Raytracing in the desert (comparison)
All the raytracing comparisons usually focus very much on the city, but I was surprised to find that it can arguably make an even larger visual impact in the desert.
Consider this sunset comparison.
You probably don't immediately think shrubbery when hearing raytracing, but it adds so much shadowy depth to it that it makes ambient occlusion at max settings seem downright unimpressive.
If you look close, the solar panels also now reflect the waning sunlight as they should, and in the top left corner, the electronic box gets a red hue from the nearby warning light.
Its all just so jaw-dropping to look at and I wanted to share.
3 comments · 94% upvoted · other discussions
Cool comparison, but does this also mean that if you're using Ray Tracing, you can just turn off Ambient Occlusion and possibly get a higher framerate? Or is AO automatically deactivated if you use Ray Tracing?
Mvin [OP] 1 points · Nov 2021
Yes, this was something I wondered about as well. Apparently, it is indeed the case that enabling raytracing disables/replaces the corresponding traditional graphics options, as one might expect.
While it is unclear if it really disables them fully, putting the traditional settings at min or max while RT is on doesn't make much of a difference and results more or less in the same framerate.
[deleted] 2 points · Nov 2021
Yeah I expected as much, if that really yielded a big difference in framerate it probably would've been a well known thing by now. Still, your comparison does show how the light falls much more naturally with ray tracing so I think for now I'll sacrifice some frames to keep it on, just looks too good.