Fortnite Ray Tracing is now on PC, here is how it will affect your gameplay

Recently, it was announced that Ray Tracing would be adopted by a lot of games, and it is no secret that this will become the new industry standard. It is a rendering technique which traces the path of light as pixels, thereby making it appear life-like and realistic. This feature works by using an algorithm to simulate light rays that behave exactly how they do in the physical world.

Various games like COD: Modern Warfare, Minecraft, and now Fortnite, have introduced Ray Tracing. Fortnite, in fact, just did so yesterday, i.e., 17th September!

There are various ways in which Ray tracing will improve how light rays interact with different objects and in-game surfaces. Using this feature, game developers can simulate actual light rays that will bounce realistically off objects, create more believable reflections, and cast realistic shadows.

In this article, we analyze exactly how this technology will affect the gameplay.

Image Credits: Epic Games

Fortnite: How will Ray Tracing affect gameplay?

Earlier, the effects related to light rays were more or less realistic and lifelike. However, Ray Tracing brings a certain level of dynamism which results in a more responsive lighting system.

For example, when you change the physical environment by merely walking around in a game, the light rays behave in a static manner, which is not responsive to the relative position of the obstruction in question, i.e., your own character.

This limitation can also be observed when you break through walls, but the lighting inside does not seem to respond and change in nature. With Ray Tracing, you are dealing with true light that will behave exactly how light rays do in the real world! This means that every physical disturbance or interference will result in these light rays reacting in a dynamic and believable manner.

Reflections in Fortnite (Image Credits: Nvidia GeForce, YouTube)

In an animation-driven game like Fortnite, it will be interesting to see how this rendering technique improves the overall graphic experience of the game. In the Fortnite-Nvidia trailer that showcased Ray Tracing, apart from water bodies, these effects were most evident in random helmet, and other surface, reflections that we saw.

Ray Tracing working its magic in Fortnite! (Image Credits: Nvidia GeForce, YouTube)

Apart from overall graphics improvement and making the reflections cleaner and more comfortable on the eye, Ray Tracing is not expected to bring in any gameplay-related changes.

Do keep in mind that you will not be able to access these settings if your system does not fulfill the following requirements:

Image Credits: Epic Games

You can look at the video below for more help with regards to enabling these settings on your system: