World of Tanks' DirectX 11 raytracing solution is more impressive than you think
Real-time raytracing without RTX
Published: 15th October 2019 | Source: Wccftech |
World of Tanks' DirectX 11 raytracing solution is more impressive than you think
Wargaming has decided to take a new approach to raytracing, opting to steer clear from raytracing hardware like the Nvidia RTX 20 series and away from API-specific implementations. In World of Tanks enCore RT, raytracing will arrive in a totally new form, delivering a clear visual upgrade while retaining support for all DirectX 11 graphics cards.
How is this possible? Simple. Wargaming has limited their technology to just their tanks, and the company will utilise both CPU and GPU power to bring raytracing to World of Tanks. War Gaming has also opted to limit their raytracing implementation to one ray per pixel and uses a temporal/spatial denoiser to help deliver soft shadows.
By partnering with Intel, Wargaming will use Intel's Embree library to utilise CPUs to create BVH (Bound Volume Hierarchy) construction. These constructions can then be used with graphics cards to conduct raytracing calculations using compute shaders under DirectX 11. Thanks to World of Tanks' enCore RT update also offers players "concurrent rendering". PC players can expect to utilise multi-core processors better to accelerate the World of Tanks' performance. This change helps to enable raytracing by allowing this extra CPU power to be used for BVH construction.
When raytracing is added to World of Tanks, the option will be disabled by default, even at Ultra settings. Four raytracing options will be available to gamers in World of Tanks' options menu, allowing PC gamers to adjust the game's quality and performance.
The image below showcases how raytracing impacts World of Tanks' visuals.
The video below details how World of Tanks' graphics are impacted by real-time raytracing, and why Wargaming opted to stick to DirectX 11 and utilise a hardware-agnostic approach to raytracing.
PC gamers will be able to test World of Tanks' raytracing implementation in the near future through an upcoming enCore RT demo.
You can join the discussion on World of Tanks' DirectX 11 raytracing solution on the OC3D Forums.
Most Recent Comments
Its only a matter of time before having dedicated RT is redundant and its all software.
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Still this is a nice example of how very simple use of RT can create 100% accurate effects at a very low cost in games I think. A sign of the tricks to come when the consoles get hardware acceleration and an arms race begins on who can squeeze the most out of the hardware.
[This makes me think though, maybe Intel arn't going to have BVH construction acceleration units as part of their upcoming 1st gen GPUs after all, would put more load on the CPUs but could still work in games with RT shading acceleration which they seem to have already indicated is on board. I'm sure they wouldn't see a another little nudge in games CPU performance requirements as a particularly bad thing, they could use this method via a DXR layer too]Quote
[This makes me think though, maybe Intel arn't going to have BVH construction acceleration units as part of their upcoming 1st gen GPUs after all, would put more load on the CPUs but could still work in games with RT shading acceleration which they seem to have already indicated is on board. I'm sure they wouldn't see a another little nudge in games CPU performance requirements as a particularly bad thing, they could use this method via a DXR layer too]
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On the whole RTRT subject. There is no argument that it will one day either be all a software overhead or the GPU's will evolve to integrate this work load on the fly within their main processor. I'm sure Nvidia will want this, its cheaper to make software than it is hardware. Dedicated hardware is always the first iteration of anything like this until it is refined and integrated. Take nearly anything like this, basic GPU's are now a norm in CPU's, PHYSX needed an Ageia card ect. This could well be years down the line or see what AMD has up their sleeve as they see a lot in cloud processing for this type of work load, which I suppose provided you have a good connection to the server is a good way of doing it, depending how they charge for it of course....Quote
Its only a matter of time before having dedicated RT is redundant and its all software.Quote