Raytracing is on every PC gamer’s mouth, for better or worse, after NVIDIA demonstrated the NVIDIA RTX technology as a big focus of their new GeForce RTX line of graphics cards. One of the biggest games due to launch this Fall, Battlefield V, showcased what was perhaps the most impressive implementation of raytracing we’ve seen yet in a game.
The Ray Traced Reflections of Battlefield V don’t simply look much more realistic than the traditional Screen Space Reflections (SSR), though. As pointed out by the game’s producer David Sirland (previously known for his work on Battlefield 2, Battlefield 4, and Battlefield 1’s Incursions mode), raytracing is ‘freaking cool’ and that’s because it can also impact gameplay in this case.
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How? Simply put, Screen Space Reflections don’t allow for any reflections of objects that aren’t rendered in the ‘screen space’ as suggested by the name. Ray Traced Reflections don’t have any such issues and can render anything that would be reflected in the real world without any problem.
In a game like Battlefield V, this could translate in spotting someone about to jump you thanks to a nearby reflection.
Real time Ray tracing _is_ freaking cool. If you don’t think so you’re just not nerdy enough :). From a gameplay standpoint it will change alot of things, so I hope standardization happens fast. I normally could care less about how stuff looks, as it results in worse gameplay..
— David Sirland (@tiggr_) August 23, 2018
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But this kind of tech allows us to throw away some of the faked stuff we do now, which is very tricky go get to play right sometimes, simplifies if you will. But, in a few years.
— David Sirland (@tiggr_) August 23, 2018
I personally play on low settings, vsync off, no triple buffering – I hear ya. But some of the lighting fixes RT improves on makes things better when it comes to playable shadows and indoors vs outdoors etc.
— David Sirland (@tiggr_) August 23, 2018
Sirland also predicted that it would be the standard in a console generation or two. Indeed, if raytracing was also available on consoles then widespread adoption would be much faster throughout the games industry. Hopefully, Microsoft and Sony can see the potential in this and elect to build hardware support for their upcoming next-generation Xbox and PlayStation consoles, currently expected to launch in 2020.
Yes, of course there are interiors (where it matters for gameplay). Not everywhere, but certainly a bunch of internal spaces.
Raytracing? Give it a console generation or two and it’s standard I bet.— David Sirland (@tiggr_) August 23, 2018
The Gamescom 2018 build of Battlefield V ran at 1080p resolution and 60+ frames per second with the RTX powered raytraced reflections enabled. However, word is that DICE only had GeForce RTX hardware for a couple weeks and there’s clearly a lot of room for optimization ahead of Battlefield V’s October 19th launch between code improvements, driver improvements and so on.
We’ll have a lot more on raytracing, NVIDIA RTX and Battlefield V in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!
