Ray tracing
What is ray tracing in games? Simulating how light travels for reflections, shadows and lighting, from film to real time in Battlefield V.
Ray tracing renders light by following the paths of rays through a scene, which gives accurate reflections, shadows and indirect lighting. Film and CGI used it for decades; it only became practical in games when graphics cards gained hardware support for it from 2018.
Where the term comes from
Wikipedia says Battlefield V (November 2018) was the first game to use the new ray-tracing hardware.
Examples
Each game links to the source that describes it using the mechanic.
- Battlefield V
- Cyberpunk 2077, made with REDengine
- Quake, made with id Tech
Related terms: Upscaling (DLSS/FSR), Frame generation, Level of detail (LOD), Shader compilation stutter.
Sources
Checked .
- Ray tracing (graphics) — Wikipedia
- Deep learning super sampling — Wikipedia