best optimized indie games pc

[snappercayt]

I have been thinking of games which work on GT210 and still looked gorgeous, still worth checking out in 2022, not many games did that I think. Or the game companies, or devs...not sure which was the problem really to not try to make a game that works on most commonly available hardware instead of aiming for latest and greatest for best quality at 30fps. Maybe its a philosophy problem, not sure. I want to think of games are made for fun and more people have it its better, right? It is true that not every hardware will perform the same and the game engine designer will have to set some constraints for ram and other things to give a basic, NORMAL SETTINGS game play. But even after all that will it be easier to just put the CD on the old DELL and run a game? maybe gamers are never satisfied with graphics and so its not useful to make a game that everyone enjoys but only for enthusiasts who know what is the difference between 8K textures and HD textures, or who can define what is Nanites properly...I am going way too tangentially at this point. 

 

I spent some time last night thinking of games and other game events like E3 and how far this has got us, I wanted to find games which were critically rewarded and were worth every penny. And games which most people probably missed, which ran beautifully at 30fps and still looked like something which screams QAULITY, any come to your mind yet? 

[Spotty]

> Moved to the PC Gaming section.

 

1 minute ago, snappercayt said:

I have been thinking of games which work on GT210 and still looked gorgeous, still worth checking out in 2022

There's optimised and then there's optimised for GT210. The GT210 was bad for gaming over a decade ago, integrated graphics would be better in most scenarios.

 

I'm not sure what games have been released in 2022, but there's stuff that I would still play that would run fine on integrated graphics or even GT210. Stuff like Faster Than Light, Slay the Spire, and Stardew Valley are some favourite games of mine and they can run on a potato. For 3D games maybe Portal 2.

[manikyath]

6 minutes ago, snappercayt said:

make a game that works on most commonly available hardware instead of aiming for latest and greatest for best quality at 30fps.

that is what the majority of game companies do: they look at what's floating around in gaming, and choose a performance point where the great majority of potential customers will be able to run the game.

 

the thing is, even for a 2D indie game, the GT210 is so far down both the performance tree, and the market share stats, that you are -crudely put- statisticly insignificant. we're in "space cadett" performance terretory here.

 

having that said...

- OpenTTD runs anywhere

- 'baba is you' might be fine

- stardew valley is pretty light i think

- anything HL1 or source engine based should run fine.

 

on that note.. are you actually looking for games, or just angry that game devs dont magically make new games run well on a 13 year old base model GPU?

[rikitikitavi]

GPU is limiting your 3D acceleration, anything 2D should be fine, including emulation... for 3D games: low tier or older titles... or potato graphics 720p or lower. I remember long time ago lowering resolution to ~480p (or lower) to enjoy some FPS at playable... 20fps or so... still enjoyed lol

GGL best 2D games - it should give you limitless games to enjoy

 

This is given your CPU/RAM are not the bottleneck of course

 

Edit: due to Spotty’s enlightening comment about possible DirectX issues - check the compatibility before buying any game.

[Spotty]

As for why developers don't make games to be run on such old hardware, checking Steam's hardware survey will probably give you a good idea. If <1% of their target market is running that hardware it doesn't justify the time and resources to modify the game to be able to play on that hardware.

https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/videocard/

 

The Geforce 210 only supports DX10. Most modern games will require DX11 or DX12 support. DirectX 10 has been dead for a long time so again there's little reason for developers to spend the time and resources making games for it. Steam Hardware survey lists <1% DX10 cards and that is on a declining trend.

[snappercayt]

26 minutes ago, Spotty said:

> Moved to the PC Gaming section.

 

There's optimised and then there's optimised for GT210. The GT210 was bad for gaming over a decade ago, integrated graphics would be better in most scenarios.

 

I'm not sure what games have been released in 2022, but there's stuff that I would still play that would run fine on integrated graphics or even GT210. Stuff like Faster Than Light, Slay the Spire, and Stardew Valley are some favourite games of mine and they can run on a potato. For 3D games maybe Portal 2.

Thanks for moving it to right section, still noob around those things on the forum and everything. 

 

I was not really pointing to GT210, I meant something that is low-tier and I agree with integrated being better for most things. 

 Portal 2 does work alright on that though, and your other suggestions about potato-capable games, I do like how Stardew Valley looks. 

[jaslion]

Issue is that the g210 when it came out 14 yeara ago was already not a gaming capable gpu. It was meant to be a 3d accelerator and media decoder but like some powerpoint 3d effects not even 5 years later could already lag on the gt210.

 

That couple with it having ended gpu driver support a while and being dx10 max even a lot of new indie games simply wont even launch.

 

So basically if the min spec for a gamr is intel hd 2000/3000 gtaphics and dx10 is an option it might run on a gt 210 in some fashion

 

But in reality you are better off saving up like 30-40$ and getting a gtx 750ti as a minimum starting point to even have a shot at playing modern aaa games (I do not recommend going this route either)

[snappercayt]

24 minutes ago, manikyath said:

that is what the majority of game companies do: they look at what's floating around in gaming, and choose a performance point where the great majority of potential customers will be able to run the game.

 

the thing is, even for a 2D indie game, the GT210 is so far down both the performance tree, and the market share stats, that you are -crudely put- statisticly insignificant. we're in "space cadett" performance terretory here.

 

having that said...

- OpenTTD runs anywhere

- 'baba is you' might be fine

- stardew valley is pretty light i think

- anything HL1 or source engine based should run fine.

 

on that note.. are you actually looking for games, or just angry that game devs dont magically make new games run well on a 13 year old base model GPU?

I didn't think how Directx9 or 10 were limited really, I should look into that. 

Thanks for pointing out Half Life and Source Engine titles, they were fun in back the day. 

[Vishera]

I can tell you what AAA games worked on my GT 620:

Battlefield 3 and older

Tomb Raider 2013

Hitman Absolution

Assassin's Creed

Assassin's Creed II

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood

Mass Effect 1,2 and 3

Far Cry 3

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2,Black Ops

Deadpool

Yakuza 0

Mafia II

Metal Gear Solid V The Phantom Pain

The Saboteur

Resident Evil 1 Remastered,4,5, and 6

Need for Speed The Run

Way of The Samurai 3 and 4

Syndicate

Test Drive Unlimited

Splinter Cell Conviction

Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney

Devil May Cry 1,2,3 and 4

[xAcid9]

These probably playable on 720p@Low

1. Warframe <-- probably the most optimized PC game

2. Dota 2

3. Torchlight/Torchlight 2

 

[snappercayt]

17 hours ago, Vishera said:

I can tell you what AAA games worked on my GT 620:

Battlefield 3 and older

Tomb Raider 2013

Hitman Absolution

Assassin's Creed

Assassin's Creed II

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood

Mass Effect 1,2 and 3

Far Cry 3

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2,Black Ops

Deadpool

Yakuza 0

Mafia II

Metal Gear Solid V The Phantom Pain

The Saboteur

Resident Evil 1 Remastered,4,5, and 6

Need for Speed The Run

Way of The Samurai 3 and 4

Syndicate

Test Drive Unlimited

Splinter Cell Conviction

Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney

Devil May Cry 1,2,3 and 4

Oh thanks! 

[jaslion]

On 8/30/2022 at 11:37 AM, snappercayt said:

Oh thanks! 

Do keep in mind that the gt210 is 3x weaker and lacks a lot of features so expect to have to go 640x480 to hopefully even get 30fps. If they launch

 

Is the goal of the system to ve upgraded so its gaming capable?

[snappercayt]

22 hours ago, jaslion said:

Do keep in mind that the gt210 is 3x weaker and lacks a lot of features so expect to have to go 640x480 to hopefully even get 30fps. If they launch

 

Is the goal of the system to ve upgraded so its gaming capable?

Hey! that is a good question, gaming capable can be just cinematic 24 fps for some and 60fps for others. 

I would prefer 24fps if textures and rest look great wouldn't you? 60fps with hickups and other issues might turn off the games important parts while playing. 

 

I was not focused on GT210 really. I was thinking of how low end hardware was never considered as minimum by game brands as they do for consoles, PS4 being so old - companies do develop a game which runs on it, maybe it is because once the hardware reaches mainstream like how 1060 is from Steam's Survey https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/videocard/ companies want to do better and loose the focus? I am not sure what I am looking for. 

 

Someone pointed that Directx10 had limitations and so I realized its not just hardware problem, latest "good" graphics are way different in Unreal 5 and Crytek's CryEngine 1, which shows how software to support new game development was behind too. That means gaming capability for same hardware relied on software things behind the games. 

[snappercayt]

On 8/29/2022 at 6:30 PM, Vishera said:

I can tell you what AAA games worked on my GT 620:

Battlefield 3 and older

Tomb Raider 2013

Hitman Absolution

Assassin's Creed

Assassin's Creed II

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood

Mass Effect 1,2 and 3

Far Cry 3

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2,Black Ops

Deadpool

Yakuza 0

Mafia II

Metal Gear Solid V The Phantom Pain

The Saboteur

Resident Evil 1 Remastered,4,5, and 6

Need for Speed The Run

Way of The Samurai 3 and 4

Syndicate

Test Drive Unlimited

Splinter Cell Conviction

Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney

Devil May Cry 1,2,3 and 4

that is a good list, thank you!

[jaslion]

29 minutes ago, snappercayt said:

That means gaming capability for same hardware relied on software things behind the games. 

Not neccesarily. Even if a card like a gtx 280 had dx12 it would be so weak that it could never even hop of running a current gen game unless its at the lowest of the low settings and even then it would probably not work.

 

Hardware gets stronger and console set a precedent for what is now the mainstream performance required.