Shadow of the Tomb Raider: A Ray Tracing Investigation

Critically-acclaimed game Shadow of the Tomb Raider has been updated to receive support for both DirectX ray tracing shadows and Nvidia's DLSS upscaling applied science. It'south been seven months since ray tracing was shown off in this title and a good vi months since the game was released, but hey, the feature was added in somewhen and it's a very good game, nosotros must add.

The inclusion of ray tracing in Shadow of the Tomb Raider marks the implementation of the third and terminal ray tracing technique we currently have at our disposal. Battleground 5 uses ray traced reflections, Metro Exodus uses ray traced global illumination, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider uses ray traced shadows. In the future we'll likely meet games that utilize a combination of these techniques merely correct now each game is choosing 1 of the three and afterward today nosotros should accept a adept idea at how each works to improve visuals.

Accessing ray tracing in Shadow of the Tomb Raider is quite easy. At that place's no need for a driver update, all you require is the latest game patch, which isn't fifty-fifty that large. From in that location, you lot can launch the game and choose between 3 ray traced shadow modes: Medium, High and Ultra.

The game provides a decent clarification of what each way does. With Medium you lot get ray traced shadows for selected point lights, plus regular shadowing techniques for the residue of the game. With High, shadow maps start getting replaced in favor of more ray tracing from spot and directional lights, including the sun. And then with Ultra you get more shadows and additional rays. DLSS has its ain setting that can be activated as well.

For the following tests and comparisons, we've set the game to use the maximum quality settings, and then that'due south a level to a higher place the Highest preset. After all, if y'all're using ray tracing yous're later premium graphics, so you should already have everything cranked up to the best graphics possible. All testing was done on a Core i9-9900K rig, with game footage captured using the RTX 2080 Ti at 4K. Performance was tested for all RTX GPUs at different resolutions as well, which we'll get to afterwards on.

Visual Comparison

The first thing to notation is that the Medium ray tracing setting doesn't bear upon the quality of shadows in nearly situations, because information technology only ray traces indicate calorie-free shadows. And then this would exist a light from a fire or lamp, for example. When outdoors, the medium fashion uses standard Ultra-quality shadow maps, because shadows from the sun are non ray traced here. This is why in a lot of these comparisons at that place is no appreciable difference betwixt DXR off and DXR medium.

Click on all screenshots for full resolution 4K images

Where you start to notice a departure is with the High and Ultra modes. Depending on the surface area, the difference is very noticeable, with ray traced shadows looking softer thanks to its more accurate altitude-based shadowing. Ultra shadows in this game await good, they are precipitous across most elements, but ray tracing is an upgrade if accuracy is what you like. In this scene for instance, shadows cast from overhead leafage are soft due to the large distance between the foliage and the ground, while Lara's own shadow is much sharper equally information technology's closer to the shadowed surface.

While I like the ray traced shadow presentation and believe information technology looks more accurate, like with other ray traced techniques the change might not be something everyone likes. As virtually games employ sharper shadows, this distance-based system might be a fleck jarring or look worse if y'all prefer standard sharper shadows.

One thing is clear though: the High shadow style is not good. To us it looks worse than not ray traced shadow due to a lack of shadow density. For some reason, the High way just seems to remove a lot of shadows, particularly from overhead leafage, which is obviously not the intended presentation looking at both Ultra regular shadows, and Ultra ray traced shadows. The ray count limitation here is too tight and while the shadows that are cast look better and more accurate, removing shadows to get this effect is not a proficient compromise.

Ray traced shadows have a number of other advantages. The game already appears to use distanced based shadowing for some dynamically generated shadows without ray tracing, but at that place's a fair chip of aliasing nowadays even using the Ultra mode. When switching ray tracing on, this aliasing disappears and you get a much cleaner presentation with improve altitude calculations. Information technology's with these shadows, including Lara'southward shadow which suffers from the same issue, that ray tracing is the biggest upgrade.

In many areas, ray tracing also delivers more than depth to the scene with better and more accurate shadowing of objects such as handrails, rocks, tables and and then on. Over again, without ray tracing the scene yet looks excellent but ray tracing steps information technology upwardly a notch.

And then here we tin come across where point lights come up into play, which is an effect you lot go with the medium manner enabled. Beside this burn at that place are actually no shadows bandage with ray tracing off, but when switching it to medium, Lara immediately casts an accurate shadow onto the wall behind her. There's not much to be gained from college modes with point light shadows, and at that place are plenty of other bespeak lights throughout the game that practice cast shadows fifty-fifty with ray tracing off, simply this was one of the best examples I could find. Yeah, the developers probably could accept implemented regular shadows for this calorie-free, but even and so it wouldn't look every bit expert as ray tracing.

While nosotros have been talking a lot about the visual upgrades that ray tracing provides, there are also a decent amount of issues we noticed.

Looking at the high ray tracing way once more, in that location is a serious shadow draw altitude issue. When yous roam effectually large environments, there is an obvious, flat line transition between ray traced shadows and regular shadows that is visible and quite jarring. It's another reason we wouldn't consider using the high mode at all, not merely are in that location fewer shadows in general, the transition line is just awful.

This obvious transition point isn't a problem on the Ultra ray tracing mode, but in that location is some other issue at play here: shadow popular in. As you roam around, you can spot shadows magically actualization for some objects with no fade in. They just pop in out of thin air in the distance. In contrast, with ray tracing disabled there is still a limit to how far shadows are drawn, merely at that place is a nice fade-in transition to these shadows equally you lot move effectually, rather than a jarring pop-in. We'd say shadow depict altitude with the ultra mode is similar to off in full general, only the off mode clearly handles the transition more gracefully.

Then there are some instances where ray traced shadows don't work correctly. In this scene, the roofing on the left should be shadowing the wall with a pattern similar to the leafing on the roof. That'southward what you become with regular shadows, but with ray tracing it seems like the alpha texture is not being traced correctly so what we get is a large outline of presumably where the geometry is. It doesn't look right and doesn't make sense, although in other areas of the game this sort of alpha channel is handled properly.

Nosotros spotted some other artifacting in the game with ray tracing, again on roofing. In this scene, the shadowing present on the rocks on the left is a lot improve with ray tracing on. But ray tracing also introduces these weird patterns into the roof that don't look correct.

Looking at the overall quality our thoughts are that ray traced shadows await practiced in full general, but only if you use the Ultra mode. At that place are too many problems with the high mode, including reduced shadow density and an ugly transition signal that makes this fashion expect worse than ray tracing disabled. The ultra mode has its glitches, but it looks better than ray tracing disabled and definitely more accurate. The medium style is OK when there are point lights around, just the upgrade is basically non-existent in many outdoor environments.

Considering Shadow of the Tomb Raider is a slower paced game with an emphasis on stunning visuals, there's more than time to appreciate the improved shadow quality. And in most cases it's not a subtle change, it'south a decent upgrade. For a better showcase of the effects in motility yous tin cheque out HUB's video footage below.

Performance

As usual, enabling ray traced shadows in Shadow of the Tomb Raider comes at the cost of operation. Developers have put in a lot of time to make sure the game doesn't run equally poorly as the original demos, only the operation yet isn't not bad.

Nosotros'll start with the RTX 2080 Ti results. Performance was captured using the game's congenital-in benchmark tool, which is fairly representative of the scenes shown in this article. Across all 3 resolutions, the hit moving from Off to Ultra is significant. At 1080p operation drops by 39% on average with an even larger 57% hit to 1% lows. Then at both 1440p and 4K you're getting a 41% drop on average.

When factoring in ane% lows which show performance in the nearly intensive areas of the benchmark, it'southward typical to encounter your frame rate cut in half when using the Ultra ray tracing mode, and that is usually what I plant in general gameplay in intensive areas. At 4K it was common to sit around 60 FPS with ray tracing off, while a touch nether thirty FPS with Ultra ray traced shadows. Ouch.

The medium mode doesn't come across equally much of a drop, a mere fourteen% at 4K, just it also doesn't provide much of a visual improvement exterior of select scenes. Of grade, the operation hit is higher than xiv% in these specific scenes where indicate lights come up into play, with the benchmark tool going through different areas that may or may not run across differences.

With that said, the drop isn't pregnant in outdoor areas with no point lights, you'll only see peradventure two-3 FPS shaved off, so the good news is you won't be punished when the effect isn't visible.

At that place's also not much of a divergence between the High and Ultra modes, usually about two-iii FPS at almost. But considering the high mode looks awful, there's no manner I'd utilize it over the slightly more than intensive Ultra style.

With the RTX 2080 we're seeing similar margins: a 43% reduction in frame rate at 1080p moving from Off to Ultra, 41% at 1440p and 41% at 4K. The RTX 2080 is definitely non powerful plenty for ray tracing at 4K, and it's only borderline at 1440p, dropping from an fourscore FPS boilerplate to beneath l FPS. At this resolution you'll want an adaptive sync monitor.

For the RTX 2070 we only tested two resolutions considering it's obvious this GPU and the RTX 2060 tin't handle the game at 4K. In one case again we're looking at effectually a 42% drop of FPS at 1440p, and 41% at 1080p. The RTX 2070 is skilful for a 60 FPS experience at 1440p with ray tracing disabled, but enabling ray tracing sees one% lows dip below 30 FPS which isn't great. We'd say the card is powerful plenty for 1080p with ray tracing, where it tin delivers 60 FPS.

As for the RTX 2060, it'southward no surprise that information technology can't handle ray tracing at 1440p: it sees a 45% driblet in frame rate, which takes a card that is fine at 1440p without beingness amazing, to a card that but tin't play the game at a reasonable frame rate. At 1080p it's a better situation, you lot still see that large drop in frame rates just at around 50 FPS we'd however say the game is playable with RTX on.

Ray tracing in Shadow of the Tomb Raider one time again comes at a big cost in performance. The visuals are very good, and so it's not a Battlefield V situation where you become both awful functioning and noisy ray traced effects, just we're still talking nigh having your frame charge per unit significantly reduced. The performance hitting is a lot higher than in Metro Exodus, although for a larger visual improvement every bit well.

Considering the regular, not-ray traced Ultra shadows already wait very good, and the game in full general looks astonishing on maximum settings, we don't think it'due south worth turning ray tracing on in about situations. Halving your frame rate is a huge hit to take, we're talking at to the lowest degree a 30 FPS reduction, which isn't going to piece of work for nigh people.

The situations where we could see this striking being worthwhile, is when you have excess functioning at your native resolution. So that'due south with the RTX 2080 and RTX 2080 Ti at 1080p, and the RTX 2080 Ti at 1440p. With those GPUs, you can run the game at over 100 FPS with ray tracing off, so turning it on but brings y'all downwards to around 50 FPS or so. Information technology'south a large hit, but we're not in console functioning territory.

With other combinations we're looking at performance near 30 FPS at times. Take the RTX 2070, for example, would you rather play the game at 60 FPS at 1440p with ray tracing off, or 1080p at below 60 FPS with ray tracing on? We would opt for the quondam every single time.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider has also received DLSS support, however nosotros've established by at present this feature is unnecessary at all-time in our examinations in other games. From what we've seen in Tomb Raider, DLSS is not as good as the implementation in Metro Exodus, but better than Battleground V. DLSS is definitely not as sharp as the native presentation, it'southward blurry in some areas and doesn't permit the fine texture work in the game smoothen.

We'd stick to experimenting with standard resolution scaling instead, where you tin achieve better functioning and/or better visuals.

It's hard to put into a succinct discussion how we feel about ray tracing in Shadow of the Tomb Raider. On one hand, the visual upgrade is decent and the game can await great using the Ultra manner. On the other, that comes at a huge functioning cost that limits the scenarios in which y'all would choose to turn ray tracing on.

Ray tracing applied science volition shine when the performance hitting can be significantly reduced or when we have FPS in excess, so the striking becomes irrelevant. For that to happen, we demand more powerful ray tracing hardware, so more RT cores, faster dispatch and just more than power in general. That's probably i or two GPU generations down the line.

Of all the ray traced implementations we've seen so far, we'd lean towards Metro Exodus as being the best balance of visual upgrades and functioning cost. We're not in a situation with any RTX games so far where we could easily recommend using ray tracing or ownership a new GPU for that reason alone. For now, recollect of ray tracing as a bonus for owners of RTX graphics cards.