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Star Wars And Metro Exodus Demonstrate How Ray Tracing Makes Games Better
Ray tracing is an advanced lighting technique that has been used in film for years, but at this year's Game Developers Conference, that technology has made its way into the gaming world. Through a demo of the upcoming Metro Exodus and a Star Wars short called "Reflections," we can see how ray tracing is evolving the way we view video games.
In the Metro Exodus demo, 4A Games announced their collaboration with NVIDIA, using RTX technology to bring ray tracing into this breathtaking environment demo.
Epic Games also collaborated with NVIDIA and ILMxLAB to stun GDC viewers with this life-like short featuring Captain Phasma and a couple of smart-mouthed stormtroopers. It would be easy to mistake this Star Wars short as some deleted scene from The Last Jedi. However, this short premiered at the GDC this week to showcase the continuing advancements of the Unreal Engine. Starwars.com caught up with Mohen Leo, ILMxLAB director of content and platform strategy, and Jerome Platteaux, art director of Epic Games to talk more about how ray tracing is implement in this short. You can find that interview here.
Our Take
It's hard to believe how much further Unreal Engine and NVIDIA can be pushed, but we're blown away by how ray tracing pushes the boundaries of lighting in games, not to mention the advancements we're seeing in human renderings.
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