This week at GDC, developer 4A Games announced their collaboration with Nvidia’s RTX technology. The developer will be using it to include real-time ray traced global illumination in its upcoming addition to the Metro series, Metro Exodus. A demo was released utilizing an in-game environment that was seen in the trailer revealed at E3 last year.
Ray tracing is a rendering technique that produces a much more lifelike simulation of light and shadows. In a blog post, 4A Games’ Chief Technical Officer, Oleksandr Shyshkovtsov shared the developer’s desire for proper global illumination, or how lighting interacts with various surfaces in the environment of a game, by stating,
Dynamic lighting has always been a priority for the Metro series. We intentionally avoided pre-baked data and were relying on real-time methods to build our visuals to support more flexible, dynamic gameplay. Global illumination is highly important for the proper “grounding” of objects and readability of shapes, which in turn create improved ease of navigation and enhanced visual impact for the player.
He concludes by explaining that instead of using several custom-made systems, they are now able to replace them with one single system through Nvidia’s RTX technology.
Metro Exodus will be a story-driven first-person shooter that will find the player fleeing from the ruins of Moscow and embarking on a journey blending combat, exploration, and survival horror.
The game is currently in development for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC and is slated to be released later this year. You can check out the tech demo utilizing ray traced global illumination shown at GDC below. You can also view another trailer that was revealed at The Game Awards last year.