what is Raytracing?

Since it was first introduced in 2018, the term Ray Tracing linked to the world of video games has generated many questions and many articles to try to answer the question that gives title to this post. What is Raytracing?

Getting into the subject

Its meaning is "ray tracing" and is presented as the next great revolution in graphics, when we activate it we get a high-level graphics with a brutal improvement in lighting and reflections in real time for all kinds of events, car lights, explosions, lamps, etc..

The Ray Tracing technique has been used for several years in cinema and 3D videos, but the leap to video games was the complicated part, as it involves generating these reflections when our character moves or we approach areas that would emit reflections in real life, such as mirrors, metals or glass. Artificially matching shadows and lights to models is not always a simple task. Good results can be achieved, but at the cost of considerable effort on the part of developers and an investment in powerful equipment to get the most out of it.

Ray Tracing includes, as part of the techniques covered by the GeForce RTX range, also the technology that supports Deep Learning Super Sampling or DLSS, which, in this case, has nothing to do with lighting, but significantly improves image quality. It is a game-specific enhancement that gives us much better performance than other anti-aliasing options.

What awaits us

This type of technology for video games was first announced by Nvidia for its RTX range, so for the moment its graphics cards are the only ones compatible with this technology, but both Intel and AMD are already developing their own products compatible with this technology. Even Microsoft is working on it, with a new DirectX extension called Direct X Ray Tracing that will offer us this option regardless of the hardware we have mounted on our computer.

Currently, we can find games that have been adapted to offer this graphical enhancement and others that have already been developed taking into account this technology. In the latter, it is much better appreciated when we have this option activated and when we do not. A good example of this, as we see in ToroTocho's video is the game Control.

Closer and closer

As always when a graphical or technological improvement enters a period of adaptation and normalization, there is still plenty of room to develop and improve Ray Tracing so that we can enjoy it in all our equipment from Nfortec, from the Draco V2 to Kraterbut it is clear that it will be the next technological leap to give much more realism to video games and give us a much more immersive experience.

Testing

We leave you with the opinion of our ambassador of Nfortec ToroTocho and the video he made on the subject, testing and activating and deactivating the Ray Tracing to see if it is true the graphical improvement that promises.