Battlefield V Creators: We Toned Down Ray Tracing for Performance, Realism

[cangelini]

In an interview, DICE, the company behind Battlefield V reveals some secrets about the game's support for Nvidia RTX graphics and ray tracing.

Battlefield V Creators: We Toned Down Ray Tracing for Performance, Realism : Read more

 

[dhayric]

DX12 was supposed to alter the gaming landscape and it hasn't done much. I can't even enable DX12 in BF1 without issues.

 

[sstanic]

Lovely text, tnx for the info

 

[Jeff Fx]

I've had multi-GPU systems, but the benefit was never really worth the cost, and SLI had to be disabled for a lot of games. I shifted to using the best single-card solution available for maximum performance and least hassle.

 

[TechyInAZ]

DHAYRIC, that isn't DX12s fault that's the devs. A great example are games like DOOM (yeah it's vulkan, but DX12 and vulkan are incredibly similar to each other) which runs amazing and is super efficient and reliable.

Glad RT is getting toned down, while graphics are cool, the main part of a video game is actually playing it. Plus, once the hype wears off, you'll care FAR more about the gameplay than the graphics.

 

[biggjoecheese]

But....

"When your whole life flashes before your eyes, how much of it do you want to not have ray tracing?"

--Avram Piltch

 

[bigdragon]

Let the downgrades begin! Here come the excuses for why the game doesn't look like the promotional demo at the RTX launch.

 

[drivinfast247]

Right now, DICE is targeting 1920x1080 at 60 FPS with RTX enabled."

I know this is 1st gen software/hardware use, but why bother. Hopefully the normal rasterization performance is much better than 1080ti to make the 2080/ti even slightly worth it.

 

[Jim90]

"One key nugget: the company had to dial back the ray tracing technology in order to increase frame rates and make the images look more credible. "
and
"DICE is targeting 1920x1080 at 60 FPS with RTX enabled."

Firstly, wait for the full reviews!!!
However, this pretty much confirms the size of the gamble NVIDIA is taking.
To see confirmation that RT functionality, as implemented - and in hardware format - takes such a toll that developers have to dial it back just in order to get acceptable frame rates and at 1080p, is a little ominous...particularly when coupled with the pricing structure for these cards and questionable non-RT gains. For all games released under the RT banner, what trust are we to place that the implemented functionality is anything but deliberately crippled.

It's looking more and more likely that this will backfire as a rushed cash grab.

 

[mortemas]

I can see both sides of the coin. They want to introduce new tech and as Steve Burke pointed out there is the chicken and egg problem. If they don't make the hardware, the software won't ever be developed. If the software is written and there is no hardware that uses it, well there's no usefulness there either. Plenty of people will still be satisfied with the 1080 ti and I think there will still be a robust market for it due to RTX pricing. Additionally, plenty of people will be willing to buy RTX and give ray tracing a try even if they have to "settle" for 60 fps, LOL. I think they still need to entice half-steppers into the new technology by at least offering some performance improvement in the new cards over the old ones. They need the option to have a better card regardless of ray tracing features. The challenge was to make enough gains in architecture combined with the shrink to 12nm to fit the CUDA cores *and* the new RT cores *and* the new Tensor cores all on the same chip. If you are an RTX buyer then there's no doubt you are funding the new technology, but there needs to be some performance improvement in the old way of rasterized graphics to sweeten the deal and with 12nm and the asynchronous compute I am hoping this is what they achieved. I did feel the same way when I read in the article that reflections looked too perfect. Put some dust and debris on those shiny cars and in the puddles and on the windows - it's a war! My windows aren't that clean!

 

[winterymix]

I agree with Mortemas. I don't think RT will be great with this 20xx series of cards, but this series has to exist before better iterations can. It has to start somewhere. Since I'm going to be streaming full time, I'll buy a 2080ti so I have maximum performance, but other than to check it out once or twice, I won't be enabling ray tracing when I stream. If I weren't a full time streamer, I wouldn't be upgrading from my 1000 series card.

 

[tamalero]

So.. this game has a "RTX" (exclusive Nvidia branding version of Ray Tracing) that does not allow anything else that is not proprietary (AMD and DirectXRays) ?

Sounds like another Gimpworks PhysX debacle..

 

[alextheblue]

DX12 was supposed to alter the gaming landscape and it hasn't done much. I can't even enable DX12 in BF1 without issues.

Well what kind of results you get depends on your hardware and the developer. Some games take advantage of DX12 or Vulkan for better visuals, others for better performance, or a mix of the two. Ashes of the Singularity is a good example of what developers can do. Consoles also benefit from the new APIs, they've been able to wring out quite a bit of performance with reduced CPU overhead (good since they have slower CPU cores).

 

[uglyduckling81]

@tamalero Does it really matter? AMD has nothing even on the roadmap that could power Ray Tracing.
Even Nvidia's flagship card can barely run it.
By the time AMD has something out we will be on BF7

 

[alextheblue]

If they don't make the hardware, the software won't ever be developed. If the software is written and there is no hardware that uses it, well there's no usefulness there either. Plenty of people will still be satisfied with the 1080 ti and I think there will still be a robust market for it due to RTX pricing. Additionally, plenty of people will be willing to buy RTX and give ray tracing a try even if they have to "settle" for 60 fps, LOL. <snip>
The challenge was to make enough gains in architecture combined with the shrink to 12nm to fit the CUDA cores *and* the new RT cores *and* the new Tensor cores all on the same chip. If you are an RTX buyer then there's no doubt you are funding the new technology, but there needs to be some performance improvement in the old way of rasterized graphics to sweeten the deal and with 12nm and the asynchronous compute I am hoping this is what they achieved.

They took an existing professional GPU that had RT and Tensor, and rebadged it as a gaming GPU. They had to pay developers to use the hardware that otherwise would have been dead weight, putting the silicon which was already baked in to work. So yeah... I'd say they're jumping the gun a bit. But I see why they did it.

As for your 60FPS comment... you must not play online on PC. If you're a PC gamer with serious high-end hardware like an RTX 2080 Ti, 60FPS @ 1080p is the very definition of settling. You've got a $1000 GPU and the matching high-end configuration to feed it, plus a high-refresh G-Sync gaming monitor. Any ancient piece of garbage display can do 60hz. I imagine a lot of people will be disabling RT outside of single player.

the company had to dial back the ray tracing technology in order to increase frame rates and make the images look more credible.

Yeah most of the game demos seemed to suffer from performance hiccups and the RTX launch is all about 1080p with ray tracing. They're trying to downplay 4K, ditto for high framerates (in conjunction with high-refresh G-Sync gaming panels).

 

[silverblue]

All those GCN cores must be able to do something about raytracing, surely?

 

[CatalyticDragon]

RTX cards are not 'ray tracing' cards. They are regular GPUs with tensor cores like the TITAN V. But ray tracing is a perfect application for multiple GPU setups but I imagine the Dice developers need more time with it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--6U-Y_B5U4

 

[Nintendork]

RTX dead on arrival, why did you preorder like zombies? Don't you learn?

 

[milkod2001]

I think NV did a very wise move. Super operpriced the latest RTX series so it does not have to lower prices for existing GTX series which are still plenty in stock. Genius move but not for us customers.

 

[johnnyd777]

Right with you Jeff! I don't run SLI anymore. Not worth the hassle and the performance boost is minuscule over the cost in games that support it. Save a little more and buy a nice Ti card and your good to go!

 

[Sam Hain]

These cards (RTX) do not run like previous gens did/do with SLI... The mem is also combined, making fer a mondo-freak! NVlink ain't your daddy's SLI folks!

 

[marc.reis.79]

I find it extremely strange that they are still clamping to dx 11 - have they not earned enough money to update the engine a bit more or too support multi GPU? I also wonder about that citation:
"DICE’s Holmquist assured us that ray tracing doesn’t change anything about the way art assets are handled in Battlefield V. "What I think that we will do is take a pass on the levels and see if there is something that sticks out,"
I thought that would be one of the benefits... use raytracing to do what else is a lot of handwork too do and never “dynamic” - (ok it’s a must for none RTX users to have it anyway).
But then it makes sense that it is performance hungry in game - if it needs to account both "paths" which sounds like more work for the GPU. But since I am not a developer or NVidia engineer... who knows....
Note: Enlisted – will very early- seems to have a straighter to RTX path and higher frame rates…

 

[johnnyd777]

I just don't get the whole RTX bit yet. I have no idea who they are trying to cater to. IS it for gamers, designers, renderers, VR programing? They seem to be very ho hum about the direction.

 

[jimmysmitty]

DX12 was supposed to alter the gaming landscape and it hasn't done much. I can't even enable DX12 in BF1 without issues.

DX12 took the simplicity of the devs writing a game for an API and not worrying as much and made it more complex. The devs could now write closer to the hardware but it also meant they would have to work harder. They don't really want to do that.

Ray Tracing could suffer the same fate but since nVidia is investing dedicated hardware it might have a better chance.

 

[mortemas]

I think NV did a very wise move. Super operpriced the latest RTX series so it does not have to lower prices for existing GTX series which are still plenty in stock. Genius move but not for us customers.

Possibly more tariffs on the way here in the U.S. anytime after tomorrow which will include electronics and if so I wonder if the RTX prices will go even higher or if nVidia baked it into the msrp already.