Ray Tracing in TLOU2?

[Cephei]

Comparing to Indiana Jones’ Insane Graphics. Does this game support full ray tracing? I recently played Indiana Jones on my rig with a 9800X3D and RTX 5080 and the graphics absolutely blew me away, especially with full ray tracing enabled. The visuals are so stunning they honestly look better than real life. I’m wondering if The Last of Us Part II offers the same level of ray tracing goodness. Anyone know?

[Viper]

So you claim to have 5080 and 9800x3d yet complain about a game costing this low? Raytracing is not all that great anyways and you sound spoiled is all.

[「 Boss 」]

Ray tracing is an absolute cancer on the video games industry. Yet another tool for publishers to abuse at the expense of the customer. Why take the time to program and optimize lighting when the user can take an 80% performance hit and the devs can press a check box?

RT, for right now, needs to stay away from gaming. It's too expensive and adds literally nothing of value to the gameplay itself. It's just there for people with xx90 cards to feel a bit better about blowing used car money for the ability to toggle a single graphics option in a game.

[Mord]

^Ray tracing is here, to stay. It's by no means a cancer, and has revolutionized the industry by a huge margin.

I mean no offense, but a better understanding of modern A.I. - even a course would help you better understand.

[「 Boss 」]

Originally posted by Mord:

^Ray tracing is here, to stay. It's by no means a cancer, and has revolutionized the industry by a huge margin.

I mean no offense, but a better understanding of modern A.I. - even a course would help you better understand.

Here to stay in 5% of game releases? I'm alright with that.
No amount of courses you consume will change the 80% performance hit. Cool story tho.

[PRAET0R1AN™]

Originally posted by 「 Boss 」:

Ray tracing is an absolute cancer on the video games industry. Yet another tool for publishers to abuse at the expense of the customer. Why take the time to program and optimize lighting when the user can take an 80% performance hit and the devs can press a check box?

RT, for right now, needs to stay away from gaming. It's too expensive and adds literally nothing of value to the gameplay itself. It's just there for people with xx90 cards to feel a bit better about blowing used car money for the ability to toggle a single graphics option in a game.

idk, Raytracing has been the holy grail of lighting and realtime reflections and up until the RTX 20 series dropped, It wasn't feasible as the hardware wasn't capable.

Up until the 20X series dropped, RTGI and Raytraced reflections was done per frame in a renderer and depending on the image output resolution and scene detail, It could take up to 5 minutes to render out one single frame ( such as using modelling platforms like Cinema4D, 3DS max and so on ).

DLSS helps things but for games like TLOU which has no multiplayer component, You can take the hit in frames for better RTGI and reflections using DXR as frames aren't as important in a single player title as it would be in a fast paced twitch shooter.

Not to mention the fact that Microsoft has announced DXR 1.2 which apparently boosts FPS in raytraced games.

DXR 1.2 introduces two revolutionary technologies: opacity micromaps (OMM) and shader execution reordering (SER), both of which deliver substantial leaps in raytracing performance:

• Opacity micromaps significantly optimize alpha-tested geometry, delivering up to 2.3x performance improvement in path-traced games. By efficiently managing opacity data, OMM reduces shader invocations and greatly enhances rendering efficiency without compromising visual quality.

• Shader execution reordering offers a major leap forward in rendering performance — up to 2x faster in some scenarios — by intelligently grouping shader execution to enhance GPU efficiency, reduce divergence, and boost frame rates, making raytraced titles smoother and more immersive than ever. This feature paves the way for more path-traced games in the future.

Like it or not, But with the big push by Microsoft and Nvidia, DXR isn't going anywhere and we'll likely see more games utilise DXR where DXR will be required, either ran on a software level leveraging the CPU, Or hardware leveraging the RT cores in the RTX series or AMD's equivalent.

[Cephei]

Originally posted by PRAET0R1AN™:

It's the same engine as TLOU1 so there won't be raytracing, TLOU1 did sport some really decently high quality reflection cubemaps though, you'd almost swear it was raytraced but it isn't.

Those reflection cubemaps were surprisingly high quality for their time and they did a solid job mimicking ray traced effects without actually being the real deal. That said, while it was visually impressive it still lacked that jaw dropping 'wow' factor for me. Compared to other next gen titles it just didn’t quite capture that cutting edge vibe I was hoping for even if it was technically stunning in its own right.

[PRAET0R1AN™]

Originally posted by Cephei:

Originally posted by PRAET0R1AN™:

It's the same engine as TLOU1 so there won't be raytracing, TLOU1 did sport some really decently high quality reflection cubemaps though, you'd almost swear it was raytraced but it isn't.

Those reflection cubemaps were surprisingly high quality for their time and they did a solid job mimicking ray traced effects without actually being the real deal. That said, while it was visually impressive it still lacked that jaw dropping 'wow' factor for me. Compared to other next gen titles it just didn’t quite capture that cutting edge vibe I was hoping for even if it was technically stunning in its own right.

Yeah I had to check that the ultra reflection quality wasn't RT, I wasn't convinced that it wasn't RT at first then Digital Foundry did their videos on the game and when they mentioned it was pure cubemaps I was pleasantly surprised at how well they were done.

It kinda shows you don't need RT to make inexpensive reflections look like they're realtime.

[shinetae]

This game doesnt need any type of RT, it looks incredible without it.

[Shogun]

Originally posted by Cephei:

Originally posted by space:

are you for real

you have nearly 3000 hours in football manager

Are you seriously calling me out like that? Yeah I’ve sunk nearly 3000 hours into Football Manager guilty as charged but that was before I upgraded to my new rig. FM was never about the graphics anyway; it’s all about the depth and strategy. I did enjoy The Last of Us I on PC and the graphics were solid for their time but honestly, it’s not cutting it for me anymore. No ray tracing in TLOU2 feels like a letdown, like, come on, it’s 2025, that’s just lazy design. I’ll probably still grab this one but only when it’s dirt cheap on a heavy discount.

Just really quick, this isn't lazy design, as they're not really designing anything, this game is basically a straight port with settings one might expect from a barebones PC release to not truly anger the playerbase.

So expecting ray tracing doesn't make sense as that would require a complete overhaul of the lighting if you want it done right. It's not a flick of the switch, it's a complete re-do of lighting entirely. Sony doesn't care that much.

[GingerAvenger]

Originally posted by Cephei:

Originally posted by space:

are you for real

you have nearly 3000 hours in football manager

Are you seriously calling me out like that? Yeah I’ve sunk nearly 3000 hours into Football Manager guilty as charged but that was before I upgraded to my new rig. FM was never about the graphics anyway; it’s all about the depth and strategy. I did enjoy The Last of Us I on PC and the graphics were solid for their time but honestly, it’s not cutting it for me anymore. No ray tracing in TLOU2 feels like a letdown, like, come on, it’s 2025, that’s just lazy design. I’ll probably still grab this one but only when it’s dirt cheap on a heavy discount.

TLOU2 was never about the graphics either. It's a beautiful game sure but the story and Gameplay are what makes it stand out. Use your own logic.

[HeLiOn PrImE]

They introduced raytracing based features in Part 1 (the remake). It's not excluded to have them here too. But yeah, the graphics are insane either way. I wouldn't worry about it.

[sNapz]

If you just search the best graphics, you can play horizon forbidden west, avatar, ac shadow, rdr2.

This game is more than graphics.

[Cephei]

Originally posted by GingerAvenger:

Originally posted by Cephei:

Are you seriously calling me out like that? Yeah I’ve sunk nearly 3000 hours into Football Manager guilty as charged but that was before I upgraded to my new rig. FM was never about the graphics anyway; it’s all about the depth and strategy. I did enjoy The Last of Us I on PC and the graphics were solid for their time but honestly, it’s not cutting it for me anymore. No ray tracing in TLOU2 feels like a letdown, like, come on, it’s 2025, that’s just lazy design. I’ll probably still grab this one but only when it’s dirt cheap on a heavy discount.

TLOU2 was never about the graphics either. It's a beautiful game sure but the story and Gameplay are what makes it stand out. Use your own logic.

Like I said, I’m not a console peasant. I want insane graphics and good gameplay, I want both.

[Cartof]

Originally posted by space:

Originally posted by Cephei:

This isn’t a bait thread; I’m just saying no ray tracing in 2025 feels like a shame when I’ve seen what’s possible. Chill out , your game’s honor isn’t at stake here.

this isn't a 2025 game

yes it is.
if i never played it and it launches now on steam (with all that buzz words remake/remaster stuff) it's a 2025 game.

[GingerAvenger]

Originally posted by Cephei:

Originally posted by GingerAvenger:

TLOU2 was never about the graphics either. It's a beautiful game sure but the story and Gameplay are what makes it stand out. Use your own logic.

Like I said, I’m not a console peasant. I want insane graphics and good gameplay, I want both.

Saying it's 2025 and demanding the best possible graphics because it's 2025 is a dumb take. What about all the indie games that are fantastic with pixelated graphics or the games that are more focused on gameplay and story than it is graphical fidelity? I can't tell if you're being serious or just rage baiting/award farming at this point.