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What is ray tracing, and how will it change games. <\/p>\n
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What is ray tracing, and how will it change games?<\/p>\n
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Nvidia\u2019s RTX 2000 graphics cards<\/a> introduced ray tracing to the world of gaming in the latter half of 2019, but today there are a variety of RTX and GTX cards that support it. The fancy new lighting technique is a serious resource hog, meaning that the more expensive and modern cards handle it best, but most Nvidia graphics cards from the past few years can take a crack at its real-time reflections and shadow effects.<\/p>\n But what is ray tracing? And is it really worth upgrading for?<\/p>\n Graphics technology is usually hard to explain, but ray tracing is rather simple. It attempts to emulate the way light works in the real world. Instead of creating pre-designed, or \u201cbaked-in\u201d lighting for scenes in <\/span>games, ray tracing traces the path of simulated light. Or, rather, millions<\/em> of simulated lights, or photons. The light bounces off objects as it moves and interacts with their properties. If it bounces from a glossy green surface, for instance, its hue may change.<\/p>\n That\u2019s essentially how light works in real life. A particle of light bursts forth from its point of origin and travels along until it interacts with an object, at which point its path is determined by that object\u2019s properties. It might be absorbed by a dense, dark object, or almost entirely reflected by a mirror.<\/p>\n Ray tracing\u2019s fundamental similarity to real life makes it an extremely realistic 3D rendering technique, even making blocky games like Minecraft<\/a> look near photo-realistic in the right conditions. There\u2019s just one problem: It\u2019s hard to simulate. Recreating the way light actually works in the world is complicated and resource intensive, requiring masses of computing power. Even Nvidia\u2019s ray tracing rendering isn\u2019t true ray tracing, whereby every point of light is simulated. Instead, it uses a number of smart approximations to deliver something that\u2019s close to the same visual effect, but without being quite as taxing on the hardware.<\/p>\nVirtual photons<\/h2>\n