Game Doesn't Need Raytracing

[ﮐʜᴑƌᴧԓ]

I don't know what wizardry they are using for the current reflections (SSR? Some kind of secondary room render?) but they already look insanely impressive.

Go and look at Nightcall mission, the complexity of the mirrors and reflections of light sources on windows looks better than most implementations of actual ray traced reflections.

I find it difficult to see that actual RT will offer much improvement in terms of visuals at all, in some places it might even look less 'impressive'

[PopCorn]

i dont use it for any games dont care about those fancy reflections its not like am gonna stare at the windows the whole time.

[space]

so don't use it? you know it's entirely optional

[Etherlight]

Originally posted by space:

so don't use it? you know it's entirely optional

Yes but IOI could use the resource to add other improvement to the game instead.

[Kunovega]

Originally posted by Etherlight:

Originally posted by space:

so don't use it? you know it's entirely optional

Yes but IOI could use the resource to add other improvement to the game instead.

There's something you need to understand: ioi makes their own engine.

They've been making and improving on that engine for over 20 years now.

They don't stop improving the engine because it will keep getting used for their next game.

They use whatever their current game is to test engine improvements that will carry over into their next game, whatever that will be (in this case Project 007)

So no, they can't just use the resources they spend improving their engine to make this game better, because that's not what they are doing it for. Engine improvements are because they have and always will continue to update and reuse that engine for each new game. Getting things like Raytracing into Hitman 3 isn't about improving Hitman 3, it's about making sure their engine works for their next game with the latest bells and whistles.

Also there are very different types of developers assigned for various types of changes. What improvements are you looking for or expecting? Because I guarantee you whoever is making changes to how the engine works aren't the same people doing world building and level design or writing, or making anything related to new content.

You have coders making their engine better so that the engine can continue to be used in future games, whether they test and release some of those features in their current games or not.

Separate from this you have designers, artists, world builders, writers, etc. who make content, very few of which are still doing anything related to Hitman 3 because most have already been moved to their next projects.

[Hardware]

I don't know what wizardry they are using for the current reflections (SSR? Some kind of secondary room render?) but they already look insanely impressive.

Current version of the engine uses 3 types of rendering techniques.

- Screen Space Reflections (for most reflective surfaces)
- Planar reflections (used by mirrors and some other surfaces)
- Specular probes (precalculated fallbacks for most transparent objects)

With the may 24th patch, they will add a fourth one, RTR (Ray Traced Reflections). This will be an hybrid system, adding RTR to enhance existing techniques. Rays will be traced when SSR cannot display a reflection. With SSR, objects not captured in the rendered frame cannot appear in the reflections, which results in unresolved intersections and incomplete reflection image, RTR will solve this.

Why they just don't use Planar reflections everywhere ? Because it is a very expensive technique, it requires to compute a scene once again.

Why they just don't use SSR everywhere ? Because of unresolved intersections and incomplete reflection image.

Most games use specular probes or no reflections at all to speed up the rendering. SSR appeared some years ago in video games but it is rarely very well done (Hitman 3 is an exception), Planar reflections have existed for a very long time, but are rarely used nowadays because of the big performance hit induced, the few AAA games that still use them are only for confined areas (Hitman 2016/2/3 are probably the only recent games to use them as much and even in open areas while keeping good performances). Insomniac did a pretty good job on Spider Man franchise with a mix of specular probes, SSR and RTR on buildings.

RTR is a new technique in video games that has the potential to solve a lot of rendering issues, so IO is moving towards that, it's understandable. But it requires a lot of work and performances tweaks, even more for in-house engines teams.

Some screenshots from GDC 2022 (can't share the full video, sorry) :

https://imgur.com/a/q1zR9bw

[Kai]

So when is the RTX update? been waiting forever to 100% this

[ＳＨＡＤＯＷ２ＫＫ]

Originally posted by Kai:

So when is the RTX update? been waiting forever to 100% this

2 days from now apparently.

[Kai]

Originally posted by ＳＨＡＤＯＷ２ＫＫ:

Originally posted by Kai:

So when is the RTX update? been waiting forever to 100% this

2 days from now apparently.

My bad, it says May 24 right there, read everything but that lol

[Mageh533]

Not sure why game devs are adding raytracing to their games like its something to be exited for when in reality less than 5% of steam users (according to the steam hardware stats) even own an RTX capable card.

[randir14]

Originally posted by Mageh533:

Not sure why game devs are adding raytracing to their games like its something to be exited for when in reality less than 5% of steam users (according to the steam hardware stats) even own an RTX capable card.

It's probably a test for their James Bond game. They did the same thing in Hitman 2 when they added destructible terrain in the bank level and that technology then carried over to Hitman 3.

[LagMan_PT]

I remember the first time i saw ragdoll physics was in hitman codename 47 it was one of the first games to have them, i was super impressed back in the day, how the bodies reacted diferently depending on how they were shoot or fell before you only had static animations, ioi allways tried to keep up with the new tech. I dont have hardware for raytracing but its cool to have more options available to those who have

[Piano man]

Originally posted by randir14:

They did the same thing in Hitman 2 when they added destructible terrain in the bank level and that technology then carried over to Hitman 3.

Did it carry over though? I don't remember too much destructible physics in any of the Hitman 3 levels, or do I just not play with enough explosives.

[Froggystyle]

I have an RTX card and appreciate the inclusion of ray tracing. Dying Light 2 is a night and day difference with it, so I always run it.

[Teamster]

Originally posted by Mageh533:

Not sure why game devs are adding raytracing to their games like its something to be exited for when in reality less than 5% of steam users (according to the steam hardware stats) even own an RTX capable card.

Because in the future more people are going to have GPU's capable of hardware accelerated Ray Tracing. As a couple of people have already pointed out. It's not about the here and now. It's about the future. On top of what other people are giving as reasons I will add that getting to know the tech now gives developers experience that will accrue over time. That will in turn give us better implementation techniques which will either increase fidelity or performance.

It can in some ways be compared to console generations. At the start of a generation nobody is really sure of how to best take advantage of the hardware. Over time developers accrue experience and get better. That results in games released at the end of console lifecycle looking and performing better. Well... Not all games, but as a general rule of thumb.

[Dukeinator]

Originally posted by Mageh533:

Not sure why game devs are adding raytracing to their games like its something to be exited for when in reality less than 5% of steam users (according to the steam hardware stats) even own an RTX capable card.

Almost 27% of Steam users have an RTX capable graphics card.