euskalzabe
[H]ard|Gawd
- Joined
- May 9, 2009
- Messages
- 1,478
Huh. Well this happened faster than I expected. A new version of Metro Exodus with an overhauled engine will be sold (free - although a separate game - for current owners of ME) that requires DXR as the minimum spec. We knew this would happen eventually, but I was thinking more like 2030, not 2021. Granted, this is just one game, but it is telling that the developer will release a more advanced DXR version of the game that is structurally so different, it cannot just patch the existing game, it needs to exist as a different product altogether. That makes me think that more DXR focused titles will imply much heavier changes than just RTX ON as Nvidia puts it, but DXR-base from the development get-go. This reminds me a bit of how how as pixel shaders evolved, games would look completely different (though they were still rasterized and shipped as one game). Anyone recall playing Half Life 2 with different shader models in DirectX 9 vs 7? I don't think it went as low as DX6, I only remember 7... and it looked like crap compared to DX9. The DXR evolution is definitely happening faster than the decade or so it took pixel shaders to gain more traction - although DXR is nowhere near mainstream, give it another year when most consoles at least include DXR effects and it'll snowball from there.