Raytracing technology makes it possible to render accurate reflections and shadows in video games. For example, you can see details from the game world in glassy surfaces or reflections of invisible objects. The type of surface is also taken into account. Reflected details look different on rough surfaces than on shiny material. And shadows change realistically depending on how far your player character is from objects.
Since these effects have to be calculated in real time for video games, they require a tremendous amount of computing power from graphics cards. When using ray tracing, there is a particularly high risk that the frame rate will be inconsistent during gameplay or permanently below 30 FPS.
Currently, only certain graphics cards can calculate ray tracing. These are mainly the RTX graphics cards from Nvidia, which are equipped with a dedicated ray tracing core. These include the GeForce RTX 2060, 2070, 2080, 3070, 3080 and 3090 models. Older cards from the GeForce GTX series can be upgraded for ray tracing capability, but this will result in a greater drop in frame rate.
Atomic Heart shows what Raytracing can do
Raytracing definitely creates some absolute eye-catchers. This was how the first-person adventure game Atomic Heart by Russian indie video game developer Mundfish was able to attract attention in 2018 with its high-quality presentation with raytracing effects. In an alternative Soviet Union where a technical revolution has taken place, you play a KGB agent on a secret mission. You have to investigate a government facility that has cut off all communication with the outside world.
The futuristic game world you encounter advanced robots and crazy monsters exudes a post-apocalyptic atmosphere à la Bioshock or Fallout. Mundfish speaks of a detailed open world that you can explore. In addition, there is a manufacturing system for individual customization of weapons and equipment.
But so far there has only been a short gameplay video and a graphic demo of Atomic Heart. Behind this are also said to be problems with the development. The hype around Atomic Heart is huge due to the raytracing technology used, even though it is not yet clear whether Mundfish can live up to the expectations.
The developer wants to release Atomic Heart for PC in 2021. It has also been announced for Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, which are equipped with raytracing capabilities from AMD. It remains to be seen how realistic the graphics can be on consoles without affecting performance.
Raytracing is still rare, but shows the way into the future
These problems mean that raytracing has only been used in a few video games so far. The best known games that use some form of raytracing are the first-person shooter Battlefield V and the survival horror game Metro Exodus. But you can be sure that raytracing will become increasingly important in the future.
Developers will do everything they can to amaze us with photo-realistic graphics. Atomic Heart shows how a great deal of press attention can be generated simply through graphical presentation. Hopefully this won't lead to a series of video game releases that look great but can't be played at 30 or even 60 FPS.
