Nvidia and Microsoft bring RTX On option to Minecraft

[HEXUS]

Famously blocky game will benefit from path tracing and real-time global illumination.

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[Salazaar]

That actually looks really good! Still not buying a £600+ GPU though.

[Jonj1611]

I can't see why they can't do that with a "normal" card. Doesn't seem anything amazing going on there and have seen more complicated and better effects in other games.

It maybe ray-traced but you could create the same effect without raytracing just using shiny textures!

[EvilCycle]

Just like the Quake release, this is something that has been available via third party downloads for quite some time, IIRC it didn't even require an RTX card, just a beefy GPU like a 1080/Ti I think the shader pack was called PTGI for those who are interested. Although due to the nature of this game, it is very fun to mess around with lighting, shadows and reflections by building and moving things around. I don't even like minecraft but I spent a good few hours on it doing just that.

[LeSWiS]

I can't see why they can't do that with a "normal" card. Doesn't seem anything amazing going on there and have seen more complicated and better effects in other games.

It maybe ray-traced but you could create the same effect without raytracing just using shiny textures!

They can do it with "normal" cards. But It's easier and requires less effort with RTX hardware.

[GinoLatino]

They can do it with "normal" cards. But It's easier and requires less effort with RTX hardware.

If it require less effort as you say, I wonder why almost no one is implementing it and some even dumping the idea (see news for Assetto Corsa Competizione).

[LeSWiS]

If it require less effort as you say, I wonder why almost no one is implementing it and some even dumping the idea (see news for Assetto Corsa Competizione).

Like some people already mention here and there under different news on the subject, I really think it's because of the state of the market. RTX hardware isn't dominant nor seems like it. And when I say it's easier to implement, you also have to remember that they can't just drop rasterization all of a sudden to go for RTX only if almost "nobody"(I won't personally) is willing to buy the hardware for it. Even if RTX is easier to implement, they still have to continue with rasterization ALSO(which means more work doing both at the same time and NOT only one or the other). And I guess RTX requires man power and new knowledge which don't come from the sky either. Well...It seems to be more complicated than what we percieve or it would have been adopted already. Logically.

[Jonj1611]

They can do it with "normal" cards. But It's easier and requires less effort with RTX hardware.

The point being there is nothing special about the RTX which makes these effects need that type of card.

[EvilCycle]

The point being there is nothing special about the RTX which makes these effects need that type of card.

Until you try and play a AAA game with ray tracing and realise we still don't have enough power to run that in realtime unless we have dedicated hardware to offload the resources, AKA RTX cores.

[Jonj1611]

I am not talking about AAA games I was talking about Minecraft though.

[EvilCycle]

I am not talking about AAA games I was talking about Minecraft though.

My mistake, you are absolutely correct there. There is actually already a shader pack called SEUS PTGI for minecraft that implements these effects without the need for an RTX card, as per my above post.

[philehidiot]

There are a couple of things to remember here (although I admit this looks awesome and is quite funny).

1) The end result isn't the issue, it's the difference between what was and what is. The missile only knows where it is because it knows where it isn't and where it has been. If you were just presented with the raytraced thing with no context, you'd go "eh, okay". Because Minecraft starts from such a shoddy position (intentionally, obviously) this looks seriously impressive with little real work. Minecraft has nearly no lighting effects at all so you're going from zero to 100 rather than 90-100.

2) The low base requirements of Minecraft will mean that they can throw lots of resources at the rays. This means they can go to town in a way that just will not be doable when something has lots of textured surfaces and complex shapes.

3) What REALLY matters is whether Pewdiepie will play Minecraft with RTX on. If he does, that will make a huuuuge difference in sales as all the kids spend money they don't need to on lower end RTX card which are useless for RT in AAA titles (unless you really tone down the quality of the graphics and why would you do that for RT when the whole point is it adds the extra 10% to make things look awesome and as good as they can) but will do fun things in Minecraft quite happily. Pewdiepie is generating massive views and a huge Minecraft following so this may also be why Nvidia are hopping on board (geddit? On board? RTX cores... RT on board? Never mind, sod off.)

[kalniel]

The point being there is nothing special about the RTX which makes these effects need that type of card.

*need*, perhaps true. But reflecting a deformable/changeable scene via dynamic cube maps is a pain and doesn't scale well if you have lots of reflective surfaces. Ray tracing does solve that in a slightly more scalable and certainly less complex way.

The other fluff like god rays etc. can take a walk.

[Jonj1611]

Nvidia are hopping on board (geddit? On board? RTX cores... RT on board? Never mind, sod off.)

Lol

[Salazaar]

I remember playing with PovRay on the Atari ST... It's not necessary to have spanking RTX hardware to do ray-tracing but it does make it a lot more viable in real time (the Atari rendered basic, static scenes over periods of minutes and hours!).

I think the issue is that current (non-RTX) games have done such a good job simulating the effects that ray-tracing provides, that it's hard to see the benefit of having it at all. The differences are there if you look hard enough, but you do have to look and it doesn't really make that much difference. Maybe that will change as the hardware matures, markets expand, and as developers and artists work out how to make the best of the extra power.

[Mr_Jon]

It's made the Reuters frontpage, probably due to it involving Microsoft.