I’ve been fascinated by the rapid advancement of ray tracing technology in games and other applications. As a gamer and visual effects enthusiast, ray tracing represents a quantum leap in real-time graphics, bringing a new level of realism and immersion. In this article, I’ll explain what ray tracing is, why it’s become so popular recently, and why it’s on the cusp of becoming a must-have feature.
What is Ray Tracing?
Ray tracing is a rendering technique that traces the path of light as pixels in an image are calculated. It simulates the physical behavior of light by tracing individual rays of light as they interact with objects.
Here’s a quick overview of how it works:
- Ray tracing starts by firing rays from the camera into the 3D scene.
- When a ray hits an object, lighting calculations are performed to determine the color and brightness of that pixel.
- Effects like reflections, refractions, and shadows are handled by firing additional rays to simulate the path light would take as it bounces around the scene.
- By tracing many light paths per pixel, ray tracing can render photorealistic lighting, reflections, and shadows.
Traditionally, ray tracing has been used for offline rendering in films and visual effects. But advances in hardware have now made real-time ray tracing possible in games and interactive applications.
The Rise of Ray Tracing Hardware
In 2018, NVIDIA introduced their RTX line of GPUs which contained dedicated ray tracing cores called RT Cores. These specialized processing units can trace rays and render effects up to 10x faster than previous GPUs.
AMD followed in 2020 with ray tracing support in their RDNA 2 architecture. The new consoles, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, also contain custom AMD chips optimized for ray traced workloads.
This new generation of hardware has brought real-time ray tracing from the realm of research and high-end production into consumer gaming rigs and living rooms around the world.
Why Ray Tracing Is a Game Changer
Ray tracing unlocks a new level of realism for real-time graphics. Effects that have long been faked or approximated can now be simulated directly like they are in the real world.
Here are some examples that demonstrate why ray tracing represents a revolution in graphics quality:
Photorealistic Lighting
- With ray tracing, light behaves realistically as it bounces around the scene. Direct and indirect lighting become unified in one simulation.
True Reflections
- Ray traced reflections are view-dependent and mimic real mirror/glossy surfaces. Reflections update seamlessly as the camera or objects move.
Accurate Shadows
- Ray traced shadows have contact shadows, penumbras, and shade smoothly from light to dark. Light sources can cast realistic soft shadows.
Advanced Effects
- New effects like ambient occlusion, global illumination, and translucency become possible to render in real-time with ray tracing.
By simulating the physical properties of light, ray tracing allows for photoreal CG imagery with a level detail that was impossible to achieve in real-time previously.
Ray Tracing Adoption Rising Rapidly
Thanks to dedicated hardware and OS/API support, ray tracing adoption has been rapid:
- NVIDIA RTX GPUs now accelerate ray tracing in 100+ games and applications.
- Microsoft DirectX Raytracing is integrated into Windows.
- The new PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S consoles have ray tracing support.
- Apple is bringing ray tracing to iOS and macOS devices.
- The Vulkan and WebGPU APIs support ray traced workloads.
As more engines and content creation tools add ray tracing features, it will become increasingly ubiquitous. Real-time ray tracing is transitioning from bleeding edge to must-have feature seemingly overnight.
The Future Looks Bright with Ray Tracing
Ray tracing sits at the intersection of cutting graphics research and real-world deployment. Just a few years ago real-time ray tracing was considered too computationally expensive. Now it’s appearing in big budget games and next-gen consoles.
This technology will likely continue its meteoric rise. As ray tracing hardware and software mature, it could become the predominant rendering technique across industries. Film quality CG lighting, reflections, and shadows may soon be the norm in video games, product visualizations, and beyond.
I can’t wait to see where photorealistic real-time graphics enabled by ray tracing takes us next. It feels like we’re just scratching the surface of a realism revolution in computer imagery.
