What Happens to Rasterization in the Era of Ray Tracing?

[IQandHDR]

But current hardware can still run non-RT games. Which was the capability I was worried mostly about loosing to some degree in the future.

RT becoming mainstream isn't a problem for me personally. I look forward to seeing what RT will bring for developers and gamers alike. But yea, for those of us with non-RT hardware (I'm firmly in that camp, still sporting my trusty Radeon 5700 XT) it'll force us to upgrade if we want to play these games.

You can already see what RT brings today: Superior image quality.
Even older games are greatly enhanced by it, like eg. the Witcher 3).

I am not for holding back progress because you have a 5700XT, you made a less than stellar purcahse going forward, a 2060 (also released in 2019) got the new DLSS TNN model, your card is kinda abandoned

It’s better that the transition starts now and not in 4-5 years when next generation console games drop.

Agreed, it has already yield some amazing results in games.

 

[Color me Dan]

You can already see what RT brings today: Superior image quality.
Even older games are greatly enhanced by it, like eg. the Witcher 3).

I am not for holding back progress because you have a 5700XT, you made a less than stellar purcahse going forward, a 2060 (also released in 2019) got the new DLSS TNN model, your card is kinda abandoned


Agreed, it has already yield some amazing results in games.

I'm not for holding back progress either. I think you should re-read what I wrote

 

[Kaotik]

Well games are launching with RT h/w requirement now so we're past that point already I'd say.

We have what, 2-3 games launched with RT h/w required. That's literally nothing even if you disregard the shovelware, there's still several thousands of games being released yearly

 

[trinibwoy]

We have what, 2-3 games launched with RT h/w required. That's literally nothing even if you disregard the shovelware, there's still several thousands of games being released yearly

What’s your criteria for heralding the arrival of our new RT overlords? I think it’s reasonable to push back on RT if there are alternatives that offer better results but that hasn’t materialized.

 

[DegustatoR]

That's literally nothing

If a new Doom is "literally nothing" to you then I have nothing to add.

 

[Kaotik]

What’s your criteria for heralding the arrival of our new RT overlords? I think it’s reasonable to push back on RT if there are alternatives that offer better results but that hasn’t materialized.

Let's talk when it's starting to be around 50% of new AAA games.

If a new Doom is "literally nothing" to you then I have nothing to add.

No single game is anything when talking about specific technology requirement becoming mainstream

 

[DegustatoR]

No single game is anything when talking about specific technology requirement becoming mainstream

I completely disagree. There are maybe a dozen of good games with modern graphics worth playing each year. One game out of these is quite a lot.

 

[trinibwoy]

Let's talk when it's starting to be around 50% of new AA games.

Wow that’s a high bar! I doubt 50% of new AA games even have good shadow maps or particle systems.

 

[raytracingfan]

There will always be games that push for cutting-edge graphics and games that don't. We've already reached the point where for majority of games in the former category, ray tracing is the way it's meant to be played TM.

 

[trinibwoy]

There will always be games that push for cutting-edge graphics and games that don't. We've already reached the point where for majority of games in the former category, ray tracing is the way it's meant to be played TM.

I like looking at it this way too. It doesn’t make sense talking about RT in graphically unambitious games. Those games don’t even aspire to the heights of raster tech and are therefore irrelevant to any discussion of cutting edge graphics hardware or software.

I think the relevant question is whether games that are aiming for high graphical fidelity can do so with or without RT.

 

[Kaotik]

Wow that’s a high bar! I doubt 50% of new AA games even have good shadow maps or particle systems.

Missed one A from it, added

 

[trinibwoy]

Missed one A from it, added

I think we’re heading in that direction. Certainly for single player experiences.

 

[DavidGraham]

We have what, 2-3 games launched with RT h/w required.

There is also a different thing happening, games with software ray tracing performing and looking worse when running on non RT hardware (Star Wars Outlaws and Avatar Pandora), and recently the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Shadows (where they have the RX 5700 barely doing upscaled 1080p with 30fps at low settings with software ray tracing). There is also games that look like absolute crap without ray tracing, like Spider-Man 2, where the developer uses very low res cubemaps for the non ray traced path.

This is the normal behavior with new features, they are featured in low number of games at the beginning, then the flood gates open.