What Is Ray Tracing in Gaming?
The next generation of gaming has so much to offer. Compelling games, a complex exploration of story and psychology, co-op gameplay across all genres, and more provide breathtaking gaming experiences. No discussion of new games can be complete without putting a focus on their incredible graphics.
From cinematic special effects to lifelike character models with visible pores, graphical overhaul in the last generation has been astounding. Gone are the days of plastic-looking, unnatural hair and unnervingly shiny eyes. At least, this is the case for gaming on the highest level. The way environments look has also seen a remarkable degree of growth in this category.
The unsung hero in all this is ray tracing. Ray tracing provides realistic lighting to any game, improving your immersion and elevating the way the game looks. This article will provide a comprehensive look at ray tracing in games.
Lighting in Games
In 2018, Nvidia introduced its first series of graphics cards supporting ray tracing, the Nvidia RTX series, which includes the RTX 2060, RTX 2070, RTX 2080, RTX 3070, RTX 3080, and RTX 390. This set of graphics cards is the main competitor for the AMD Radeon Series. Ray tracing in games had been around before, but this marked the entrance of ray tracing into the norm of high-end gaming.
Lighting in games has always been at the mercy of what the technology of the time has been able to do. An examination of the comparatively primitive GPU of older systems is enough to prove this. We don’t think of older, pixel games like Super Mario Bros. or The Legend of Zelda as having lighting effects.
Even when games had the appearance of lighting, this was more often done through visual effects than thoroughly examined light sources. Games like Doom achieved the appearance of lighting through carefully crafted textures. This sort of deliberate rendering technique has long been an asset of videogames.
In Commodore-era PCs — when sprites could only be mono-colored — they would sometimes be overlaid on colored backgrounds for suggested complexity.
In the 80s and into the late 90s, programmers developed a technique called shadow casting, meaning objects and sources could cast shadows. However, this rendering technique was still well behind ray tracing. The shadows you see in games of this time are simple.
If any complex geometrical characters cast shadows, they might only produce a circle directly below themselves. Even going into the 2000s, ambient lighting with fixed light sources was the standard. Simply tracing the history of lighting in games and the mathematical principles behind them is novel-worthy in its own right.
This doesn’t match the real world. In real life, light sources aren’t simply the sun and torches. Every object reflects and refracts light in its own particular way.
It goes without saying that this level of complexity has been unattainable for the majority of graphics cards until recently.
When Did Ray Tracing Begin?
Pinpointing the exact beginning of ray tracing is difficult for a variety of reasons. Chief among these is that ray tracing has been around longer as a concept than it has been in execution.
Further complicating it is that ray tracing seeks to resemble natural lighting as closely as possible. For this reason, some believe artists or mathematicians working in the lighting field were the progenitors of ray tracing.
The earliest true conceptualization of ray tracing emerged in 1969. Technology at that time wasn’t powerful enough to use it in as immediate a medium as games. Only high-end productions could afford to utilize this costly maneuver.
Case in point: the first feature-length film to exclusively use ray tracing was Monsters University, with a $200 million budget. It’s hard to imagine a game developer putting the same resources as Pixar into animation alone at that time. Even then, Pixar had been making use of ray tracing in even earlier films such as Cars.
Ironically, one of the most high-profile early games to show how ray tracing works was Quake II. This classic older game was remade with full ray-tracing by Nvidia the year following their graphics card release.
This way, Quake II provided certain proof that developers could integrate ray tracing successfully and practically. The DirectX model of ray tracing produced by Microsoft has become industry standard in many cases.
What Makes Ray Tracing Special?
Ray tracing is special because it uses an algorithm to bring something closer to the way real-world lighting works. This goes against the tradition of rasterization, in which lighting must be actively applied, textured, and more by the developer.
Ray tracing has many exciting features for both developers and gamers alike. We’ll start with an emphasis on visual dynamics.
In real life, innumerable photons shoot outwards and bounce off objects, eventually resulting in light. These bounces are complex, which makes rendering light and time-consuming.
In ray tracing, these photons are reduced to a smaller number, though it preserves the bounces and pathway. The spaces between these rays of light are then “filled in” according to the algorithm using a process called “denoising.”
As with all technologies, ray tracing is fickle but improving. As GPUs evolve, they will likely become more affordable to use. In the meantime, knowing how to build a powerful and affordable PC is essential.
Ray tracing is particularly good at creating shadows and mirrored surfaces. Both shadows and mirrors react in a complex way with light that many games struggle to create realistically. Many games use wetness as a way to showcase lighting effects, whether through polished floors or slick city streets.
There’s a further aspect of ray tracing which we’ve all but explicitly said. This light is dynamic. This means it can change in an instant, authentically responding to player inputs. This is something rasterization can only try to achieve.
As it is algorithmic, it also doesn’t take the active labor hours that hand-developed lighting effects do. This can help allay developer hours, especially in an era where countering crunch in game development is pivotal.
What Implications Does Ray Tracing Have for Gamers?
Ray tracing does have its benefits for gamers. The lighting effects at their peak look better than anything else and create a more immersive experience. Everything from Elden Ring to Minecraft can benefit from this new technology. It may also reduce developer times, ensuring you get the newest games faster.
Console players and those engaging in pc gaming alike have much to look forward to from this. Unfortunately, ray tracing is not without its drawbacks. Real-time dynamic lighting is extremely intensive. This places a high standard on your graphics card, at a time when high-end cards are in short supply.
It can also tank your frame rates if your processor and other components aren’t equipped to handle that much intensity. Lower frame rates may not be a concern for single-player experiences but may be a pain point in competitive multiplayer.
You’ll still be able to enjoy enhanced gameplay with the help of careful consideration elsewhere. You may opt to enhance your server connection with a wired cable and devote your onboard resources to gaming.
Specialized routers can also prioritize and control the data packets you send. A ping-enhancer may also offset the imbalance ray tracing creates or simply provide better gaming overall.
What Supports Ray Tracing?
Supporting ray tracing in gaming is a far different beast from supporting it in film. Films that use ray tracing by the nature of the medium are going to be pre-rendered. Game developers and gamers don’t have that luxury. Gaming requires real-time ray tracing for the most authentic, extensive use of the piece.
Several upcoming and already released games support ray tracing, including:
Cyberpunk 2077
Battlefield V
Metro: Exodus
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Watch Dogs: Legion
As far as current-gen game consoles go, both the Sony Playstation 5 and Microsoft's Xbox Series X support ray tracing. Though the Nintendo Switch does not support ray tracing, it is likely the next Nintendo console will follow these new industry standards.
PC gamers will instead need to rely on an updated graphics card to get the most out of lighting effects. Most modern Nvidia GeForce RTX graphics cards should support ray tracing, as well as most high-end cards in general.
Hopefully, soon the graphics card and console shortage will be totally resolved. When this happens, gaming at the upper echelons will be accessible to all gamers, not just the fortunate ones.
The Future of Lighting
Some might balk at the idea of algorithmic lighting effects. It may seem like an easy way out when developers and fine artists have been perfecting shadows for years. However, it is precisely this work that has made modern advances possible. A fundamental understanding of light on a technical and mathematical level paved the way for ray tracing.
At WTFast, we get excited over any new development in the game world. Ray tracing is at the height of present-day lighting technology for all digitized media. Shy of refining the calculations going into it, it's difficult to see it being surpassed anytime soon.
Sources:
Why Hair In Video Games Is So Hard To Do Well I Kotaku
