Gaming

Toxicity is a huge problem in online video games. Some of the most well-known toxic online gaming communities include League of Legends, Dota and your favorite console shooters. While console shooters have generally included voice chat and a range of “your mom” insults screamed by the 13 year olds on the other end of the line, PC games typically include text chat, and a clearly visible record of every toxic statement.

Over the holiday break, I had a chance to play a number of different games. Among these games, I tried out a few PC ports of primarily console-focused games, and I was reminded of some things that frustrate me when I have my “PC Gamer” hat on. Without calling out any particular developer or publisher, I’d like to take this change to suggest a few recommendations for PC ports that I wish every developer would follow.

Today, NVIDIA announced a new program to help game developers effectively use NVIDIA hardware called GameWorks. The thing that excites me the most about GameWorks is the inclusion of Optix in a program that directly targets game developers. Optix is a ray tracing environment developed by people I know from my studies at Utah that has previously been used to help develop rendering engines for design and production environments. This recent announcement means that the important global illumination features that work more naturally in ray tracing will be more readily available for game developers.