Metro: Last Light

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Carfax83

Diamond Member
Nov 1, 2010
6,841
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The thing about this PhysX stuff is that I never notice the difference until Nvidia actually points it out side-by-side in a video.

Even in the part where they were blowing away wall-tiles with a gun, it looked identical to me. I didn't even notice the debris on the floor until they zoomed in on it.

Seems like kind of a waste of GPU processing power, IMO.

Personally, I don't like the over the top physx effects in some games. The effects in Metro Last Light are subtle, but very good. I wish they would make the grenades deadlier though, like they were in Metro 2033.

The train scene which was featured in the 12 minute play through is a more impressive use of PhysX than anything seen in the Geforce video.
 

Regs

Lifer
Aug 9, 2002
16,665
21
81
The rags and cloths blowing in the wind and the vegetation swaying during a heavy storm was awesome. The red curtain during the play also added another dimension to the visuals. Stuff like this should be standard by now but isn't.
 

clok1966

Golden Member
Jul 6, 2004
1,395
13
76
The rags and cloths blowing in the wind and the vegetation swaying during a heavy storm was awesome. The red curtain during the play also added another dimension to the visuals. Stuff like this should be standard by now but isn't.

you are correct, but there is the problem.. "should be standard" it shouldn't be a "buy me to get it" thing.. Nv should have just licensed it so both NV and ATI had it.. This 'its my football Im quarterback" mentality wont work in a compatative world.. especially in video cards where the cards are now (high end) costing more then the whole rest of the PC. Anything that adds to the game is a PLUS and it does.. its just to bad NV made it theirs and theirs alone.. even making it some addon chip for a MB would have been wiser.. I think of 3DFX, it ruled with an IRON fist in video cards.. everybody made um as they licensed it, when they said "buy from us or nobody" it was dead in months.. IRON GRIP to gone.. GREED is a terrible thing.
 

Regs

Lifer
Aug 9, 2002
16,665
21
81
you are correct, but there is the problem.. "should be standard" it shouldn't be a "buy me to get it" thing.. Nv should have just licensed it so both NV and ATI had it.. This 'its my football Im quarterback" mentality wont work in a compatative world.. especially in video cards where the cards are now (high end) costing more then the whole rest of the PC. Anything that adds to the game is a PLUS and it does.. its just to bad NV made it theirs and theirs alone.. even making it some addon chip for a MB would have been wiser.. I think of 3DFX, it ruled with an IRON fist in video cards.. everybody made um as they licensed it, when they said "buy from us or nobody" it was dead in months.. IRON GRIP to gone.. GREED is a terrible thing.

I have an ATI card. They program it for both APIs as they're both capable or processing it. Not sure works best though as I am little out of the loop with hardware.
 

smackababy

Lifer
Oct 30, 2008
27,024
79
86
So, I heard this was pretty good. Is it worth playing if you have not played the first Metro or should I play that one first?
 

Carfax83

Diamond Member
Nov 1, 2010
6,841
1,536
136
you are correct, but there is the problem.. "should be standard" it shouldn't be a "buy me to get it" thing.. Nv should have just licensed it so both NV and ATI had it.. This 'its my football Im quarterback" mentality wont work in a compatative world.. especially in video cards where the cards are now (high end) costing more then the whole rest of the PC. Anything that adds to the game is a PLUS and it does.. its just to bad NV made it theirs and theirs alone.. even making it some addon chip for a MB would have been wiser.. I think of 3DFX, it ruled with an IRON fist in video cards.. everybody made um as they licensed it, when they said "buy from us or nobody" it was dead in months.. IRON GRIP to gone.. GREED is a terrible thing.

NVidia alone footed the cost for developing and refining this software (especially if you remember that GPU accelerated physics was an unpopular notion in the beginning), so from a business perspective, why should they help their competitor?

That said, AMD is just as much to blame for not adopting PhysX than NVidia since AMD have proclaimed many times that they "do not support proprietary standards."

If AMD wanted to license PhysX, I'm sure they could do it and then port it to OpenCL. But they lack the will to do it, instead putting their focus on OpenCL's Bullet Physics; which isn't saying much really because Bullet physics is very underdeveloped compared to PhysX.
 

smackababy

Lifer
Oct 30, 2008
27,024
79
86
Play Metro 2033 first, definitely.

Alright. I'll try and find a good deal on it. I think I might have tried it awhile back and just didn't get too much into it. Did it come with an nVidia bundle awhile back? Or maybe an AMD bundle for like the 5000 series?
 

Phynaz

Lifer
Mar 13, 2006
10,140
819
126
Meh, I'm having a hard time getting into this. Just isn't holding my interest. I never got into 2033 either.
 

Dankk

Diamond Member
Jul 7, 2008
5,558
25
91
Alright. I'll try and find a good deal on it. I think I might have tried it awhile back and just didn't get too much into it. Did it come with an nVidia bundle awhile back? Or maybe an AMD bundle for like the 5000 series?

It goes on sale more often than any other game I know. They've even given it away for free multiple times.

Looks like I actually have a Steam key leftover from one of the free promotions. I'll PM it to you.
 

dust

Golden Member
Oct 13, 2008
1,339
2
71
This game is simultaneously mediocre and also blows away Crysis 3...lol

It's a bit better if
you go for Shadow achievement or the alternate ending, having no kills during Chase or Red line ate about two hours of my life on Ranger easy
 

UNhooked

Golden Member
Jan 21, 2004
1,538
3
81
Currently playing this game with all eye candy turned up, even have Physx working with my Ghetto GTx 650 and it's gorgeous!

At times I will have my fps drop to 20's but not as often to be a bother.

What are your thoughts?
 

Carfax83

Diamond Member
Nov 1, 2010
6,841
1,536
136
Currently playing this game with all eye candy turned up, even have Physx working with my Ghetto GTx 650 and it's gorgeous!

At times I will have my fps drop to 20's but not as often to be a bother.

What are your thoughts?

I see in your specs you have AMD Crossfire. How did you get PhysX to run on your rig?
 

Dankk

Diamond Member
Jul 7, 2008
5,558
25
91
I see in your specs you have AMD Crossfire. How did you get PhysX to run on your rig?

PhysX works on any gaming PC, AMD or Nvidia. Difference being that it will be faster on Nvidia because that's what it's optimized for.
 

Carfax83

Diamond Member
Nov 1, 2010
6,841
1,536
136
PhysX works on any gaming PC, AMD or Nvidia. Difference being that it will be faster on Nvidia because that's what it's optimized for.

I realize that PhysX will work on any gaming PC, but I thought that on AMD rigs, it would only work in software mode.

Unhooked implied that he's able to get PhysX running on his GTX 650, which I thought wasn't possible because NVidia had disallowed the use of a dedicated PhysX card with AMD GPUs.
 

Vectronic

Senior member
Jan 9, 2013
489
0
0
PhysX works on any gaming PC ...
Works... may not work well.

Granted I only have a 7750, might play a part... but when I enabled PhysX for Metro... it ran well/normal for about 20 minutes... and then the frame rates started dropping and dropping, after about 5 minutes I was down to 17 FPS... quick toggle of PhysX, back up to 40+.

Anyways, that said, my 7750 does pretty well @ 1920x1080.

As for the game, it looks great, plays well... but the actual "game/story" part of it was rather boring and non-involved. It wasn't till the last 3 chapters/levels that I started getting "interested" in it because of the little alien, the visions, etc... just starting to get into it, and poof... end of game. The rest of it was kind of just... kill stuff, babble babble, kill stuff.
 

UNhooked

Golden Member
Jan 21, 2004
1,538
3
81
I realize that PhysX will work on any gaming PC, but I thought that on AMD rigs, it would only work in software mode.

Unhooked implied that he's able to get PhysX running on his GTX 650, which I thought wasn't possible because NVidia had disallowed the use of a dedicated PhysX card with AMD GPUs.

Yes you can run physx with some tweaking :) Google hybridize.exe

During benchmarks my physx card has a peak utilization of 53% implying that I am indeed using my gtx 650 for physx..
 

Gryz

Golden Member
Aug 28, 2010
1,551
203
106
I've read that it is fine to play LL without playing 2033 first. I've played about 1 hour of 2033 last year, and then stopped. LL looks much more fun to me (only 2-3 hours in).

PhysX can be heavy on the system. Try the demo. (It's a separate exe in the game folder). My gtx680 dropped to 6 fps half-way through the demo. When I disabled PhysX, my fps stayed at 40-50 fps during the whole demo.
 

Carfax83

Diamond Member
Nov 1, 2010
6,841
1,536
136
Yes you can run physx with some tweaking :) Google hybridize.exe

During benchmarks my physx card has a peak utilization of 53% implying that I am indeed using my gtx 650 for physx..

That's pretty cool. Looks like a lot of steps involved, but PhysX does make a difference in immersion imo, so it's probably worth it ;)

Of course, NVidia should at least allow AMD users to use their GPUs for PhysX without jumping through so many hoops to get it working properly.

Even if it's an unofficial workaround.

I've read that it is fine to play LL without playing 2033 first. I've played about 1 hour of 2033 last year, and then stopped. LL looks much more fun to me (only 2-3 hours in).

PhysX can be heavy on the system. Try the demo. (It's a separate exe in the game folder). My gtx680 dropped to 6 fps half-way through the demo. When I disabled PhysX, my fps stayed at 40-50 fps during the whole demo.

Yeah, the PhysX in this game is definitely heavy. It overworked my previous dedicated PhysX card (a GTS 250) when I got into a gun battle and all the bullet impacts, debris and particles caused the GPU usage to skyrocket to 148%, which caused the game to lock up.

So I bought a used GTX 460 on Ebay, and all is gravy now. The GTX 460 is probably the best card for dedicated PhysX now, since the venerable GTS 250 just doesn't cut it anymore.
 

Carfax83

Diamond Member
Nov 1, 2010
6,841
1,536
136
Another thing that also impresses me about this game, is the abundant use of tessellation. On very high, there is loads of tessellation used on a lot of different surfaces, from characters to monsters to equipment to walls and floors..

Look at this video as an example

Metro Last Light is truly a PC game tech bonanza! ;)
 

Dankk

Diamond Member
Jul 7, 2008
5,558
25
91
I finally started playing this game the other day. It's phenomenal. I wasn't sure it was possible to surpass Metro 2033's excellence, but that's exactly what they did. The atmosphere is incredible. Gunplay is meaty. The stealth works surprisingly well. This actually might dethrone Tomb Raider as my personal "game of the year so far".

Also, I just got to the swamp part.

JESUS ROLLER SKATING CHRIST IT'S TERRIFYING.