Ray tracing stocktaking: a pipe burst or wine that still needs to mature?

I'm walking down a corridor in the Oldest House with Jesse Faden. To my left, a glass wall separates offices. I see Jesse's reflection in the mirror and walk closer. The light and shadow fall realistically on her body. Even the gun in the reflection reflects light and shadow. Wow, ray tracing can look this good. It's just a shame that this example from the game "Control" is one of the exceptions.

What is ray tracing?

In ray tracing, different rays are emitted by an algorithm to determine the visibility of objects in a specific point of a room. The aim is to display realistic lighting on the screen.

You can find out more about ray tracing in the following article.

A bumpy start

On 20 August 2018, Nvidia presented the RTX 2000 series. The manufacturer's main focus was on ray tracing. Although the technology looked breathtaking in the demos, it was the prices that took most people's breath away. The high-end RTX 2080 Ti model cost over 70 per cent more than its predecessor, the GTX 1080 Ti, and at 1199 US dollars, it was definitely no bargain.

The accusation levelled at Nvidia: the industry leader could do whatever it wanted with prices due to a lack of competition and was exploiting its market dominance. Ray tracing alone does not justify the price and the technology is not ready for the market anyway. In addition, the increase in performance compared to the previous generation is not great enough. Nvidia is selling a castle in the air with real-time ray tracing.

Nvidia not only had to deal with these accusations at the beginning: no ray-tracing-capable game was available at the launch on 20 September 2018. "Battlefield 5" made the start in November 2018. In the game, however, only the reflections are rendered with ray tracing.

Games with ray tracing remained in short supply. Some games did not offer the feature at release or cancelled it altogether, such as "Assetto Corsa Competizione". In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, it took six months - until March 2019 - for ray tracing to be implemented via a patch. In this game, the shadows are rendered using ray tracing.

"Metro Exodus" takes a different approach: Here, the lighting is rendered using ray tracing. After all, gamers were already able to benefit from the feature in the third instalment of the "Metro" series when it was released in February 2019.

The effects look great in the three games mentioned, but they have a major impact on performance. In the video above, "Battlefield 5" with ray tracing has around 70 per cent less FPS than without.

The following games are currently available with ray tracing:

• "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare" real-time shadows with ray tracing
• "Control" real-time ray tracing of reflections, contact shadows, indirect diffuse lighting and DLSS
• "Metro Exodus: The Two Colonels DLC" with lighting effects
• "Metro Exodus" real-time environment occlusion with ray tracing and diffused global illumination and Nvidia DLSS
• "Shadow of the Tomb Raider" real-time shadows with ray tracing and Nvidia DLSS
• "Battlefield V" real-time reflections with ray tracing and Nvidia DLSS
• "Quake II RTX" reflections, light refraction, shadow ambient occlusion and global illumination
• "Stay in the Light" with shadow and reflection effects

These upcoming games are set to support ray tracing:

• "Minecraft" with real-time ray tracing of reflections, shadows and global illumination
• "Cyberpunk 2077" previously shown with ambient occlusion and diffused illumination effects
• "SYNCED" real-time ray tracing of reflections and shadows
• "Dying Light 2" with global illumination effects
• "Watch Dogs: Legion" with reflection effects
• "Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines" real-time reflections with ray tracing
• "Sword and Fairy 7" with shadow and reflection effects

"Control" shows what is possible

In August, one year after Nvidia presented the RTX 2000 series, "Control" was released. The game implements ray tracing in the best and most detailed way to date. It tackles five points at once: Reflections, transparent reflections, indirect lighting, contact shadows and debris. The game looks really awesome. However, if you want to play relatively smoothly with the highest ray tracing settings, you need to own at least an RTX 2080 Super: On our test benchmark, I got around 60 FPS in 1440p and the other settings on the highest presets.

In order for the relatively good frame rate to be possible, you have to activate DLSS - a feature that, like ray tracing, came with the Turing generation. Deep learning algorithms are used for edge smoothing. DLSS is designed to put less strain on the computing units than other anti-aliasing technologies. It uses a lower resolution and then artificially upscales it. This frees up resources that enable a higher frame rate. Although "Control" is not the first game to have DLSS, it is the first game to offer the option for resolutions lower than 1440p.

Where does ray tracing stand today?

There are still very few games that support ray tracing. But those that do have the feature look impressive. Nvidia is now getting in on the act itself. With "Quake II RTX", the company is delivering its first own ray tracing title. And more are to follow. With "Cyberpunk 2077" and "Minecraft", two guaranteed success stories are getting ray tracing.

Yes, the cards, especially the RTX 2080 Ti, are still expensive even more than a year after release. But: At some point, someone has to start with a new technology. And innovations cost money. You can say what you like about Nvidia, but the accusation that the industry leader is not innovative does not apply. Nvidia has dared to try something new. It is clear that the company is facing a rough wind. New technologies always have a hard time. That was the case with the printing press, the television and the computer.

Real-time ray tracing is still in its infancy. It will be a few years before games look like animated films. Ray tracing in films started with the first "Shrek". It was a long way from this to "Toy Story 4" and this is also likely to be the case with real-time ray tracing in games.

With the new generation of consoles capable of ray tracing, even more games will be released that support the feature. If Nvidia's competitor AMD also jumps on the bandwagon, the technology will finally catch on - and we have Nvidia to thank for that. <p