***The Official Ray Tracing Thread - Read the First Post before posting***

[Armageus]

As the old thread had become a wretched hive of scum and villainy, this is a new thread for discussion of Ray Tracing.


Some rules and reminders because apparently they are needed here more than anywhere else:

- GC Strikes are in operation - a reminder of the rules here, https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/graphics-cards-strikes.18766760/
- NO selective quoting / misquoting to change context.
- NO cliques, dogpiling or other forms of ganging up.
You like RT - Great. You don't like RT - Also Great. Be respectful and discuss it in a civil manner regardless of your view
- NO digging up the past. We ALL make mistakes and post things that we later regret, but we don't need it bringing up at every opportunity. In the words of Elsa - "Let it go"
This includes but not limited to discussion related to "DLSS better than native", "Not enough VRAM" etc.
- Report any posts that either break the rules or drag the thread off topic - do not "deal with it yourself" (Do not report posts just because you don't agree with them)
- Keep it ON Topic - this is for Raytracing related Software/Hardware

 

[Armageus]

List of RT games:

NVIDIA DLSS & GeForce RTX: List Of All Games, Engines And Applications Featuring GeForce RTX-Powered Technology And Features

See which games, engines and applications support NVIDIA DLSS 2, NVIDIA DLSS 3, NVIDIA DLSS 3.5, Ray Tracing, Frame Generation, Ray Reconstruction, and AI technologies and features when you have a GeForce RTX graphics card, GPU, or laptop.

www.nvidia.com

Nvidia articles:

Introducing the NVIDIA RTX Ray Tracing Platform

NVIDIA RTX is a #raytracing platform that brings real-time, cinematic-quality rendering to content creators and game developers. Learn more.

developer.nvidia.com

Ray Tracing

developer.nvidia.com

AMD articles:

Radeon™ Raytracing Analyzer

Radeon™ Raytracing Analyzer (RRA) is a tool which allows you to investigate the performance of your raytracing applications and highlight potential bottlenecks.

gpuopen.com

Intel articles:

Intel® Advanced Ray Tracing and Rendering Technology

Acceleration and optimization for key rendering and ray tracing workloads scales across platforms and helps creators realize their visions fast.

www.intel.com

What Is Ray Tracing and How Does It Work with Intel® Arc™?

Describes Ray Tracing technologies on Intel® Arc™

www.intel.com

What Is Ray Tracing and How Does It Work with Intel® Arc™?

Describes Ray Tracing technologies on Intel® Arc™

www.intel.com

Intel® Arc™ Graphics Developer Guide for Real-Time Ray Tracing in...

Intel® Arc™ GPUs support DirectX* 12 Ultimate features with variable-rate shading (VRS), mesh shading, and DirectX* Raytracing (DXR) through new built-in hardware acceleration blocks.

www.intel.com

What is Ray tracing?

Hardware VS Software Ray tracing:

Path tracing vs Ray tracing:

RT HW level Hierarchy:

News des 6. Juli 2023 | 3DCenter.org

YouTuber RedGamingTech zeigt ein frisches AMD-Patent, welches Verbesserungen an AMDs RayTracing verspricht. Im genauen geht es dabei um eine "BVH Traversal Unit" – sprich das, was der große Hardware-Vorteil von nVidia in den ersten

www.3dcenter.org

Nvidia RTX Remix:

NVIDIA RTX Remix Modding Platform

Sign up to be notified of RTX Remix availability.

www.nvidia.com

Nvidia Ray Reconstruction:

Rays Up: Decoding AI-Powered DLSS 3.5 Ray Reconstruction

Neural renderer improves ray-traced features like reflections, global illumination, and shadows to create a more immersive, realistic gaming experience.

blogs.nvidia.com

NVIDIA RTX Remix: DLSS 3.5 With Ray Reconstruction Now Available To Further Enhance Fully Ray-Traced Mods

Also, check out the latest RTX Remix mods for Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, Deus Ex, and Half-Life 2 RTX: An RTX Remix Project.

www.nvidia.com

Half life 2 episode 1 and 2 remix!

Here's Half-Life 2: Episode 1 & Episode 2 with RTX Remix Path Tracing

YouTube's 'skurtyyskirts' shared two videos, showcasing early versions of RTX Remix Mods for both Half-Life 2: Episode One and Episode Two.

www.dsogaming.com

Credit to @Nexus18 for this information/links

 

[Armageus]

reserved

 

[Nexus18]

Some more content for OP @Armageus

Spoiler: Added to above post

New sections:

Nvidia RTX Remix:

NVIDIA RTX Remix Modding Platform

Sign up to be notified of RTX Remix availability.

www.nvidia.com

Nvidia Ray Reconstruction:

Rays Up: Decoding AI-Powered DLSS 3.5 Ray Reconstruction

Neural renderer improves ray-traced features like reflections, global illumination, and shadows to create a more immersive, realistic gaming experience.

blogs.nvidia.com

NVIDIA RTX Remix: DLSS 3.5 With Ray Reconstruction Now Available To Further Enhance Fully Ray-Traced Mods

Also, check out the latest RTX Remix mods for Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, Deus Ex, and Half-Life 2 RTX: An RTX Remix Project.

www.nvidia.com

Half life 2 episode 1 and 2 remix!

Here's Half-Life 2: Episode 1 & Episode 2 with RTX Remix Path Tracing

YouTube's 'skurtyyskirts' shared two videos, showcasing early versions of RTX Remix Mods for both Half-Life 2: Episode One and Episode Two.

www.dsogaming.com

 

[Robert896r1]

As good as hell blade 2 is for a tech demo (it’s very linear with limited gameplay), it could benefit greatly from path tracing. The shadows are really hit n miss and lighting from multiple sources is inconsistent.

 

[Nexus18]

As good as hell blade 2 is for a tech demo (it’s very linear with limited gameplay), it could benefit greatly from path tracing. The shadows are really hit n miss and lighting from multiple sources is inconsistent.

Hopefully will get an update but doubt it. The limitations are probably partly down to software lumen ray tracing.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

As good as hell blade 2 is for a tech demo (it’s very linear with limited gameplay), it could benefit greatly from path tracing. The shadows are really hit n miss and lighting from multiple sources is inconsistent.

Graphics are not the major problem with this game. It could benefit from proper gameplay first. The combat is atrocious and it smacks of a game made for consoles. More "cinematic" cutscenes followed by lots of pre-scripted gameplay. They should have just rendered 90% of the game and cutscenes off-line as videos and it would have looked better. But even twice the amount of graphics won't save it.
Not sure what the dev has been doing for almost 7 years!

 

[mrk]

Graphics are not the major problem with this game. It could benefit from proper gameplay first. The combat is atrocious and it smacks of a game made for consoles. More "cinematic" cutscenes followed by lots of pre-scripted gameplay. They should have just rendered 90% of the game and cutscenes off-line as videos and it would have looked better. But even twice the amount of graphics won't save it.
Not sure what the dev has been doing for almost 7 years!

I'm one chapter away from the end and this is not the takeaway I have from the game so far. I tend to abandon games that are too boring or too tedious, and this is neither. The audio alone is reason enough to keep playing, but the visuals are just the bonus on top.

If you have half decent hardware then for sound and vision, this is a great cinematic gaming experience that to date, no other game has been able to match for that kind of immersion. The first game was meant to be the same sort of thing and this new release carries on that style of presentation.

There are some tech issues like shadows and light reflections off your torch in water, but these can largely be ignored because everything else makes up for it.

As an experience at £7 on gamepass (or free if you play other game son gamepass anyway), it's an easy win.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I'm one chapter away from the end and this is not the takeaway I have from the game so far. I tend to abandon games that are too boring or too tedious, and this is neither. The audio alone is reason enough to keep playing, but the visuals are just the bonus on top.

If you have half decent hardware then for sound and vision, this is a great cinematic gaming experience that to date, no other game has been able to match for that kind of immersion. The first game was meant to be the same sort of thing and this new release carries on that style of presentation.

There are some tech issues like shadows and light reflections off your torch in water, but these can largely be ignored because everything else makes up for it.

As an experience at £7 on gamepass (or free if you play other game son gamepass anyway), it's an easy win.

I have it on Gamepass. It's runs OK and looks perfectly fine on lesser hardware,especially with upscaling with some settings dropped. Most people are fine with how it looks. The atmosphere is great.

One of the big gripes are the combat mechanics - even console people are not happy. I tend to agree now I experienced it. It's clunkier than the first game and seems to be simplified. Also the fights are way too scripted too. It started to be more of chore than an enjoyment for me.Honestly looking back at some older PC centric titles things seem to be going backwards.

 

[Robert896r1]

Can we please focus on the technical side that personal preferences on gameplay or we will see another RT thread turn into a mess.

Personally I disabled the following to clean up the visuals:

[SystemSettings]
r.FilmGrain=0
r.NT.Lens.Distortion.Intensity=0
r.NT.Lens.Distortion.Stretch=0
r.NT.Lens.ChromaticAberration.Intensity=0
r.NT.DOF.RotationalBokeh=0
r.NT.DOF.NTBokehTransform=0
r.MotionBlurQuality=0

This greatly cleaned up the image quality esp due to Chromatic Aberration excessive use in the game but then this highlighted the weakness in lighting and shadows even more.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The performance seems quite consistent in game - not much in terms of frametime spikes, etc. I was expecting the worst after reading it was software based.

 

[Nexus18]

F1 24 benchmarks:

F1 24 im Tech-Test mit 20 GPUs und 10 CPUs: Deutlich gestiegener Anspruch

F1 24: GPU- & CPU-Benchmarks + Fazit

www.pcgameshardware.de

Looks decent perf.

 

[Poneros]

I hope we keep seeing RT reflections added. Should be a standard option imo.

 

[humbug]

Interesting conversation with a 'Defence Engineer?' Whatever...

What it comes to AMD's RT vs Nvidia (in that its lacking a little in comparison) its not a case of 'can't' with AMD its 'wont' simply because of resources, AMD can't sell a GPU for $1500, even if its as good in every sense as a 4090, so they are made down to a price, not just in the sense of BOM costs but also R&D costs.
They have been waiting for RT to become, i guess mainstream. They have been waiting for Sony or MS to say "now we are all in on RT" Sony have told them that now, the PS5 Pro is using some aspects of RDNA 4 and this is where the "up to 3X Ray Tracing performance vs the PS5" comes from even tho the PS5 Pro is only 45% faster in raster performance. So clearly a very much more serious RT engine.

That's great, i think RT is becoming mainstream, i get the reasoning but AMD being the only real competitor Nvidia have right now its unfortunate that they have this mindset, its a lack of confidence tho probably not unjustified.

US Gov't Buying AMD, RDNA 4 w/ FSR 4, Nvidia RTX 5080 Export | Defense Engineer | Broken Silicon 259

We discuss how AMD is taking US Gov't Market Share from Intel, Nvidia AI, and Future Warfare.[SPON: Shop Micro Center’s Top Deals for May: https://micro.cent...

youtu.be

 

[steve5424]

Some game with RT run great on my GPU especially older one with I guess some fake or not proper RT?? Like Doom Eternal. Adds a lot to the look and feel and still getting 380fps at 1080p.

Jedi Survivor and Hogwart's Legacy run fairly well in 1080p with Rat just under 90fps on both. If running at 1440p I turn off RT

 

[Nexus18]

Lego Island 2 RTX Remix Path Tracing Mod Available for Download

Modder 'skurtyyskirts' has just released an RTX Remix Mod for Lego Island 2 that adds full Ray Tracing/Path Tracing support.

www.dsogaming.com

 

[Nexus18]

This is looking rather lovely with ray reconstruction

RTX Remix related content:

NVIDIA RTX Remix To Open Source Creator Toolkit

Open Source of RTX Remix Toolkit, alongside powerful new REST API, will make it faster and easier to remaster classic games.

www.nvidia.com

 

[bakes0310]

Where's raytracing at on the AMD side now then, haven't played any games with raytracing on yet but heard it ain't very good. Has it improved yet?

 

[Nexus18]

Where's raytracing at on the AMD side now then, haven't played any games with raytracing on yet but heard it ain't very good. Has it improved yet?

Depends on the games and which gen of amd gpus you are referring to.

RDNA 2 is roughly equal to turing level hardware, RDNA 3 is roughly equal to ampere RT level but amd falls harder of a cliff when multiple rt effects, higher resolution are applied. They do pretty well with software focussed RT like lumen though. RDNA 4 is rumoured to be changing their approach and focussing more on RT and iirc match ada RT perf.

 

[mrk]

Outlaws suporting RR and good RT is very much excellent news. I'll be onboard with that. OIt's a showcase for having an NV card given that RR is only available on them and greatly improves ray RT denoising and overall texture detail on RT impacted surfaces as seen on AW2, Cyberpunk.