

BTW, I've seen a lot of people with 1.3k+ in gpu purchases not know much about gpu settings at all. That portion of gamers who have decent jobs, no other hobbies, and spend a lot on gaming is more than you guys think.

 

[sm625]

For those less knowledgeable (or less willing to tinker) it is always best to err on the side of increased FPS. Games have been this way for a long time. Many games have had crappy "auto" settings way before things like Geforce Experience came along.

 

[PrincessFrosty]

PC gaming is starting to get more consoley casual.

No, I disagree and here's why.

The only difference between the console and PC is that the console is a proprietary locked platform and the PC is an open platform, all other differences stem from this fundamental difference. What you're talking about, this consolization which definitely does occur in the PC space isn't something we should ignore, however the fundamental truth is that it's OPTIONAL, you don't need to install and use Nvidias Geforce Experience nor is it impossible for other people to write such software which is better.

Consoles and many tablets and phones have no such choice since they control their own envrionments, that's not possible on the PC nor will it ever be, a large percentage of stupid, uninformed and casual gamers will always do stupid things that do not benefit themselves, but so what. Identify where the problem lay, discuss them and preferably either write/code an alternative or encourage/support those who do.

THAT...that is the strength of the PC, and it's why we win, every single time.

 

[bystander36]

As has been stated before, if you don't like it, don't use it. However, in your case, it just seems that profile wasn't optimized yet. Either it doesn't know what to do with the Titan X SLI setup, or it wasn't optimized for the game.

And there is nothing wrong with the software. It makes it easier for many people. Not everyone wants to go through all the game settings to optimize it for themselves, and would rather click a single button and play.

 

[RaulF]

I think they are both great tools for people that are not as informed and just wish to play the game.

 

[Keysplayr]

GFE is great for Shadowplay and also GameStream for streaming to a Shield tablet from a PC.

 

[nurturedhate]

I haven't had any positive experiences with Geforce Experience. In particular, GFE causes crashing (for me) in Starcraft 2 and FF14 among other games at startup. I uninstall it and it runs just fine.

 

[NTMBK]

I think "chilling reminder" is kind of overstating it. They goofed up the profile, big deal.

 

[SirPauly]

PC gaming is starting to get more consoley casual.

I don't understand! Chilling reminder? You have more choices, options and flexibility to play your titles -- you're not forced to use the settings in GeForce Experience and can still tweak yourself. Having the option for GE is primarily for the gamers that desire a more easier method to optimize and improve their experience based on many gamers use default settings. For a more advanced PC user, the ability to tweak is still available and hasn't changed at all.

 

[2is]

A lot of people use gfe and consider it to be a crucial feature as they are not knowledgeable enough to change settings on their own.

So yes while you guys may not install it I do share ops concerns as its an easy way to make people think their cards aren't good enough who are too gpu illiterate to understand.

BTW, I've seen a lot of people with 1.3k+ in gpu purchases not know much about gpu settings at all. That portion of gamers who have decent jobs, no other hobbies, and spend a lot on gaming is more than you guys think.

If they're not knowledgable to set their own settings they won't be knowledgable enough to know if their card is good enough or not based on the settings gfe uses. The only way they'd know is if the game performed poorly and since gfe sets the settings lower than what the card is capable of, that's not a problem unless in fact the card is indeed, not good enough.

That said, I like gfe. I don't use it to "optimize" my games but I do use it for shadow play from time to time and have started using its fps counter over fraps lately. I also like that it alerts me when a new driver is available.

 

[dave1029]

I guess I misrepresented my concern. I don't have a problem with GFE as it stands this moment. My concern is, moving forward, do developers start to require things like GFE and Gaming Evolved (Think it's actually called Raptr- can't remember) and completely remove our ability to change settings in the options. I mean, so few of us optimize the games ourselves. We can just do it via the .ini, right? We don't need options settings. Hopefully I'm just being dramatic, but it's the direction we're heading. Newer games have far less graphical sliders to mess with things. At least the newer games that I've played.

 

[AnandThenMan]

I think the concern is warranted games to me look to be moving away from options/choices. Maybe you'll always be able to hack the config files and the like but most people don't do this.

 

[Subyman]

I guess I misrepresented my concern. I don't have a problem with GFE as it stands this moment. My concern is, moving forward, do developers start to require things like GFE and Gaming Evolved (Think it's actually called Raptr- can't remember) and completely remove our ability to change settings in the options. I mean, so few of us optimize the games ourselves. We can just do it via the .ini, right? We don't need options settings. Hopefully I'm just being dramatic, but it's the direction we're heading. Newer games have far less graphical sliders to mess with things. At least the newer games that I've played.

It is a valid concern, but I don't see it happening. Maybe in one game and then there would be backlash. The only upside for the developer is maybe a bit less support load on their forums for slow game response, but then they open up the flood gates for people complaining they do not have full control over the settings.

On another note, some people do not mind playing at 30-40 to get better visuals than playing at 60, especially with the new gsync/freesync. Some people want to game at 144hz and lower everything to suit them. So it wouldn't be as easy as only targeting one FPS and if they are going to put an FPS target slider in there then they may as well put it all in.

 

[bystander36]

I don't think it's possible for them to remove settings. GFE simply choose settings for you, but they choose them from a list of available settings. They also know that new games, less known dev's, new cards on old games, and many other situations cause these things to not pick optimal settings. You also have personal preferences, where 1 person wants 60 FPS, another wants 100 FPS, while others are ok with 30 FPS. These things make it near impossible to deal with on an open platform, yet it is still a useful tool to many.

 

[sxr7171]

So that's the lazy option. However, look at the amount of testing they do at:

http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/gu...-hunt-graphics-performance-and-tweaking-guide

reading that and choosing your settings is the non-lazy option. We didn't have that kind of testing and analysis years ago. You can find the right setting for your setup with about an hour of tweaking. Before you might spend your first week tweaking it with hearsay from internet forums on which settings to use.