ray tracing on or off?

[Fahad]

does ray tracing make a noticeable difference in this game visually? or better leave it off for more fps?

[Shae ☥ #bday]

It does for me but if you have performance issues then you can switch it off if you want more FPS.

[Rc0rp3cU3sdoq]

I've noticed a trend where even if you have it "off" its still being used partially. Like in this game if you have it disabled, the RTX water reflections are still there. I couldn't get the game to run stable with it off on dx12, the only way to make the game playable was with the "-dx11" switch.

[BRT Cobra]

the game uses software raytracing by default so its always on to some degree

[Dust]

The most notable difference it makes is the lighting is vastly superior in a few select areas like Neely's bar. 99% of the time it's just gonna slash your framerate in half without any kind of noticeable positive tradeoff. I'd leave it off if I were you.

Edit: I think OP understands by now that SH2 uses software raytracing. That's not what he asked.

[60mph gorilla]

UE5 software lumen or whatever they call it. So you effectively have raytracing on at all times. Partly why UE5 games that use the full suite run like garbo water without some form of upscaling

[uKER]

Environment lighting, and in particular vegetation, are way better with RT on, but performance also tanks quite noticeably.

See comparison screenshots here.
https://www.dsogaming.com/articles/silent-hill-2-remake-ray-tracing-nvidia-dlss-3-amd-fsr-3-0-benchmarks/

[Starwight/ttv]

Having it on and off...idk. I see a little difference, but certainly not the game changing difference some are claiming it to be.

It's not like Cyberpunk, for example, where the ray tracing really comes in hard.

[Fahad]

well i guess i'll leave it on, i'm fine with 40-70 fps and the difference is quite noticeable in some areas after some testing.

[KingOneDa]

Originally posted by Fahad:

does ray tracing make a noticeable difference in this game visually? or better leave it off for more fps?

never does in no game.
Its only in your head.
Turn this s... off and enjoy the game.

[Dust]

Originally posted by Starwight/ttv:

Having it on and off...idk. I see a little difference, but certainly not the game changing difference some are claiming it to be.

It's not like Cyberpunk, for example, where the ray tracing really comes in hard.

Probably because Cyberpunk both has rasterized lighting + screen space reflections and raytracing as separate options, and SH2 is built around raytracing, just with the option of enabling hardware raytracing. In the case of the latter both options are going to look way more similar to one another than the former.

Originally posted by KingOneDa:

Originally posted by Fahad:

does ray tracing make a noticeable difference in this game visually? or better leave it off for more fps?

never does in no game.
Its only in your head.
Turn this s... off and enjoy the game.

That's very wrong. It just doesn't do much in games like SH2 or Control.

[Dusktildawn48]

Originally posted by KingOneDa:

Originally posted by Fahad:

does ray tracing make a noticeable difference in this game visually? or better leave it off for more fps?

never does in no game.
Its only in your head.
Turn this s... off and enjoy the game.

You must be blind, it makes a massive difference in cyberpunk and Alan Wake 2. Not so much in silent Hill though.

[Starwight/ttv]

Originally posted by Dust:

Originally posted by Starwight/ttv:

Having it on and off...idk. I see a little difference, but certainly not the game changing difference some are claiming it to be.

It's not like Cyberpunk, for example, where the ray tracing really comes in hard.

Probably because Cyberpunk both has rasterized lighting + screen space reflections and raytracing as separate options, and SH2 is built around raytracing, just with the option of enabling hardware raytracing. In the case of the latter it's gonna look way more similar.

Could be, I admittedly don't know much about ray tracing since I only recently had a card capeable of it in the first place. I know that SH2 doesn't appear to really have a huge impact with ray tracing on vs off, so to me the performance hit isn't really worth it in SH2's case so I leave it off.

[GDZERARD]

unstable 30 fps on 1050

[Starwight/ttv]

Originally posted by GDZERARD:

unstable 30 fps on 1050

I mean, you're using a 1050, what did you genuinely expect? The bare minimum GPU it tells you on the steam page is a 1070 TI--and you're using a 1050, ffs.

[Mr. Clark]

I ran everything on max with RT on with a 4080 and had good performance the whole way. May depend on your hardware but the lighting in this game is so stellar. From the brights and mids in direct sunlight with all the fog to a darkness that swallows all light leaving only mere feet of visibility in front of you even with the flashlight on, this game kills the lighting.