DOOM: The Dark Ages, the latest entry in the series released last week on PC and consoles, wouldn't have been possible without ray tracing, according to id Software's Director of Engine Technology.
Speaking in a lengthy interview with Digital Foundry, id Software's Billy Khan clearly explained how using ray-traced global illumination made DOOM: The Dark Ages possible. As the team wanted to make the origin story of the Slayer feel grandiose, the game features maps that are five to ten times bigger than those seen in DOOM Eternal, and, as such, the development team needed to create a lot of content that could be iterated very quickly. According to id's Director of Engine Technology, this has been a focus of id Tech engine development for a while, as the more it is possible to iterate on content, the better the result is in terms of visuals and gameplay.
The ample use of ray tracing in DOOM: The Dark Ages has allowed id Software to do what Billy Khan calls "wizzywig" - what you see is what you get. In the past, designers, artists, and animators couldn't see quickly how their work would look in the game, and had to wait for the lighting to be baked before being able to do so. While id had a system in place that would make baking lighting very quick, there's no comparison to how it's now possible to add lighting right into the id Studio development software to see how something will look in the final game, which is a massive improvement in interaction time. This can be easily seen in the visual enhancements in cutscenes, as they all run in real time and can take advantage of this quick iteration of content.
Given the massive game DOOM: The Dark Ages is, compared to its predecessors, without ray tracing, not only would development have been extended by a "magnitude of years", but it also wouldn't have been the game it is. A baked lighting solution, for example, would have made features introduced to show how powerful the Slayer is look off, like the environmental destruction and the increased gore.
Interestingly enough, this isn't the only time we have recently heard how ray tracing is shortening development time while allowing for better games. Last week, we learned that Assassin's Creed Shadows would have required 2 years of work just to bake the lighting. As such, it feels like ray tracing will become more widely used in the future and eventually supplant other lighting solutions, at least in the biggest games.
About the author: Francesco De Meo has been covering video games and technology since 2012, starting his career at small outlets like Gamersyndrome and GeekSnack. After joining Wccftech gaming section in 2015, he quickly expanded his video gaming coverage with in-depth reporting, interviews with iconic industry figures such as Grasshopper Manufacture founder and No More Heroes creator Goichi "Suda51" Suda, Resident Evil series creator Shinji Mikami, Team NINJA's president and Nioh series director Fumihiko Yasuda, and Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama, reviews and on-the-ground coverage of major industry events such as Gamescom and E3. When he's not reporting or reviewing, Francesco can be found playing the genres he loves most, spending time with his six cats, reading, writing music, playing guitar and drumming for his progressive rock band.
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