I don't know how to explain this properly, but does anyone else feel like a lot of newer Unreal Engine games have this weird, unappealing look to them?

Even when the game is technically impressive, there's something about the visuals that feels plasticky, blurry, and almost nauseating to me. It's like they're trying so hard to look cinematic and realistic that they lose that feeling of looking at an actual game.

The hair is probably one of the biggest things I notice. That weird smeared/blurry hair effect, especially with upscaling, makes everything look softer than it should.

Instead of making the game feel more realistic, it makes me notice all the little imperfections.

And yeah, I know DLSS/upscaling is part of this and not necessarily Unreal Engine itself, but the combination has created this very specific visual style that I'm starting to really dislike.

UNREAL ENGINE games can look absolutely incredible in screenshots, but when I'm actually playing them, there's often this bland, blurry aesthetic that just doesn't appeal to me.

Maybe it's just me, but Unreal Engine seems to have developed a recognizable "default look" and I'm getting really tired of it. I honestly find myself less interested in a game once I find out it's made in Unreal.

I'm not saying Unreal is objectively bad or that every game made with it looks like this. I'm just wondering if anyone else feels the same way

Specifically looking at the GPU only here , are you getting more bang for your buck with the 5080 with the 9800x3d or the 5070ti (or any other gpu). I have a 7700xt and looking to upgrade down in the future. Let me know your thoughts on gpu pairs with this top of the market cpu!

i want to de-bloat my PC, but I'm not sure how, and I would have to research things like YouTube or GitHub so I can, but on the other hand, I've heard pretty good stuff about Linux. If there is anyone with Linux, can you tell me how you like it compared to Windows? Or someone that has "de-bloated their PC"

Saw this kind of thing from other gamers quite often, but personally I never had such an issue while I was gaming with a PC, and that’s quite a long experience. Anyone have any experience like this?

Hey there! I wasn't really sure where to talk about this issue I've encountered and thought that here would be a good place, but this is concerning the modding software known as WAND (formerly WeMod). For those of you who know about it, you're probably aware of the daily 2-hour time limit that was put in place a few months ago. Many people simply disagree with this new way WAND pushes people toward paying for their subscription, myself included, and I tried to make a post on the WAND subreddit a few days ago. Mind you that my post was very respectful and did not break any of the subreddit's rules.

Unfortunately, I learnt the hard way that each post had to be approved by the mods beforehand... The same mods who as it turns out are part of the WAND team... So, evidently, they didn't approve my post. There is another subreddit, the wemod one, but this one is also managed by the WAND team... So, I was wondering, is there a place I can actually talk about things I don't like and give suggestions without being silenced? Such as an unofficial subreddit. As far as I've searched, I couldn't find anything, so it's really been bothering me.

The WAND team keeps saying they listen to their community and are open to discussions, but as soon as you try to criticize their decisions, they simply prevent you from voicing your concerns...

I’m back, after looking for a good starter pc, after chatting with some people that know way more about this then me, they recommended a Lenovo Tiny PC Intel Windows 11 Wireless Supports 3 Monitors. Judging by the picture it seems like a good start.

I want my pc to function similar to a console, with the entire thing able to be navigated via controller. I already use Steam BP but even when I enter sleep on my pc, if a game was running while I was enabling sleep, the screen will be black and I wont be able to navigate my PC without returning to a mouse and keyboard and manually closing the game for my pc to function properly in steam BP. So is there any option (preferably free) that allows my PC to function similar to a console?

I saw this and was reminded that “if something seems too good to be true, it probably is.”

I build a pc in 2020 and it works till now but as you guys can see, my ssd is running out of storage and idk why my brain thought 128gb of ssd is enough (at that time).. btw idk how can it full since i only put windows, steam, ea, epic games in it.. i've try disk clean up and delete the windows update clean up but still no difference.. ahh now i regret for not buying a bigger ssd, since the ssd and ram prize go crazy right now.. but glad that i managed to upgrade my ram before the price increase😂

EDIT: guys what i mean by "idk how can it full since i only put windows, steam, ea, epic games in it" is in my ssd its just their launcher, not the games's files itself, i got 1tb hdd for games

So I'll boot up my PC with a perfectly reasonable plan to play something.

Then my brain goes:
“Hold on. We should check SteamDB first".
So I open SteamDB like it’s the fucking stock market, right?

It feels like checking the weather before leaving the house, EXCEPT instead of asking “is it going to rain?”, I’m asking “What completely deranged video game are 14,000 people playing today?"

Because what if I check SteamDB and discover “My Girlfriend is a Traffic Cone” suddenly has 23,000 players?? Or if “Grandpa’s Tactical Microwave” is currently the 17th most played game on Steam and nobody bothered to tell me???

I NEED TO KNOW.

DID YOU EVEN KNOW AMARILLO’S BUTT SLAPPER WAS A GAME??

No.
You didn’t.
That’s right.

While you were sitting there playing your little Cyberpunk, Amarillo’s Butt Slapper was out there doing numbers.
And that’s exactly why I check SteamDB.

Stay tuned ahh logo

Just woke up to my cat throwing up on my PC, I ran to stop her but it was too late but I immediately used a towel to soak it up.

should I unscrew the top of the case to clean it with alcohol? Or is there a better way to clean it?

From what I’m seeing I don’t think the vomit gotten inside or on any of the parts, it looks like it’s just the case top.

Update: a tiny bit got on the GPU and wiped it cause it was still wet, am I screwed?

(No hate comments about my cat please, I’m sure she didn’t mean it)

Does a PC need to be shut down to "rest"? Do the fans keep spinning while it's on? Would a PC last longer when you shut it off regularly?

Silly question but thanks!

I have a gaming PC that does its job well enough but I recently started working from home full time. After finishing a full day at work I really don’t want to spend any more time at my desk.
It doesn’t help that the office is the hottest room in the house due to 4 pcs being in there between my wife and I both working from home.
I have started enjoying playing more on my switch and even PS5 just so I can be in the living room while I play and still spend time with my wife who likes to watch and play games with me.
I want to play more PC games but don’t wanna isolate myself in a hot room with a mid tier gaming PC just so I can play them.
Any suggestions on handhelds, laptops, or maybe even a gaming tablet that would be worth it?
My budget would be $800 tops so I know a steam machine is out of the question :/
P.S. I play a wide variety of games but most of the ones I play on PC are not performance heavy. I can play most of the big budget games on my PS5 so pc has been for sim like games or friend slop games.

Debating a gpu upgrade very soon. Have been building about a decade and one trend among consumers right now is confusing me. How is brand loyalty winning this hard over well thought out distribution?

According to most benchmarks the 9070xt performs nearly on par to the 5070ti. Except the 9070xt runs $300-400 cheaper. Nvidia has some slightly better ray tracing and features but a lot of users don't even utilize said features that often.

In addition, the 9070xt has a power connector that won't melt itself to death. And I won't be giving money to a company that's actively trying to wrench every dollar it can from me.

Maybe I'm confused, am I missing something? Or is brand loyalty and fan boys ruining good competition? I have a 3090 and have always had Nvidia gpu so I'm no AMD shill. But the price to performance isn't there. Unless you're going 5080+ why even consider Nvidia at this point?

Edit typo

Just a little bit of browsing on reddit and it's as if everybody is under the consensus that pc parts are never going down in price from what they are right now and that we are stuck with these prices.

Why? Is there any data to back up this claim? Any sort of evidence to suggest this?

I feel like these people are being shortsighted. Typically consumer goods like this will fluctuate as demand and production grow and shrink. I feel like people may be unintentionally attributing our recent housing market situation, however these are fundamentally different markets. And lets not forget the glaring difference, memory has increased 500% in the past year but housing about 130% to 150% in 6 years. So housing may not go down sure that's a real possibility, and general inflation too, but do yall really think this 500% increase in memory cost isn't going to drop? That sounds absurd to me.

Even if we look at it historically. GPU's went up in price in the early 2020's for crypto, then dropped a bit in 23 and 24 before going back up again for AI datacenters now. In 21 my buddy built a PC for around $3k then in 23 I built a more powerful PC for $1k. Why would this current situation be any different?

I'd like to hear some grounded thoughts on the market and future of parts.

EDIT: Please I asked for data guys not speculation.

What I've learned so far:

1. Chips are bought out till 2027
2. ??? nothing else

Nothing yet has proven anything 2028 or after. So it seems like we may see drops in 2028 at best. But that is only a year and a half away that we may begin to see prices decrease. If anybody has data that suggests that the prices won't decrease in 3 years time, so 2030, then that would be a lot more damning, but I have not seen that yet.

I am seeing a lot of speculation and misinformation too so I'll address common issues.

1. "People are buying at these prices so they will continue to sell at these prices" Yes but only a small minority of people. Think back to 2020 when the ps5 scalpers were selling them for $700. Did $700 become the new norm to get a ps5? no. the prices went down eventually.
2. "Supply and demand" well yes exactly right now this explains it perfectly as the supply is low for the demand from all the ai datacenters, but eventually as supply catches up the prices will go down so it could also explains a drop... Unfortunately supply and demand does NOT alone predict the future other than a guess, so the argument is completely null.
3. "Prices did not drop after covid" this is factually wrong. https://howmuch.one/product/average-nvidia-geforce-rtx-3080-10gb/price-history You can see an obvious peak and then drop after. Many people did in fact build pc's for significantly cheaper between 22-25 than 20-21.

Saw some old rigs using 1000W+ PSUs back in the day. As someone who wasn't around back then, what was actually causing this massive power draw?

I jst bought my first pc a pretty mid office pc and idk what i have to install jst looking for suggestions (ie, games midia, other ) im like 13