Clarification on Ray-Traced and Non-Ray-Traced Effects in Black Myth: Wukong's Graphics Settings (GI, Shadows, and Reflections)

[Xyvorian]

Hi,
It's not the first time I ask it.

Now I will detail my question.

To elaborate on my question, I found this article https://pcoptimizedsettings.com/black-myth-wukong-pc-optimization-ray-tracing-graphics-setting-benchmarked/ that full ray tracing at very high enables Global Illumination reSTIR GI (Full-res), ray traced Shadows, ray traced Reflections (Full-res+Particles) and Caustics.

Additionally, the official Nvidia website https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/news/gfecnt/20248/black-myth-wukong-full-ray-tracing-dlss-3/ confirms: "With multi-bounce ray-traced indirect lighting, natural colored lighting bounces up to two times throughout the world of Black Myth: Wukong, creating more realistic indirect lighting and occlusion. Rendering techniques including Screen Space Reflections, Screen Space Ambient Occlusion, and the existing GI solutions were replaced by a single, unified algorithm that delivers more accurate lighting of scenes and objects, making each scene as immersive as possible.".

With full ray tracing already set to very high, I'm curious about the specific impact of adjusting Global Illumination, Reflection Quality, and Shadow Quality. Am I introducing additional non-ray-traced elements ( non-ray traced shadows, reflections and global illumination) to the scene, even though ray tracing is enabled? Or am I tweaking number of bounces, samples per pixel and other ray tracing fine tweaks?

My observations suggest that lowering these settings (shadows, reflections and global illumination) might actually improve the visual quality, making the scene appear more realistic. Could this be due to a negative interaction between the non-ray-traced "rendering techniques" and "GI solutions" and the game's "single unified algorithm that delivers more accurate lighting of scenes and objects, making each scene as immersive as possible"?

I'd be happy to share two video recordings that further illustrate my observations. The first video (https://youtu.be/8VmMtL90YAY
) showcases the scene with high settings for Global Illumination, Shadow Quality, and Reflection Quality. The second video (https://youtu.be/vp_zTkIja9I) shows the scene with these settings at low.

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding something, and if so, I apologize. This is a genuine question I have.

My confusion stems from several YouTube videos comparing ray tracing on and off (always at the highest settings). These videos often criticize the minimal visual improvement for such a significant frame rate drop, as seen in this example (link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5boaueGopg&t=451s). It leads me to believe that there might be a negative interaction between non-ray-traced elements and the game's path tracing algorithms.

However, other videos comparing the "Low" preset with "Full Ray Tracing at Very High" (link: https://youtu.be/RDPDsLSHGr0) and the "Low" preset without ray tracing (link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qS_r3uaS1n0) showcase a significant visual improvement. In these cases, "Very High" ray tracing appears to deliver a much better visual experience.

This discrepancy is what prompted my initial question.

In addition to the above, I have two further questions:

Are ambient occlusion and surface scattering ray-traced effects in Black Myth: Wukong? My attempt to enable them through a snipe code in the Engine.ini file resulted in increased GPU load, as seen in this YouTube video (link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVYS1O-G1TE). Based on the video, it appears that the snipe code successfully enabled ambient occlusion. However, there seem to be some visual inconsistencies or missing elements.

Why does the anti-aliasing option remain selectable when DLSS is enabled? My understanding is that DLSS technology incorporates anti-aliasing.
I appreciate your time and assistance in clarifying these points.

Thank you for your time and consideration. I appreciate your assistance in clarifying these points.

[Xyvorian]

To open my you tube channel video links, just copy and past on brownser.

[Xyvorian]

Pleaseeeee! Help!