Video game graphics have evolved significantly, yet so have gamer expectations. Today, gamers demand unparalleled visual fidelity, a far cry from what was imaginable a decade ago. Despite advancements, even the most visually stunning games rely on rendering shortcuts to mimic reality, leaving something to be desired – realism.
Enter Ray Tracing, poised to revolutionize the gaming industry.
Exploring Ray Tracing
Ray-tracing mimics human perception of 3D scenes, specifically how light is perceived. This technique, present since the inception of 3D rendering, calculates light beams from source to destination, considering interactions with scene objects. The key advantage of Ray Tracing is its potential to produce scenes indistinguishable from reality with sufficient time and computational power.
Enhancing Game Graphics with Ray Tracing
The graphics leaders, AMD and Nvidia, announced their advancements in Ray Tracing at GDC 2018. During GDC 2018’s “State of Unreal” opening session, Epic Games, with NVIDIA and ILMxLAB, demonstrated real-time ray tracing in Unreal Engine. AMD also collaborates with Microsoft to define, refine, and support DirectX12 and Ray Tracing.
During Nvidia’s presentation, three companies showcased an experimental cinematic demo featuring Star Wars characters from The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, created with Unreal Engine 4. The demo utilizes NVIDIA’s RTX technology for Volta GPUs, accessible via Microsoft’s DirectX Ray Tracing API (DXR). Additionally, an iPad equipped with ARKit served as a virtual camera, highlighting intricate details in close-up views.
“Real-time ray tracing has long been a goal of the graphics and visualization industry,” stated Tony Tamasi, NVIDIA’s senior vice president of content and technology. “With NVIDIA RTX technology, Volta GPUs, and Microsoft’s new DXR API, the teams have achieved something remarkable, signaling the dawn of real-time ray tracing.”
Although AMD didn’t showcase proof of concept of their progress, they stated coordination with Microsoft. Both companies aim to provide support for Ray Tracing technology via the DXR API to developers later this year.
With high-end graphics fidelity now available to developers, upcoming games may feature more realistic graphics with accurate lighting representation and improved sharpness. While this increases GPU load, Ray Tracing promises to bridge the gap between reality and virtual reality.
Pritam Chopra is a seasoned IT professional and a passionate blogger hailing from the dynamic realm of technology. With an insatiable curiosity for all things tech-related, Pritam has dedicated himself to exploring and unraveling the intricacies of the digital world.
