Futuremark Showcases DirectX Raytracing Demo, Teases Upcoming 3D Benchmark Test

[Raevenlord]

DirectX Raytracing (DXR) is a new feature in DirectX 12 that opens the door to a new class of real-time graphics techniques for games. We were thrilled to join Microsoft onstage for the announcement, which we followed with a presentation of our own work in developing practical real-time applications for this exciting new tech.

Accurate real-time reflections with DirectX Raytracing
Rendering accurate reflections in real-time is difficult. There are many challenges and limitations when using the existing methods. For the past few months, we've been exploring ways of combining DirectX Raytracing with existing methods to solve some of these challenges. While much of our presentation went deep into the math for our solution, I would like to show you some examples of our new technique in action.





With DirectX Raytracing we can produce reflections of objects that exist outside the main camera view.


Using DXR we can produce accurate, perspective-correct reflections on all surfaces in real-time.


Reflections are not just for mirrors. They make other surfaces look more realistic too.


Practical real-time raytracing for games
Raytracing is not a new technique, but until recently it has been too computationally demanding to use in real-time games. With modern GPUs, it's now possible to use rasterization for most of the rendering and a smaller amount of raytracing to enhance shadows, reflections, and other effects that are difficult to achieve with traditional techniques.

Our DXR tech demo runs in real-time on current GPU hardware and, because it builds on existing methods, it was relatively easy to implement into our DirectX 12 game engine.

We are proud to be one of the first developers chosen to work with DirectX Raytracing, and we are excited about the opportunities for this new API. I am happy to announce that we will be using DirectX Raytracing in a new 3DMark benchmark test that we hope to release towards the end of the year.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[R00kie]

towards the end of the year

Bollocks.

 

[Ferrum Master]

Actually don't dig it... it looks like fake... no dirt, floor scratches etc... it is all too shiny...

other than that...

bollocks.

 

[dj-electric]

Ray tracing is unavoidably the next step in photo-realistic 3D graphics.
We've been promised to that RT would become a norm a long, long time ago (since HD5000 \ GTX 400 era).

RT can be done right and look insanely realistic. Unreal Engine's post renders are good examples. Now, it would be experienceable in real time.

 

[cucker tarlson]

Well, the screen space reflections using ray tracing are gonna look amazing, but current gen GPUs struggle when using soft shadows and regular screen space reflections, ray tracing is gonna absolutely destroy them. Unless nex gen gpus use tensor core to improve ray racing performance, this is not gonna adopt well.

 

[Readlight]

Real life is always better.

 

[cucker tarlson]

Real life is always better.

Real life is overhyped and overrated.

 

[hardcore_gamer]

Unless nex gen gpus use tensor core to improve ray racing performance, this is not gonna adopt well.

Tensor cores are half-precision matrix multiply-accumulate units. They're good for implementing feed-forward neural networks. However, they're not going to be of much help when it comes to implementing ray tracing algorithms.

 

[ZoneDymo]

Actually don't dig it... it looks like fake... no dirt, floor scratches etc... it is all too shiny...

other than that...

bollocks.

Its almost like you never seen a brand new and freshly cleaned floor...
This looks realistic, honestly your critism is akin to pointing out that nobody irl walks around in such a jumpsuit as the character in these pictures...
Its a demonstration if what the real time reflections can look like, if up to individual devs to design the levels how they want and they can add tons of dirt and scratches and whatever else they (or you) desire.

Well, the screen space reflections using ray tracing are gonna look amazing, but current gen GPUs struggle when using soft shadows and regular screen space reflections, ray tracing is gonna absolutely destroy them. Unless nex gen gpus use tensor core to improve ray racing performance, this is not gonna adopt well.

1. why did you feel the need to copy all the pictures?
2. tensor cores... do you even know what those are or do or are for?

 

[cucker tarlson]

1. to compare them side by side obviously. the original ones are too small.
2. for AI

 

[OSdevr]

I still think beam tracing is the way forward.

 

[buggalugs]

Real life is always better.

Real life is fake.

 

[RejZoR]

Some of the examples are weird. Because I know I've seen realistic real-time lighting in Unreal engine before. More specifically in Killing Floor 2 with enabled Real-Time Lighting. Without it, reflections in blood and glossy ground is a bit off when moving around, but with real-time, reflection perspective is correct. There is performance hit for it. I have no clue how Unreal Engine is doing it.

 

[jabbadap]

It would be good to add source too(Or was it even available by the time?):
https://www.futuremark.com/pressreleases/watch-our-new-directx-raytracing-tech-demo

Never really liked Timespy(Oh the times when Futuremark actually did good looking graphics tests), but yeah those reflections looks to be more lifelike now.

 

[Deleted member 67555]

I look forward to the benchmarks...
Can't wait to see how crappy my system is or isn't for this ray tracing technique.

 

[kastriot]

Some people are never happy..

 

[Vya Domus]

Those look awfully a lot like simple screen-space reflections or rather , I can't tell the difference.

 

[Totally]

Is this true ray-tracing or more of the same 'ray-tracing' that has come before that is just some degree of compromise between raster with some amount of ray-traced elements. Looks good though I'll remain a skeptic until an actual product ships.

 

[Deleted member 50521]

I like new GPU tech. Bring them on!

 

[Vya Domus]

Is this true ray-tracing or more of the same 'ray-tracing' that has come before that is just some degree of compromise between raster with some amount of ray-traced elements.

It will be a hybrid , obliviously ray-tracing all the scenery in real time for games is still within the domain of the fantastic. I question it's usefulness as well , even watching the demo from Northlight I can't say I was particularly impressed. Not because it wasn't good looking but because they already have top notch global illumination and things like that already which are more or less on the same level.

I am an advocate of smart "fake" graphics techniques rather that brute force visual.

 

[londiste]

Is this true ray-tracing or more of the same 'ray-tracing' that has come before that is just some degree of compromise between raster with some amount of ray-traced elements. Looks good though I'll remain a skeptic until an actual product ships.

Definitely a compromise. Looks like lighting/shadows and reflections are what get ray-tracing treatment while rest of the scene is primarily rendered normally.

I would not consider that a problem though, true ray-tracing in real time continues to be unattainable. Even the current newsworthy items are clearly showing that we are far away from a sufficient amount of rays for true raytracing at this point as this is all about denoising.