Last week's look at the first PlayStation 5 games was impressive, and it has shown that developers are experimenting with ray tracing features, according to a new analysis.
Digital Foundry released today a brand new video that takes an in-depth look at the next-gen games that have been shown last week during the Future of Gaming digital event, breaking down the ray tracing features and highlighting how they are being used to achieve improved visual quality without sacrificing performance and resolution.
The most impressive PlayStation 5 game shown last week, in regards to ray tracing, is Capcom's Pragmata, which uses two types of ray tracing - ray traced reflections and a form of ray traced global illumination.
The second ray tracing effect in this trailer is even more interesting and takes the form of some form of ray traced global illumination, with some subtle but remarkable effects as light bounces around the scene. As the astronaut character walks in front of a yellow taxi, bounced light from the vehicle is seen on the astronaut's suit. As it lifts its hand, you can even see an indirect shadow in the bounced light from their arm across the chest - it's a remarkable level of fidelity. There are some artefacts though: if you watch the footage, you will notice how this indirect lighting on characters is especially grainy, as if the light is made up of tiny stippled points. This is generally how real-time ray tracing looks when it is not aggressively denoised. Certainly, on early footage, I don't mind seeing artefacts and lower levels of precision - it just adds to the authenticity.
At the end of the day, the PlayStation 5 showcase was definitely a good one, as it showed how developers aren't just going to use the more powerful GPU just for improved performance and resolution, as the footage shows how they are experimenting with ray tracing effects.
From my perspective, the good news is that the PS5 software showcase demonstrated that game-makers aren't ignoring the new hardware and banking the more obvious performance wins from a more powerful GPU - they're experimenting with RT features in the here and now, and it looks like we may see some of the fruits of their labour at launch.
The PlayStation 5 console launches later this year worldwide.
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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