We breakdown the real time ray tracing lighting and visuals of a very cinematic game called Control. I think this is the best use of Real Time Ray Tracing in a commercial game right now, summer-fall of 2019.

I’m a cinematographer and game developer who uses Unreal Engine to make a cinematography simulator called Cine Tracer. I am currently using Real Time Ray Tracing in my project and this video is a study of how other real time apps / games are using real time ray tracing.

For a shooting game, if you are losing performance below 60fps it’s hard to justify using Ray Tracing. However, with a 2080ti I was playing at 1080p with Maxed Graphics and Maxed Ray Tracing and it played fine and I was able to down bosses etc.

I would say that games are starting to look more like the pre rendered cinematics and it makes the lighting and levels feel more realistic and I personally enjoy them more.

Ray Tracing also gives the level designers and lighting artists more tools to create tone and atmosphere in the levels. I believe we will be seeing games that are lit more like movies in the near future.

Running a consumer game for fun on a $1000K+ GPU isn’t for everyone but it is definitely a very visually compelling game and if you have the computer power I recommend at least running on Medium Ray Tracing for the reflections and glass. The Indirect lighting and other features are very subtle.

Cheers,

Matt