GART: Games and Applications using RayTracing

[DegustatoR]

But man does it look a lot better. Looks much more correct.

There are some screenshots here:

A Plague Tale: Requiem looks WORSE with Ray Tracing, comparison screenshots

Asobo has just released a new update for A Plague Tale: Requiem that adds support for Ray Tracing. However, the game looks worse with them.

www.dsogaming.com

(Disregard the text though as the author seem to have eye issues or something.)

 

[Dampf]

There are some screenshots here:

A Plague Tale: Requiem looks WORSE with Ray Tracing, comparison screenshots

Asobo has just released a new update for A Plague Tale: Requiem that adds support for Ray Tracing. However, the game looks worse with them.

www.dsogaming.com

(Disregard the text though as the author seem to have eye issues or something.)

Looks like I have some eye issues too, then. There's a ton of ambient occlusion missing and thus, looks a lot flatter with RT on. Probably a bug.

 

[DegustatoR]

Looks like I have some eye issues too, then. There's a ton of ambient occlusion missing and thus, looks a lot flatter with RT on. Probably a bug.

SSAO is "missing" because it's physically wrong and should not be present where it does without RT. RT image is miles better in lighting.

 

[chris1515]

SSAO is "missing" because it's physically wrong and should not be present where it does without RT. RT image is miles better in lighting.

But RT AO is needed. Ambient occlusion is missing maybe a bug.

 

[DegustatoR]

But RT AO doesn't want. Ambient occlusion is missing maybe a bug.

There is ambient occlusion in there RT shots. There are no SSAO haloing and darkening in places where it doesn't make sense.

 

[iroboto]

Oh I didn’t even see the difference in lighting. Lol. I had to turn it off as it was killing my card. The Shadows are nice however as the shadows tend to be disappearing for background items when they are occluded.

The lighting is correct IMO. Non RT mode is darker in places it should not be. Brighter in places it should not be.

Also, not the smoking gun the article writes it to be. There are bugs with RT. You cannot just turn it on off and do a quick check; to be sure, I would reboot the game. Every time I turned it on, I had to switch it off and reboot the title to get proper non RT performance back.

 

[OlegSH]

seem to have eye issues or something

The issue is not with eyesight, but rather with the basic understanding of how the lighting works - shadows should be beneath the grass rather than behind it as with SSAO, unless there is a direct light source of course.
The funny story is that people not just eat those nasty SSAO view dependent artifacts for launch, they actually think this is how the lighting is supposed to work and look.
I also see some typical gamey light leaking artifacts on rocks in the screenshots with ambient lighting coming from sky, specular occlusion with diffuse RT reflections would have been useful here.

 

[trinibwoy]

Does Requiem use any sort of dynamic GI?

 

[OlegSH]

Does Requiem use any sort of dynamic GI?

Given the flat look of the game, it uses baked probes most likely, but can't say for sure.

 

[trinibwoy]

Admittedly this is just from screenshots but it doesn’t look that special. Why are people so excited about the graphics? Is it the art style they’re referring to?

 

[OlegSH]

Why are people so excited about the graphics? Is it the art style they’re referring to?

Dunno, there is a good amount of triangles in models. Guess most players are not good at spotting lighting/reflections/other issues (unless something is completely broken), but have a sharp eye for polygon edges since it's way easier to spot non round objects)

 

[trinibwoy]

Dunno, there is a good amount of triangles in models. Guess most players are not good at spotting lighting/reflections/other issues (unless something is completely broken), but have a sharp eye for polygon edges since it's way easier to spot non round objects)

Environment and geometric detail does seem quite high. That makes sense. The lighting certainly isn’t anything special though.

 

[pjbliverpool]

Admittedly this is just from screenshots but it doesn’t look that special. Why are people so excited about the graphics? Is it the art style they’re referring to?

Thos DSOG shots aren't the best examples - although the first one is great IMO. You should check out the game thread here for some better examples. Here's a taster:

 

[OlegSH]

The lighting certainly isn’t anything special though.

Sure, the Forbidden West has the same mediocre (by modern standards) lighting/reflections/etc, yet people praise it like there is no tomorrow.
But the direction has been set with UE 5 and other engines with per pixel RT GI, remaining engines will catch up in a year or two.

 

[chris1515]

Sure, the Forbidden West has the same mediocre (by modern standards) lighting/reflections/etc, yet people praise it like there is no tomorrow.
But the direction has been set with UE 5 and other engines with per pixel RT GI, remaining engines will catch up in a year or two.

Plague Tale Requiem is considered like one of 4 or 5 best looking game(with HFW, The Callisto Protocol, Portal RTX). HFW is considered by many like looking better mostly because of much higher budget. They have tons of great system.

 

[PSman1700]

Sure, the Forbidden West has the same mediocre (by modern standards) lighting/reflections/etc, yet people praise it like there is no tomorrow.

Its the worse looking game at it.

 

[trinibwoy]

Thos DSOG shots aren't the best examples - although the first one is great IMO. You should check out the game thread here for some better examples. Here's a taster:

Watched some videos of Requiem. Beautiful game.

 

[OlegSH]

HFW is considered by many like looking better mostly because of much higher budget

HFW looks great to me, have been playing it for a while. It has tons of things that were done right and many other things lack some innovations of the latests years, so the game is not perfect or any technical achievement in my book. Overall, can't say it has better graphics than the latest Ratchet and Clank, but that's a matter of taste.

Its the worse looking game at it.

I would not say the worst, FW just uses generic past gen lighting/shadows/reflections/etc solutions, so it lacks many advancements that have been made in many games with RT. All these generic things are done well enough to not bother player with any significant graphics artifacts most of the time and so that it would look classy enough in its shiny contrasty game envinonment most of the time, but its lighting is just a pastgen with well known shortcomings and limitations. The same goes for the Requiem. Both look great, but have nothing special technology wise.

 

[chris1515]

HFW looks great to me, have been playing it for a while. It has tons of things that were done right and many other things lack some innovations of the latests years, so the game is not perfect or any technical achievement in my book. Overall, can't say it has better graphics than the latest Ratchet and Clank, but that's a matter of taste.


I would not say the worst, FW just uses generic past gen lighting/shadows/reflections/etc solutions, so it lacks many advancements that have been made in many games with RT. All these generic things are done well enough to not bother player with any significant graphics artifacts most of the time and so that it would look classy enough in its shiny contrasty game envinonment most of the time, but its lighting is just a pastgen with well known shortcomings and limitations. The same goes for the Requiem. Both look great, but have nothing special technology wise.

I never said HFW is as good as Fortnite for technology for example. But out of lighting or Nanite/mesh shading tech, there are great technology like the shader for the rock, the clouds, water and so on. I just said than HFW is perceived as looking better than Plague Tale Requiem mostly because of a better budget...

 

[DegustatoR]

The same goes for the Requiem.

APTR is a bit weird in how slow it is even without RT for what's on display. Makes you wonder if it's those "diminishing visual returns" from pushing rasterization tech too far at play here. The game is nice graphically but I wouldn't exactly call it a next gen showcase - while it is one of a handful of next gen exclusive titles right now.