Interview reveals Far Cry 6 ray tracing is PC-only, other next-gen features highlighted

Daniel Sims

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In brief: In a new interview, Ubisoft revealed that the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X versions of Far Cry 6 wouldn't feature ray tracing—it will be PC-only. Ubisoft also covered some other details about how the versions of the game will differ.

Wccftech interviewed Ubisoft's 3D team lead programmer about the tech going into the different versions of Far Cry 6 after the developer revealed the PC version's features earlier this month. When asked about ray tracing on the new consoles, the programmer said Ubisoft's focus for consoles was nailing a high resolution and framerate.

"Ray tracing is a PC-only feature," Stephanie Brenham said. "On console, our objective has been to take advantage of new hardware capabilities, optimizing performance targeting 4K and achieving 60 FPS." She also said AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution upscaling feature is PC-only. Ubisoft isn't using AMD's FidelityFX denoiser for Far Cry 6's ray tracing but rather its own custom solution.

According to Brenham, both PC and the new consoles will have better level-of-detail, draw distances, ocean simulation, and textures than PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. When it comes to the new consoles, Brenham said the solid-state drives would provide the most noticeable difference from the experience of playing on the older consoles.

"Loading in moments rather than minutes is obviously fantastic, and it also gives us a different paradigm compared to older console's HDDs," she said.

Brenham also acknowledged the impact that DirectStorage might have on open-world games like Far Cry for PC.

"DirectStorage does significantly improve data loading times," she said. "We anticipate it can make meaningful improvements for open world games, which need to load and unload vast amounts of data to support a player’s unpredictable movements throughout a game world."

When Ubisoft revealed Far Cry 6's PC features, it said ray tracing included ray-traced shadows and reflections. Ubisoft has since confirmed the reflections are a hybrid of ray-traced and screen-space methods. Brenham confirmed to Wccftech that this is to ensure even mid-range PCs can use ray tracing with good performance.

Far Cry 6 comes out on PC (through the Ubisoft Store and Epic Games Store), PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S|X, and Google Stadia on October 7.

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Who's ready to admit that the PS5 and Xbox are failures - especially when compared to last-gen ray tracing capable PC?
They are a failure because they don't have any proper next-gen games, in the past consoles launched with truly next gen games that only ran on those consoles.
Ray tracing is still a gimmick for me for a few reasons.
The hardware isn't powerful enough to have fully pathed games.
Low polygon count, texture quality and mostly importantly poor collision system those are priority in order to improve game graphics.
But the consoles themselves while gameless, are a success commercially that is.
 
They are a failure because they don't have any proper next-gen games, in the past consoles launched with truly next gen games that only ran on those consoles.
Ray tracing is still a gimmick for me for a few reasons.
The hardware isn't powerful enough to have fully pathed games.
Low polygon count, texture quality and mostly importantly poor collision system those are priority in order to improve game graphics.
But the consoles themselves while gameless, are a success commercially that is.
the problem is they cant run the games properly... under powered
 
Ray tracing just caught AMD unawares. To cram first gen ray tracing hardware into the consoles was always going to mean they would never have the performance to do it and also meet their primary goals of being 4K machines.

However despite all this doom and gloom, the precedent has now been set for refresh cycle consoles. The idea of distinct console generations is starting to blur somewhat. Particularly by Microsoft, but also by Sony too albeit more reluctantly. Their software is now spanning a few generations, with different modes and upgrades depending on what box you own.

This was unprecedented just 5 years ago. Console gamers didn't have all these quality and performance modes in the software before, not this widespread anyway.

I fully expect refresh consoles in another 2 years that'll raise the bar once again. Only then will we see every game support ray tracing, it'll be standardised completely. Expect it on TSMC 3nm, and not before the end of 2023 because the order books are totally packed until at least then.

Should double GPU performance in a realistic 200w console package.
 
It's gonna be more of more of the same in a different setting with minor tweaks taken from other games. I would not buy this game at full price. As for platforms, like every time, PC is gonna run it the best provided you have sufficient hardware. I swear you can fool most people infinite amount of times, they'll never learn.
 
There is always ps6 or next generation of consoles. FYI I have read an article yesterday that Bestbuy restocking current gen as well.
Also instead of being a standard today Devs are using Raytracing and super sampling for marketing! In perspective Metro Exodus launched in February 2019 although had post launch updates for those features.
Direct storage is the only thing standing out but would have to shown to what it exactly does different. I see true next gen graphics coming from Unreal engine 5. This is more of evolutionary than revolutionary!
 
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