Horizon zero dawn w/ full ray tracing

[Box]

Guess some dude made a full ray tracing mod for HZD pc. Looks sick.

 

[Entropi]

After all these years watching HZD still amazes me.

 

[JAHGamer]

idk if its youtube compression or the way he rendered the video but it doesn't look 8k , not even 4k. Besides the improved draw distance and grass detail, it doesn't look much better than the regular game. Side not, HZD music is very underrated

 

[historia]

I am not sure you know this but Ray Tracing doesn't make anything look better, just make lighting look more accurate(while hampering resources).

If the level designers did a good job then it is a good job.

 

[Yurinka]

Looks great for being an almost 7 years old game. Big props to Guerrilla.

 

[flaccidsnake]

Great the game is on PC, making these enhancements possible.

 

[Frozone]

RT done right can make a world of difference.

 

[Darth Vader]

If this is not proof that ray tracing is not the magic bullet, I don't know what is. It manages to look better, of course, but still worse than HFW, by quite a margin too.

 

[JAHGamer]

Great the game is on PC, making these enhancements possible.

6 years and $3000 bleeding edge hardware just to look slightly better than a 10 year old $200 PS4 is not a W

RT done right can make a world of difference.

I’ve yet to see any example of this in any game, even the best tech demos show rt barely improve anything

 

[flaccidsnake]

6 years and $3000 bleeding edge hardware just to look slightly better than a 10 year old $200 PS4 is not a W


I’ve yet to see any example of this in any game, even the best tech demos show rt barely improve anything

Cope and seethe

 

[anonpuffs]

Biggest difference is the self-shadowing of foliage I guess? Also not sure if it's because I played the game in SDR but it looks properly HDR and the color contrast and saturation are less cartoony than the base game.

 

[JAHGamer]

the color contrast and saturation are less cartoony than the base game.

To its detriment

 

[anonpuffs]

To its detriment

i'm ambivalent tbh, the high color contrast and saturation in the horizon games definitely give them a unique look though.

 

[Frozone]

If this is not proof that ray tracing is not the magic bullet, I don't know what is. It manages to look better, of course, but still worse than HFW, by quite a margin too.

It depends on what you do with the RT.

HFW looks better not because of any new tech they introduced that can't be done (i.e. in the PCs case). It's because of the new biomes, increased texture detail on the characters, and better overall assets for FX.

I still hate that they had to get around some issues with their lighting engine. Putting a bright white light above the main character as you walk around in the world lit by the Sun is a horrible solution that looks quite jarringly inconsistent.

 

[Frozone]

I’ve yet to see any example of this in any game, even the best tech demos show rt barely improve anything

You just might be intentionally overlooking what is quite obvious to anyone that isn't biased. RT improves every single lighting and material algorithm done using rasterization and baked assets. All the old tricks just won't cut it anymore in a dynamically lit world.

 

[Darth Vader]

HFW looks better not because of any new tech they introduced that can't be done (i.e. in the PCs case). It's because of the new biomes, increased texture detail on the characters, and better overall assets for FX.

Better art design as well.

I still hate that they had to get around some issues with their lighting engine. Putting a bright white light above the main character as you walk around in the world lit by the Sun is a horrible solution that looks quite jarringly inconsistent.

They did that for artistic reasons, not for realism. It's part of the game's art style, and unfortunately is not present in 60fps (or wasn't when I played.)