This comparison isn't settling my doubts!
This comparison isn't settling my doubts!
Sure thing. Let's break this down. It seems we're waiting a long time—maybe decades—for games that run smoothly at 30fps with full ray tracing. Right now, even high-end GPUs like the RTX 3090 can take hours per frame for 1080p, so real-time ray tracing isn't here yet. We're mostly limited to simple effects like shadows, reflections, and some denoising tools. DLSS helps a bit with sharpness, but it's not a full solution.
Maybe in the future we'll see dedicated GPUs focused on ray tracing, connected via NVLink to main systems. Or artists could add more detail without sacrificing performance. For now, games rely on clever lighting and optimized assets to look good. It's a slow evolution, but progress is coming.
The timeline for pixel shaders in game development is a bit slow, but Pixel Shaders became widely used after the GeForce 3. I recall Morrowind was once the top example of this genre. Doom 3 and Half-Life 2 really solidified its place, though.
The main advantage of ray-tracing over global illumination and screen space reflections isn't obvious at first glance. It becomes apparent mainly when considering indirect effects on the scene. This is particularly relevant for screen space reflections, which depend on the framebuffer to simulate a reflection. While this method can work, it has significant drawbacks, especially at unusual angles. There are also constraints on how scenes can be reprocessed in such a flat setup. Render-to-texture techniques face challenges because they require rendering a separate scene to apply the reflection onto an object. Ray-tracing reflections overcome these issues by eliminating those constraints, allowing for more realistic and flexible reflections. Additionally, ray-traced lighting offers better control over details like roughness thresholds. Compared to real-time global illumination solutions, ray-traced versions provide higher accuracy and greater dynamism, though they are still evolving. I believe the progress in making ray-traced lighting practical will continue, but it may take some time before it becomes widely accessible. As technology improves, we’ll likely see more viable options for everyday use.
Consider Path/Ray Tracing as a complex physics simulation that demands significant computational power. The main approaches are: 1) Wait for GPUs to reach sufficient speed—likely requiring a 1000-5000% boost over current models like RTX 3090 to achieve smooth 30fps at 1080p. 2) Hope for future innovations in techniques or shaders that enhance PBR and ray tracing performance.