Nvidia apparently wants to use “Cyberpunk 2077” to become extensive for its ray tracing technology. Now the graphics card manufacturer has shown for the first time what effects PC gamers can expect.
colleague Meru has already played “Cyberpunk 2077” and was not only impressed by the gameplay but also by the graphic implementation of the game. In fact, the latest CD Project Red title is supposed to use at least on the PC some of the most spectacular ray tracing effects that have been seen to date – at least that’s what Nvidia claims a new blog entry.
Raytracing effects wherever you look
The developer and Nvidia had already announced in 2019 that “Cyberpunk 2077” would support ray tracing. On the occasion of the recently published gameplay trailer, the graphics card manufacturer has now explained in more detail exactly what effects there should be in the finished game.
What is ray tracing?
Ray tracing means “ray tracing” and describes a realistic light calculation in computer-generated graphics. The technology has been used in the field of animation, among others, for years. Real-time ray tracing in games, on the other hand, is a relatively young and very high-performance technology.
Raytracing explained using the example of “Control”
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For example, ray tracing lighting is used, in which the light in the game illuminates an entire level range in real time from a virtual light source. This in turn ensures realistic lighting, reflections and shadows. The shadows and reflections are not artificially integrated as textures, but automatically arise in the areas in which the realistic incidence of light creates them.
Another effect that is to be created in addition to lighting, reflections and shadows using ray tracing is the surrounding masking. It ensures that objects in the game in turn have an influence on the light distribution. For example, if a chair is behind a pillar that blocks direct light, it is not lit, or only indirectly, by reflecting light from other objects onto it.
©CD Project Red/ Nvidia 2020
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Ray tracing provides realistic coverage of the surroundings.
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Nvidia advertises its RTX graphics cards
However, in order to use the full range of ray tracing effects, PC gamers will need a really powerful graphics card. Currently only Nvidia’s own RTX graphics cards are capable of real hardware ray tracing, which should also be the reason why the manufacturer advertises the effects. So if you don’t use at least one GeFoce RTX 2060 in your computer, look into the tube during ray tracing.
The same applies to console gamers, at least for the time being. PlayStation 4 and Xbox One are unable to render scenes with real-time ray tracing. Only the next generation consoles PS5 and Xbox Series X should support this. However, both will rely on graphics technology from AMD. We can currently only speculate as to how this will compare to Nvidia.
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