Summary
Are you unimpressed with how ray tracing is being implemented on current-generation consoles?
Are you questioning what all of the fuss is about?
Lets take a step back and reassess what ray tracing means for games.
id Software/NVIDIA
The most obvious examples that spring to mind are reflections and shadows.
There are also techniques with slightly more complex-sounding names, that make a huge difference.
Ray-traced global illumination works in tandem with this technique to generate realistic and real-time whole-scene lightning.
This encompasses the way the suns rays scatter within a scene.
These techniques can be turned on and off as necessary.
Youll probably have to make some sacrifices if you want to experience ray tracing.
But this first generation of 20 series NVIDIA graphics cards was not particularly capable in terms of ray tracing.
This is one way to claw back image quality when making sacrifices to experience ray-traced techniques.
Every GPU has a hardware budget which is spent on the various aspects that make up visual fidelity.
This is exactly where upscaling techniques come in.
NVIDIA is leaps and bounds ahead in this department, with DLSS outshining technologies from AMD and Intel.
This means better quality visuals within ray-traced applications when relying on upscaling to improve performance.
Expect the next generation of Xbox and PlayStation consoles to incorporate this too.
How Might Ray Tracing Impact Game Design?
This will depend on a future where ray-traced graphics are no longer prohibitively expensive in terms of hardware budgets.
This is particularly true considering the visual element is just one aspect of game design.
