Digital Foundry: Metro Exodus PC/RTX Analysis: The Next Level In Real-Time Visuals

[Anthony Hopkins]

Metro Exodus' technique actually allows for ray traced GI from all light sources... it is just that gameplay would have to be redesigned for the ray traced version of the game if that were the case (the stealth sections and where and what areas are considered "shadow").

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Ahh I see.
Also while RTX on Exodus produces a realistic simulation of sunlight as opposed to the emulation used with RTX off, isn't this just a difference in light placement?
The way that different materials react to light is still the same?

Will Ray tracing in the future effect they way materials react to light?

Nvidias Jenson says Ray tracing is the final goal in computer graphics, but to me I think the way materials + skin react to light still need the most improvement.
I mean it's all very well having light that behaves realistically but if the materials and other surfaces still don't react/look realistically to light the improvement raytracing has is not the most drastic.

 

[CanisMajoris]

As a side note, I just cringe at the thought of reading through the threads for TLoU2/Death Stranding where fans will declare a new 'best graphics game' while totally dismissing Metro on the RTX.

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High quality baked indirect lighting will still give you higher fidelity for static environments then RTX in current form. Tech itself is very impressive though.
Also when lighting is excellent across the board other aspects of rendering make a huge difference, I'm still much more impressed with what's on display in TLOU II trailer then Metro mostly because of better shading and texturework (also art style but that's subjective, not talking about animations etc.).

 

[Anthony Hopkins]

RT will replace the current graphics engines for developers for sure. I'm not seeing a lot of games using it because it would require years of refactoring code.

To the console guys, while you may not think there is much of a difference over baked in solutions, you will once RT hits consoles and games start to use it. You'll appreciate it more when comparing it to the current games now.

As a side note, I just cringe at the thought of reading through the threads for TLoU2/Death Stranding where fans will declare a new 'best graphics game' while totally dismissing Metro on the RTX.

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While the simulation of light will be more realistic in Exodus, the shaders, polycount, textures,effects etc could better in the games you mentioned.

RTX in Exodus is just realistic light placement, the actual light and how it reacts to materials is not better.

 

[Dictator]

High quality baked indirect lighting will still give you higher fidelity for static environments then RTX in current form. .

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While the simulation of light will be more realistic in Exodus, the shaders, polycount, textures,effects etc could better in the games you mentioned.

RTX in Exodus is just realistic light placement, the actual light and how it reacts to materials is not better.

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Just to respond to your question you posed earlier.

A big problem with video games is not necessarily the materials, they are in fact pretty freaking amazing right now. You know how a cutscene in Uncharted 4 Nate Drake looks pretty darn great? Well they are shining 4 to 5 lights just on his character model from different angles there, with 2 that may even be shadow casting. All of these are hand placed of course.

The materials in games as they are, are in general great. The equations representing their surfaces are great in direct lighting, aka the light from a point, sun, or spot light. It is just the areas in shadow, where there are no sun, spot, or point lights casting on the material that make them look pretty wrong - that is why drake in many scenes in gameplay looks dramatically lower quality on skin and elsewhere. The same material shader is there, it is no longer having shadow casting lights pointed on all of its surface directions like in cutscenes.

Ray tracing would dramatically change a model like drake's in gameplay as he would be getting proper directional lighting and shadowing EVEN in shadows, instead of some directionless cubemap or something like he would be getting in UC4. That is what I tried to point out in the metro video when highlighting the corpse in the train carriage in the sand. It is completely in shadow, yet it has proper directional lighting and shadowing affecting its material, making the properties of its materials actually work - unlike how they look with some generic cubemap.

 

[Anthony Hopkins]

Just to respond to your question you posed earlier.

A big problem with video games is not necessarily the materials, they are in fact pretty freaking amazing right now. You know how a cutscene in Uncharted 4 Nate Drake looks pretty darn great? Well they are shining 4 to 5 lights just on his character model from different angles there, with 2 that may even be shadow casting. All of these are hand placed of course.

The materials in games as they are, are in general great. The equations representing their surfaces are great in direct lighting, aka the light from a point, sun, or spot light. It is just the areas in shadow, where there are no sun, spot, or point lights casting on the material that make them look pretty wrong - that is why drake in many scenes in gameplay looks dramatically lower quality on skin and elsewhere. The same material shader is there, it is no longer having shadow casting lights pointed on all of its surface directions like in cutscenes.

Ray tracing would dramatically change a model like drake's in gameplay as he would be getting proper directional lighting and shadowing EVEN in shadows, instead of some directionless cubemap or something like he would be getting in UC4. That is what I tried to point out in the metro video when highlighting the corpse in the train carriage in the sand. It is completely in shadow, yet it has proper directional lighting and shadowing affecting its material, making the properties of its materials actually work - unlike how they look with some generic cubemap.

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Thanks for the reply, your UC4 example is good for me because there are times where drakes face model can almost look last gen, so Ray tracing will eliminate this incorrect lighting.
But for what your saying to be true wouldn't all or the majority of the light sources have to be Ray traced?

 

[firstromario]

I still don't get Ray Tracing... Watching this video and some regular lightning scenes look better. I think I understand the concept, but unless it saves time for developers using RT seems pointless. You can make pre-baked lighting look fantastic.

 

[Dictator]

I think I understand the concept, but unless it saves time for developers using RT seems pointless. You can make pre-baked lighting look fantastic.

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RT speeds up development for scenes and its big point in a game like Metro Exodus is that a game like metro cannot realistically utilise pre-baked lighting, it has a dynamic time of day. That is why the non-RT version of the game utiolises a form of real time Global Illumination as well.

RT also has benefits for visuals above baked lighting - like how dynamic objects are affected in the same way by RT effects as static ones, and they can contribute to the RT effect as well. Like the corpse I point out in the video, or the enemy AI - baked lighting would not work on them.

 

[firstromario]

RT speeds up development for scenes and its big point in a game like Metro Exodus is that a game like metro cannot realistically utilise pre-baked lighting, it has a dynamic time of day. That is why the non-RT version of the game utiolises a form of real time Global Illumination as well.

RT also has benefits for visuals above baked lighting - like how dynamic objects are affected in the same way by RT effects as static ones, and they can contribute to the RT effect as well. Like the corpse I point out in the video, or the enemy AI - baked lighting would not work on them.

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The corpse specifically didn't look great to me. But I would agree about enemy AI shadow. Just seems like a lot of resources for something that needs to be done the other (non-RT) way as well... Maybe 20 years from now when RT is the only way lighting is done this makes sense (would save development time)....

 

[Paul]

25 hours in Metro and I am still impressed by how it looks and how huge a difference in realism and immersion RTX provides. It looks so flat without it, but I guess that is unavoidable with dynamic daytime cycle.

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[Dictator]

Nooblet tuxfool Pottuvoi brainchild icecold1983
A really neat break down of the rendering with renderdoc of Metro Exodus

Take note of this image for all the people complaining about the game having bad screen space AO:

It is doing a lot of lifting in fact. It is just Ray Tracing looks so much better on top of it.

 

[brainchild]

Nooblet tuxfool Pottuvoi brainchild icecold1983
A really neat break down of the rendering with renderdoc of Metro Exodus

Take note of this image for all the people complaining about the game having bad screen space AO:

It is doing a lot of lifting in fact. It is just Ray Tracing looks so much better on top of it.

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Thanks for sharing! I'll take a look when I have time later today.

 

[Kareha]

It's still very worrying that there is barely any support in most games. For someone who bought into the tech, it's making me wonder why I bothered.

 

[tuxfool]

It's still very worrying that there is barely any support in most games. For someone who bought into the tech, it's making me wonder why I bothered.

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I could have told you that. You're an early adopter.

 

[Pottuvoi]

Nooblet tuxfool Pottuvoi brainchild icecold1983
A really neat break down of the rendering with renderdoc of Metro Exodus

Take note of this image for all the people complaining about the game having bad screen space AO:

It is doing a lot of lifting in fact. It is just Ray Tracing looks so much better on top of it.

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Thanks, that's a great read. :)

The SSAO in the game looks to be quite decent in quality.
My problem with usual AO is that it lacks any kind of directionality, bent normals or cones would make it a lot better. (basically tell direction with least amount of occlulsion.)