Ray tracing, a crucial feature for gamers, was introduced back in 2018 with the promise of boosting graphical quality. That much is still true, but technological advancement hasn't happened as quickly as one would have expected. Before I start critiquing the status of ray tracing in 2024, let me clarify that we also discuss the best examples of ray tracing in contemporary games.
I went ahead and chose some of the greatest PC games available with excellent visual quality in order to thoroughly determine whether or not ray tracing is worthwhile in 2024. These include, to mention a few, Avatars: Frontiers of Pandora, Alan Wake 2, Hogwarts Legacy, Cyberpunk 2077, and The Finals. Now let's explore the advancements made in ray tracing over the last five years.
Modern Games Seem Fantastic, Even Without Ray Tracing
Beginning with Avatar (review), Ubisoft's latest release broadened James Cameron's world. I visited one of my outposts, which was higher up and included a waterfall and some nice flora. After that, I searched for a sunny location to, uh, snap some screenshots for comparison. In addition to ray tracing, the visuals were fully optimized.
I noticed that some areas of the game world were visible in the reflections in the water. However, when ray tracing was reduced to its lowest level, the same reflections showed less variation than I had anticipated. Remember that ray tracing (RT) is not limited to reflections. The benefits of RT are clearly evident in the shadows and lighting.
The left panel displays Ultra graphics options with ray tracing set to the lowest possible level. Ray tracing is fully enabled, along with all other graphics options, on the right. The screenshots below show the differences.
Obviously, when ray tracing parameters are increased, the reflection is quieter. However, DLSS 3.5 isn't available to improve the reflections' appearance. Aside from reflections, you'll notice that another graphical benefit of turning on ray tracing is that the bow seems more detailed.
Next on the list is the visually stunning PC game Hogwarts Legacy. I discovered a town with a far-off vista of Hogwarts. The images below (sorry for the variable weather) show that the wooden building and tower on the left have weak reflections in the water, indicating that reflections are acceptable with ray tracing disabled.
Ray tracing makes things more difficult, but the outcome is unquestionably amazing. This sample shows how well the blue sky, the tower within Hogwarts, and other game elements are mirrored. Hogwarts Legacy's use of RT is lovely, but even without RT enabled, I think the game looks fantastic at Ultra graphics.
Additionally, with ray tracing enabled, this game becomes quite taxing. The game wouldn't run faster than 30 frames per second with ray tracing turned on on a RTX 4060 laptop that I just reviewed. In this instance, the game seems to have been enhanced with RT, but it is just too demanding to operate on a large number of GPUs.
We now move on to Alan Wake 2. At debut, this didn't function properly on PC, but You can find out why we think the game is so great in our linked review. The game performs poorly with the RTX 3070 Ti activated in any ray tracing level, achieving less than 10 frames per second and a very significant render delay.
Nevertheless, I took the pictures you see above to show how RT performance varies in Alan Wake 2. It was also discovered that DLSS 3.5 exists. I will discuss DLSS 3.5's significance for ray tracing in a later section. To make the game playable in this instance, the settings have to be adjusted to Medium-High as well. Indeed, there is a little variation when RT is activated once again.
When RT is turned on, light strikes the foliage on the upper left side more beautifully, and the center puddle exhibits more reflections. Playing Alan Wake 2 is a cinematic experience, with certain scenes including enhanced graphical quality thanks to ray tracing. However, even with an RTX 3070 Ti graphics card, which costs $600, this was unplayable, and many could probably argue that the game still looks decent without RT. Let's talk about console players' ray tracing predicament now.
The Latest Gaming Consoles: Performance vs. Fidelity Modes
Both the Sony PlayStation 5 and the Microsoft Xbox Series X are the newest generation of consoles, having specs that support ray-tracing games. One instance where ray tracing is enabled by default and cannot be disabled is in the game The Finals, which plays at around 60 frames per second. However, since this is a very competitive game, console performance often suffers when the player is surrounded by a ton of devastation. This really annoys me when I play the game on my PS5.
A 120FPS setting would be perfect in light of this. That's what a lot of console games, like Modern Warfare 3, Call of Duty Warzone, and others, provide.
Aside from that, console players may choose between two modes for story-focused experiences: Fidelity and Performance. Console games seem a little different less crisp in Performance mode, but they perform considerably better at 60 frames per second (FPS) with no ray tracing, or at a much lower level. Many people at Adibri own PS5, and it seems that some of them choose performance mode over fidelity mode for better visuals.
When available, I like to play games on my PS5 at 60 frames per second, and I believe most people would agree that performance is generally a superior option for most games. Although ray tracing is usually included in fidelity mode, I have seen several instances when the frame rate on a PS5 drops below 30 when utilizing the highest graphics settings. It's good to note that certain games, like GTA 5, have a balanced approach that allows for both 60FPS and ray tracing at the same time (Performance RT mode).
Ray tracing improves visuals on game consoles overall, but it also sometimes causes slow performance, which detracts from the gaming experience. Because of this, many modern console players choose Performance mode (no ray tracing).
I'm Still Excited About Ray Tracing, but After Five Years, I Expect More
After all, ray tracing is a significant invention. In my opinion, the RT implementations in today's games haven't wowed me sufficiently so far. Ray-tracing may be challenging for mid-range graphics cards in some demanding AAA games. Furthermore, as was already said, visuals have advanced significantly, making modern games seem fantastic even without RT.
Nvidia's release of DLSS 3.5 (Ray Reconstruction) was one noteworthy advancement in ray tracing. Enabling DLSS 3.5 in compatible games results in new AI-accelerated denoisers that significantly increase RT quality in lieu of the traditional denoisers.
I think Cyberpunk 2077 has the finest use of ray tracing; it can be played even on a laptop running an RTX 4060 with ray tracing turned on.
The game introduced Ray Tracing Overdrive, and the reflections are really elegant and clear when this function is activated, as you can see in the image above. I can attest that the game seems quite immersive after playing it on these settings.
Regretfully, DLSS 3.5 was only recently released on one additional game, Alan Wake 2, which was unplayable on PC at launch. I believe that the current status of ray tracing would be more amazing if DLSS 3.5 had achieved more titles. Fortunately, things are looking brighter as Nvidia releases additional titles that support DLSS 3.5.
In the future, I want to see more games to use ray tracing technology, but I also want to see it become more widely adopted in a manner that makes it more affordable for GPUs. That could be asking too much, particularly considering how demanding games are become. Five more years from now, and most gamers would have access to more powerful GPUs that would enable the latest advancements in ray tracing.
Even though ray tracing has been around for five years, it isn't as good as I had expected after all this time. Having stated that, how do you feel about ray tracing? Do you turn it on while you play video games? Tell us in the comments section below.
