Not meaning to come off as a prick, but I lol'd reading this, as if everything in video gaming isn't a series of tricks.
C'mon man...
(for a lack of a better word, don't @ me on this)
You know what I meant
What does it matter that reflections aren't "real" if the solution used is effective at the illusion and is more performant than trying to generate "real" reflections?
It matters because what
Ba'al was arguing (as I understood at least) is that there's no justification for RT being so much much more taxing than the older methods of achieving reflections
It also matters because since RT possess capabilities none of the methods can match, there's applications for which RT will be the better choice
I remember how in the late 2000s you could buy a decent mid-tier PC for like 300-500 bucks.
I also remember how in the late 2000s I could buy a piece of bread for no more than 5 cents
Now I'm hard pressed to find any baker that sells it for less than 20 cents
A top-end ROG Strix 4080 Super OC Super Duper Pooper Scooper costs 1300 USD, more than double the 550-600 USD I spent on my 980.
Ok, but you technically asked me for "the best 4080" not "the most expensive 4080"
And that's still a large way from triple, let alone quadruple
A 4090, the closest analogue to the Titan X, costs 2300-3000 USD.
Maybe where do you live
But here I can get one around 1900€ (600€ more than the Titan X costed)
There cannot be any separation between artistic/aesthetic merit and artisan workmanship.
You can argue that Chaos Theory uses it's lightning and sound system in creative ways that other games still don't rival
But it's another thing entirely to claim the lightning and sound tech of CT is better other games
I like that with 600 triangles you can see what it's supposed to look like and your imagination can fill in the gaps. And it runs fast. And with good art style it can look good and be immersive.
How many polygons a game needs depends entirely on what kind of game the devs are trying to make
600 polygons might have been enough to make
Alone in the Dark, but they wouldn't be enough to make a game like this: