What is Ray Tracing? Learn about Ray Tracing technology in the game

Since the Gamescom 2018 game fair, Ray Tracing technology has gradually become popular in the gaming world.

Although, a normal game can become more shimmering and attractive in terms of graphics with Ray Tracing technology (simply just one button in Settings), but in return, the FPS will be reduced. enough.

Therefore, to use Ray Tracing technology, it requires computers to be equipped with expensive graphics cards, so it will not be until 2021 that Ray Tracing is really popular.

Nvidia is a company with great merit when playing a perfect role, popularizing Ray Tracing into gaming since the RTX (Real-Time ray tracing) 20-series Turing cards.

Admittedly, Ray Tracing must reach the Real-time (real-time) realm, then its applicability is really high.

Yes, and Nvidia's powerful GeForce RTX 20 Series and 30-series cards allow real-time rendering of frames with Ray Tracing effects thanks to dedicated RT Cores.

#first. What is Ray Tracing?

Basically, Ray Tracing is a technique to simulate lighting effects in computer-generated scenes.

Ray tracing is an image rendering technology based on available light rays in the game and in real time.

In computer graphics, Ray Tracing is a rendering technique to improve the realism of lighting effects in the relationship between Lighting and Shadow.

Ray Tracing will perform analysis of light and shadows (Light / Shading) interacting with physical objects to create better realism for the frame in the game and in the movie.

Technically, Ray tracing uses algorithms that analyze the path of light (in the form of pixels) and simulate its effects / interactions when encountering objects like in real life.

Different from the traditional Scanline Rendering method, Ray Tracing produces scenes with much more realism by recreating the optical effects of light such as reflection, scattering, propagation, refraction, etc.

In addition, Ray tracing can also be applied to sound to help reproduce effects such as reverberation, echo, etc., thereby helping games or movies achieve the best audiovisual experience.

#2. Nvidia and AMD in the Ray Tracing race

With the first series of RTX cards, Nvidia has strongly stated that only using its cards can people experience Ray Tracing technology.

But AMD also did not give up, they responded with Radeon RX 6000 series cards with no less performance.

It seems that Nvidia has become smarter in both Marketing and technology when launching the RTX 20-series cards (the name alone is already associated with Ray Tracing), accompanied by specialized RT cores. for accelerated processing of content with Ray tracing.

In the game benchmark results, we often see Nvidia cards drop about 20% FPS when Ray Tracing is turned on and with AMD cards, this number is even higher (between 30-40%).

#3. List of some games that support Ray Tracing well

1. Amid Evil
2. Battlefield DRAW
3. Bright Memory: Infinite
4. Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare
5. Call Of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
6. Control
7. Cyberpunk 2077
8. Deliver Us The Moon
9. Dirt 5
10. Doom Eternal
11. Fortnite
12. Ghostrunner
13. Godfall
14. Justice Online
15. JX Online
16. MechWarriror 5: Mercenaries
17. Metro Exodus
18. Minecraft
19. Moonlight Blade
20. Observer System Redux
21. Pumpkin Jack
22. Quake II RTX
23. The Riffbreaker
24. Right of Elysium
25. Shadow Of The Tomb Raider
26. Stay in the Light
27. Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2
28. Watch Dogs: Legion
29. The Witcher 3
30. Wolfenstein
31. World Of Warcraft
32. Xuan-Yuan Sword VII

Some graphics cards support Ray Tracing:

1. Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090
2. Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080/Ti
3. Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070
4. Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti
5. Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060
6. Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 Super
7. Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070
8. Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super
9. Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080
10. Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Super
11. Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti
12. Nvidia Titan RTX
13. AMD 5000/6000 series and VEGA 56/64

#4. summary

Technology changes rapidly – ​​friends! There are things that are impossible or very limited today, but by next month / next year it will be on the market, even very popular.

Until now, it can be considered that Ray tracing is still in its infancy, because the hardware that supports it is still quite expensive compared to the vast majority of users.

High-end (aka genuine) hardware at the time of writing this article can only partially apply Ray-tracing about Lighting and Shadows in the game, instead of the entire game - but it also proved to be. It's pretty 'struggling'.

Ray tracing is a development direction that game makers/computer graphics must apply to gain a foothold in the market.

Lesley Montoya

Update 04 December 2021