Unity follows Unreal's lead, adds early RTX support to its popular game engine

[Polycount]

Bottom line: Real-time ray tracing is the new holy grail in the world of video game graphics, and for good reason. When executed properly, the tech can significantly boost a game's visuals, improving realism and immersion.

With that in mind, it will probably come as no surprise to learn that game engine maker Unity is following in competitor Unreal's footsteps today by baking support for Nvidia's RTX technology into its popular engine.

Well, a preview version of the engine, anyway - the High Definition Render Pipeline, to be specific. In theory, adventurous Unity devs should now be able to toy around with RTX features in their upcoming projects.

"Real-time ray tracing moves real-time graphics significantly closer to realism, opening the gates to global rendering effects never before possible in the real-time domain," a Unity spokesperson reportedly said in a statement.

If you've never heard of real-time ray tracing (or RTX) before, the technology essentially allows developers to create far more realistic lighting and reflections in video games. In theory, doing so should also be easier than before, as RTX does most of the heavy lifting by itself.

With RTX, explosions can accurately reflect off of anything from puddles of water on the ground to a character's eye. It's beautiful tech to be sure, but so far, it can come at the cost of performance.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/79253-unity-follows-unreal-lead-adds-early-rtx-support.html

 

[Dimitrios]

I think Ray Tracing will do well but not for fast pace games or multiplayer. I can see some players saying, " ya bro did you see those reflections from that puddle of water while I eliminated 3 players within a few seconds?"

 

[Hellbishop]

I think Ray Tracing will do well but not for fast pace games or multiplayer. I can see some players saying, " ya bro did you see those reflections from that puddle of water while I eliminated 3 players within a few seconds?"

Totally agree. This is one of the reasons I also don't play much straight up FPS shooters these days sticking more to open world games where I can do plenty of sight seeing and enjoy the view like in DYING LIGHT and SKYRIM.

For strategy games such as BATTLETECH by HBS it could really make things dreamy sweet with not only the deep layer of tactical detail but the looks to match. The visuals would be even more jaw dropping then what movies are coming out with now.

 

[Dimitrios]

Totally agree. This is one of the reasons I also don't play much straight up FPS shooters these days sticking more to open world games where I can do plenty of sight seeing and enjoy the view like in DYING LIGHT and SKYRIM.

For strategy games such as BATTLETECH by HBS it could really make things dreamy sweet with not only the deep layer of tactical detail but the looks to match. The visuals would be even more jaw dropping then what movies are coming out with now.

Maybe because I'm getting older but I'm starting to like slower paced FSP like FARCRY series. Just bought FARCRY 5 for like $10 on that STEAM sale but I'm saving up for Ryzen system.