A ray tracing debate thread

[Zat0ichi]

I've more than just skimmed the surface of this but have by no means gone deep. Its not my profession (I'm an analyst by trade) 

I like immersive gaming experiences rather than bombastic high fps eyegasms and we are in a place to be considering film grade lighting when making games.

 

The early ray tracing i became aware of was brute force photon replication.

Models would have colour and material properties and light sources emitted pixel rays that would bounce a number of times calculating their colour from a 32bit pallet.

 

Things have moved on and there are efficiencies in rendering and alot more horsepower

I'm at a disadvantage as I have not read up on these new techniques but what is being waved about are the visual outputs

 

• Reflections are the most obvious yet their accuracy is not worth the overhead
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• Contact shadows are also obvious yet of limited value when perfectly implemented
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• Ambient occlusion is one of the first subtle things that is remarkably expensive but adds to the immersive feel of a scene
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• Global illumination is another good one. Moon light glinting off shiny surfaces rather than walking around under a spot light.

 

I'm interested to be educated in other raytracing benefits

 

 

Looking at the difference between the ALPHA build of Witcher 3 and release version you can use that as an example of the atmospheric boost raytracing can give a game.

TL:DR

RT is a good thing IMO yet i think its marketable benefits are being skewed. You can easily spot reflections and shadows yet you feel good lighting.

 

 

(Sorry got into writing this then lost steam halfway through)