Nvidia’s adoption of ray tracing and DLSS technology is starting to take off, thanks in part to the sudden increase in support from Engine 4. Last week, there was a blog post about Nvidia 20 games are still set to be released in 2020 This will include ray tracing and / or DLSS support. This is probably in addition to dozens or so of games that already support the technology. Some of these games are popular titles, e.g. Cyberpunk 2077 And Watch Dog Army. Others, not too many, but one that caught my eye Pumpkin Jack, The only developer effort that has been in the works for four years.
First of all, you should know that I studied computer science and my dreams of making games came back in my younger days. Then I realized it was hard enough, life took over with me, and after working for a few years as a software developer and then an IT person, I ended up being a technical journalist. So when I see a good quality game by a single person, I am always impressed. I approached Nicholas Masonier to ask some questions about the whole process, especially ray tracing and DLSS support. There are technologies that often seem to cause issues for big-time developers, so I wanted to know more about how easy / difficult it was for them to work.
Nicholas has a blog post Covering a few details, but I joined him on Discord to dig a little deeper. He is actually a self-taught game developer, and apparently an artist. Not surprisingly, the process of creating a game Pumpkin Jack Is one of the repetitions and revisions. What was released today may not be the exact idea he started to create, but after playing on the first few game levels, it’s a fun platform and perfect for any Halloween fun seeker. It’s also kid-friendly, great for scary weather if you have scattering all around.
As far as combining ray tracing was concerned, it was both good and bad. Nvidia initially asked Nicholas about adding technology, and he was excited about it. Obviously not much effort was put into the shadows and the light, but getting the reflections and transparent images to work was a month-long process. Part of the problem was that suddenly the documentation for ray tracing in Engine 4 is not really complete at the moment, so there was a lot of trial and error. Nvidia worked to help Nicholas work, or at least point him in the right direction.
The results are impressive, especially for an indie developer. You can see some of the changes in the video above, but you have to really notice the difference between the shadows, the reflections and the improved light that Ray finds. Not only can ray tracing make a bad game a good game, but it can definitely make a good game better.
DLSS support is also great to look at. There are no sliders or options to tweak, so you’ll just get the toggle on / off for DLSS and RT. From which I can tell, Pumpkin Jack Performance uses DLSS 2.0 in performance, and the results still look pretty good. After trying the game with and without enabling DLSS, I prefer the presence of DLSS. The fact that it enhances the performance a bit is that it is applied directly to the cake. Or, I think a scoop of ice cream on a piece of pumpkin pie might be more appropriate for this time of year.
Here’s a quick gallery of some image quality comparisons.
Tom’s hardware GPU tested
Pumpkin Jack I have a cartoon charm that I think looks great. Again, I’m very impressed that this is primarily an individual effort. One of the advantages of cartoon aesthetics is that your brain is not wired to see the difference between real world looks and ray tracing inconsistencies. Are images, shadows and light better with ray tracing? That’s all that’s really important, and I think the introduction of ray tracing and DLSS definitely improves the overall look and feel of the game.
Transparent water reflections and glowing fires are the two things that benefit the most from the ray edges. The entire environment around the fire and light is illuminated with ray tracing, while these are limited pools illuminated with standard lighting mode only. There are also additional shades you can’t get without ray tracing.
Good thing indie game Pumpkin Jack When it comes to your graphics hardware, it’s not always very demanding. It runs comfortably fast on any RTX graphics card, from low RTX 2060 to top-of-the-line hardware like the RTX 3090. I did not test on AMD cards, as I was mostly interested in ray tracing. And DLSS effects, but I believe they will be great too. You don’t just get extra eye candy.
I took some quick tests using three RTX GPUs from the second level start. At the bottom is the minimum RTX card, RTX 2060. At the top is the near-unknown RTX 3090. With the performances presented by both of them, I tossed in the RTX 2080 Super to cover the middle ground. Everything is running on my standard GPU test PC, which you can see on the right.
Walking at 1080p is basically a walk in the park for any GPU I’ve tried. The RTX 2060 handles 112 fps with a minimum of 66 ray tracing enabled, without DLSS. Turning on DLSS demonstrates performance with a minimum of 173 fps to 140 fps, which is slightly faster than native 1080p without supporting ray tracing. Turning on ray tracing basically reduces performance by 30%, but DLSS is more than worth it.
The same pattern applies to 2080 Super and RTX 3090; Only they’re too fast to start. 2080 Super Performance has dropped by 37%, but ray tracing seems to be a limitation of performance, with the 3090 ending at approximately 180 fps. This represents a huge 45% drop compared to the traditional presentation, and DLSS doesn’t really help much at this low resolution, but we’ll see better results at 1440p and 4k.
1440p is still able to run on all GPUs, even if ray tracing is enabled but without DLSS. 2060 sometimes falls below 60 fps, however, so DLSS is definitely recommended. This pushes the display back to 141 fps, both within the 2080 Super and 3090 in the 170-180 fps range. Again, we see a range of approximately 180 fps with ray tracing enabled.
Finally, at 4K, even without the ray line, the RTX 2060 begins to struggle, managing a more modest result of 46 fps, close to at least 30 fps. There are some areas of the game where I saw a slight move in 2060. Turning on ray tracing alone is definitely too much for the card, only 33 fps in teenagers and at least. DLSS, however, continues to correct ray tracing errors. Even at 2060 ticks at 78 fps, with at least a little bit of fully stable 60 fps.
The 2080 also struggles a bit at 4K with Super Ray Tracing. It’s still playable at 53 fps, but sometimes Stutters does. Without ray tracing, it is a relatively stable 60 fps or higher. 4K with RT and DLSS, on the other hand, is the result of overall performance which is slightly better at 1440p using RT without card DLSS. You get over 100 fps, and the game looks and plays great.
The RTX 3090, of course, doesn’t even bat on the eyes like a light game Pumpkin Jack, With or without ray tracing. It maintains a constant 60 fps or more at native resolution. Except, as I’ve said (and shown) before, I prefer the DLSS look, as the default rendering may look a bit blurry. This is a particular problem with temporary anti-aliasing, and DLSS easily looks good in this case (IMO). Also on 4K, 3090 zip at framerate 144 fps as well.
I know a lot of people are still not sold on push ray tracing on Nvidia. With the efforts of many developers, most rasterization techniques can still look great. The thing is, not all games have big budgets with a lot of developing resources. Ray tracing has the ability to turn off a lot of lighting and rendering work without much effort from developers and artists. Sure, Nicholas spent a month working on transparent images, but how much longer does it take to get a simulated image to look great anywhere?
I’ve said that with the advent of the first RTX card we’ll need faster ray tracing hardware and better engine support to move games forward, and I still think that’s the case. Pumpkin Jack Ray tracing (and DLSS) is a small example of how love can go a long way to improving graphics. No wonder there are a few indie developers out there looking at the technology, and I’m looking forward to seeing what they can manage.
If you still can’t believe it, take a look at it Range And Bright memory is infinite Benchmark demo. They are at the opposite end of the spectrum in terms of graphics, emphasizing realism and fairly high levels of ray tracing quality. Not surprisingly, they both deal with their confidence as they choose to embark on their play activities. 4 Give it a few more years, and the use of ray tracing in sports is likely to be as prevalent as the use. SSAO (In which it appeared earlier Crisis Back in 2007). I can’t wait to see what games appear in the next 10 years.
