YouTube’s ‘Cycu1’ has shared a brand new video that compares the graphical differences of Ray Tracing in F1 24. This video is based on the game’s latest Preview build, though we can assume that all these RT effects will be almost identical in the final/release version.
F1 24 will have support for Ray Traced Dynamic Diffuse Global Illumination. As the Codies noted, RTDDGI is a technique that better represents the light response in shaded areas. This will offer an extra dose of realism in terms of softer shadows, light response, and light bounce across the F1 locations. Alongside RTDDGI, the game also supports RT reflections, RT shadows and RT ambient occlusion.
As with F1 23, players will first notice the far better reflections and ambient occlusion with Ray Tracing. In the video, these are the features that look immediately better. RTDDGI also improves the lighting, however, most players won’t be able to tell the difference when racing at blazing-fast speeds.
Not only that but some stages already look amazing without any RT effects. Take for instance the Jeddah Corniche Circuit. In that track, it’s almost impossible to spot the Ray Tracing improvements. The lighting already looks amazing, and there are a lot of dynamic shadows. Yes, you may be able to spot some differences if you pause, compare and zoom in. Still, even without RT, that track looks great (and it will run way better without RT on older PC systems).
Now the reason F1 23 and F1 24 can look great without RT is due to their incredible baked-in rasterized lighting. Not only that but both of these games do not use a fully dynamic day/night cycle in races. This is why a lot of older games that do not have fully dynamic day/night cycles can still look great. It’s also the main reason Assassin’s Creed Unity can still look spectacular on PC, even to this day.
In short, while Ray Tracing can enhance the graphics of F1 24, it won’t transform them. This is a good and a bad thing. The good news is that those with weaker GPUs can still enjoy great visuals and high framerates even without RT. The bad news is that people will use this as an example to trash Ray Tracing.
Electronic Arts will release F1 24 on May 31st.
Enjoy!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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