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I think the key benefit of raytracing is that of dynamic lighting in general: artists don't need to pre-bake lighting, they can just do it like live-action ligh

I think the key benefit of raytracing is that of dynamic lighting in general: artists don't need to pre-bake lighting, they can just do it like live-action lighting, with faster iteration times. Game studios hire cinematographers etc. A revolution in AAA art workflow. We're definitely in the hybrid zone for this console generation, though PS5 lead Mark Cerny said he'd been surprised to see some full raytracing (surely tech demos). Maybe PC's can do it, esp with 3090 and following years', but AAA seems mostly console-first (though e.g. cyberpunk 2077 is PC-first). Cross-generation games still need the old workflow, so you don't save until a whole studio can go fully next-gen exclusive... so, perhaps 2-3 years after PS6 gen launch in 7 years: 2030. Or the gen after that. Couple of boundary counterpoints: most game engines aren't written in assembly despite it being faster; most CGI movies are fully raytraced (though looking at Soul, they seemed to chose a less realistic Special World that was easier to render).

pixel_fcker 6y ago
> though looking at Soul, they seemed to chose a less realistic Special World that was easier to render Interestingly my wife said the same thing when watching it but I think the opposite is true. Everything in the great before is volumetric, so not easy to render at all.
2OEH8eoCRo0 6y ago
As a total outsider in this space that's my takeaway. Ray tracing seems to "solve" lighting rather than have a multitude of different hacks for different situations.
jayd16 6y ago
Its an altruism that by definition the key benefit of realtime ray tracing is the real time, as you say. We already have baked/non-realtime ray tracing. As for cinematographers or some other change...it's all the same. Studios already think about lighting and framing and everything else in the scene. This won't be a revolution in that aspect of game design.

pixel_fcker 6y ago

> though looking at Soul, they seemed to chose a less realistic Special World that was easier to render Interestingly my wife said the same thing when watching it but I think the opposite is true. Everything in the great before is volumetric, so not easy to render at all.

2OEH8eoCRo0 6y ago

As a total outsider in this space that's my takeaway. Ray tracing seems to "solve" lighting rather than have a multitude of different hacks for different situations.

jayd16 6y ago

Its an altruism that by definition the key benefit of realtime ray tracing is the real time, as you say. We already have baked/non-realtime ray tracing. As for cinematographers or some other change...it's all the same. Studios already think about lighting and framing and everything else in the scene. This won't be a revolution in that aspect of game design.