Original title: "sword net 3" real-time ray tracing scene experience, more poetic game source: Tencent News
With the strong support of NVIDIA, more and more games begin to add support for real-time ray tracing, and the era of real-time ray tracing has come. If you want to experience ray tracing in the game, only NVIDIA's RTX series graphics cards can play. In addition to real-time ray tracing technology, RTX series graphics cards also have DLSS, a killer feature that can greatly increase the number of game frames in high resolution.
Brief introduction of RTX and DLSS Technology
More than a year after the release of the RTX graphics card, I believe you have a certain understanding of the term "light pursuit". NVIDA attaches great importance to this technology when it uses nearly 1 acreage 3 in the core of the RTX graphics card to achieve ray tracing. In the past, the principle of the method to realize the effect of illumination and shadow is rasterization. Rasterization technology is the basis of most graphics technologies at present, and its greatest positive significance is that it can achieve rich results with low hardware overhead.
The so-called rasterization is the process of reducing the dimension of vertex coordinates in a three-dimensional world, that is, these coordinates are displayed in a two-dimensional display plane and become pixels that can be displayed. it is an efficient alternative to ray tracing. but it is precisely because this is the result of a long-term compromise between software and hardware performance, rasterization technology can draw rich scenes at a lower cost, but because of its own principle. Sometimes it still seems out of touch with reality, such as the lack of hierarchical sense of light and shadow, the transition of "bright, very bright, medium, very dark and dark" in space, and the feeling that the shadow rendering is too straight and too hard when the scene is complex.
The subsequent emergence of ambient light masking AO, screen space ambient light shielding SSAO and even SSR,VXGI technology are all complementary to the traditional rasterization technology, but in order to fundamentally achieve excellent light and shadow effects, ray tracing is still necessary.
It is different from the previous calculation of the light propagation path of the light source, using the reversible properties of light, reverse calculation, tracking the light emitted from the eyes, and using the technology to generate an arranged mathematical model to show it, so that the picture effect is better. it has a more accurate simulation effect for reflection and refraction, and the reflected light is also bright, sharp, dim and mild according to the different materials on the surface of the object. And then create the best and most real solution under the existing conditions.
Therefore, ray tracing technology is a technology that can change the generation and presentation of light and shadow effects in the game more directly and deeply. Compared with the previous technologies in the compromised framework, ray tracing technology can greatly improve the realism and hierarchy of light and shadow, and feel the light and shadow effect close to the real world.
We have experienced the light-chasing scenes of many games before, and the realistic light and shadow pictures of the new generation are really incredible. For example, in the control picture under call of Duty: modern Warfare, you can see that after RayTracing is turned on, the shadow direction of the teammates is obviously diluted, which is the more realistic effect of RayTracing. because the brighter point light source in the picture is not the only light source, RayTracing faithfully restores the light and shadow effect that should appear in the scene. In addition, you can see that the pole on the brick wall on the right is brighter, which is where the other light source is located, and the ray tracing technology reflects this detail.
Click on the picture to see a larger picture, the picture is larger
For example, in the following "returning to German headquarters: new Blood", you can clearly see that the reflection of the light above the right door becomes more real after the light chase is turned on, and the light emitted from this point light source is reflected many times. illuminates the upper right pipe, while under the traditional rasterization, the ground reflection is simply inverted and diluted the upper object.
In addition, NVIDIA's DLSS has been upgraded to version 2.0, which is an upgraded and enhanced version of the original DLSS, with great improvements in effect, integration convenience and efficiency, which can be said to be a huge leap in AI rendering technology.
First of all, DLSS 2.0 has a great improvement in efficiency and processing speed. NVIDIA claims that it can be twice as fast as the original, and it can increase the number of frames in the same setting in the actual game.
Then there is better image oversampling quality, DLSS 2.0 expands the multiple of oversampling to support 4x resolution stretching, that is to say, it can be stretched to 4K resolution through DLSS 2.0 at 1080p rendering resolution, which greatly saves GPU resources and provides a higher number of frames.
Most importantly, DLSS 2.0 no longer needs model learning reasoning for a single game, and now all games use a single model, which greatly reduces the threshold for game developers to use DLSS technology, and it will be very easy to integrate DLSS technology in the future.
Behind the upgrade of DLSS 2.0 is the optimization and adjustment of the entire architecture, and the improvement effect is quite obvious. The official provides a series of comparative samples:
You can see that DLSS 2.0 has made a big improvement in noise control (the last one is the most obvious), and the clarity of the details has improved a little bit, not as much as before. Because it is based on AI applications, DLSS can constantly upgrade itself, as an obvious point is that its image quality will get better and better over time, and the resources consumed will remain basically stable.
Most of the games mentioned above are foreign games, but in fact, domestic games have also entered the era of real-time ray tracing, such as the domestic game masterpiece "Sword Network 3", which has been running for more than a decade. It still has many online players. And the game itself has always been updated and improved. After Microsoft Corp and NVIDIA Corp jointly brought the games of the next era into the era of real-time ray tracing, "sword net 3" also redeveloped the game with the times. it became one of the few domestic online games to support real-time ray tracing effects in the early days.
Today, we intend to test the domestic online games full of martial arts flavor by "sword net 3" to see what the effect of the rivers and lakes under real-time ray tracing is. Through many previous tests, we can know that the real-time ray tracing effect on the computing performance of the graphics card is still very high, so it is necessary to experience this effect of a good graphics card. The platform we built to experience the real-time raytracing effects of "Sword net 3" is around a gigabyte RTX 2080 SUPER graphics card.
Experience platform built around RTX 2080 SUPER graphics card
RTX 2080 SUPER graphics card in the current game graphics card field, is a "under one card, above all cards" graphics card. Compared with the RTX 2080 Ti,RTX 2080 SUPER at the top, it is much more cost-effective and is a good choice for high-end graphics cards.
Gigabyte RTX 2080 SUPER GAMING OC graphics card belongs to gigabyte GAMING series, although the positioning is lower than its AORUS series graphics card, but more cost-effective, is a reasonable choice for most users. The default Boost frequency of the card is slightly higher than that of the public version, which is 1860MHz.
Gigabyte RTX 2080 SUPER GAMING OC appearance uses a large area of black, the overall look is quite low-key calm, the front of the card impressively placed three large-size fans, diameters are 82mm, fans using a positive and reverse air flow-oriented design, which can guide the air flow to effectively discharge waste heat from the upper and lower sides of the card, so that the overall heat dissipation efficiency is greatly improved.
Not only that, three-dimensional lines can also be seen on the surface of the fan blade, and the edge of the fan blade has a prominent triangular shape, which are all in order to optimize the air flow and bring more air intake at the same speed.
The back of the graphics card has a metal backplane, which increases the robustness of the PCB, so that the graphics card will not cause PCB bending after perennial use, and the metal backplane is also helpful for the heat dissipation of electronic components on the PCB. This backplane is also an all-black color match, making the whole card more unified.
In terms of power supply, we can see that the gigabyte RTX 2080 SUPER GAMING OC maintains the same 8+6PIN power interface as the public version, plus 75W of the PCIE slot, which theoretically can provide up to 300W of power, which is enough for the RTX 2080 SUPER core.
In terms of video output, like the public version of RTX 2080 SUPER, there are 1 HDMI interface, 3 DisplayPort interface and 1 USB-C interface. In addition, the RTX 2080 SUPER model has NV Link, which can be seen at the top of the video card.
Choose the RTX 2080 SUPER this level of graphics card, of course, other hardware can not appear short board, in order to perfect the performance of gigabyte RTX 2080 SUPER GAMING OC. So CPU chose the Intel i9-9900KS with 8 cores and 16 threads, this processor can reach 5Ghz, and it is a very suitable CPU for playing games.
The memory is also selected by gigabyte's AORUS RGB DDR4 memory kit with a frequency of 3200MHz and a dual-channel configuration of 16GB composed of two 8GB. The motherboard is gigabyte's Z390 AORUS PRO WiFi motherboard. Enter the BIOS to open the XMP and let the memory run at a frequency of 3200 MHz. The rest are set by default. The rest of the hardware is shown in the following table and will not be repeated:
Game measurement
Game picture comparison of real-time ray tracing effect
To experience the "sword net 3" with real-time raytrace effects, we need to open the settings in the sword net 3 client before starting the game, select the display setting to explore, and then the game will remind you that the setting is successful. Restart the sword net 3 client to take effect. Click on the start game at this time to enter the game experience real-time ray tracing of the game screen effect.
Perhaps in order to highlight the effect of real-time ray tracing, explore the picture quality style, the scene in the game will always remain in the night picture under the bright moon night, and the buildings that will light up after nightfall in the game are lit. These multi-source combined with real-time ray tracing technology, players can obviously see the light and shadow effect which is very close to the real world.
At present, the Penglai map of "Jianwang 3" can well experience the picture effect of real-time ray tracing. During the tour of Penglai map, the author found that as long as there is a place as smooth as a mirror, you can see the light and shadow reflection effect which is very different from the extreme picture quality style.
RTX OFF (extreme picture quality)
RTX ON (exploring picture quality)
For example, near the Penglai guard in the Taiyi Shrine, the moonlight reflected by the moon in the sky can be seen from a water stain on the ground. When changing the angle, you can also see the reflection of the huge sky blue curtain of the Taiyi Shrine, and even the candlelight windows around the curtain can be reflected clearly, which is surprising.
RTX OFF (extreme picture quality)
RTX ON (exploring picture quality)
This lifelike and exquisite light and shadow effect not only exists in the reflection of the water, but also on the mirrored floor after entering the palace gate, we can also see the reflected palace lanterns and hanging curtains, and they are very clear. and not only the palace lights and curtains, the reflection of the ceiling can also be seen.
RTX OFF (extreme picture quality)
RTX ON (exploring picture quality)
There are so many picture effects that can be improved innumerably in the game. It can be said that although the ultimate picture quality of "Sword net 3" is already picturesque, after getting used to exploring the picture quality with real-time ray tracing effect, the author can no longer go back to the ultimate picture quality to enjoy the game. Instead, I begin to feel that the ultimate picture quality is "so unreal". I can't help feeling once again that the pursuit of the realism of the picture is indeed endless.
Comparison of the number of game frames of real-time ray tracing
At the same time, on the other hand, the author also deeply feels the computing pressure on the graphics card caused by such a realistic picture effect in the process of game experience. The author tests the game frame number of the ultimate image quality without real-time ray tracing effect and the exploration image quality with real-time ray tracing turned on, both at 1080p resolution, and the specific options are the default settings of these two image quality. their average frame number is shown in the following table:
It should be pointed out that "sword net 3" has an upper limit on the number of frames, and the upper limit of frame number that Xishan residence gives to "sword net 3" lock is 67 frames. Under the extreme picture quality, the author measured that the average frame rate of running the game with gigabyte RTX 2080 SUPER GAMING OC graphics card is 66.69 frames per second, but if there is no lock limit, this value should exceed 67, because after the author raises the resolution to 2K, nearly full frames of data can still be obtained.
And into the real-time ray tracing effect of the screen, that is, to explore the picture quality, the frame rate of the game has dropped sharply, fortunately, this gigabyte RTX 2080 SUPER GAMING OC graphics card specification is high enough, can still let "sword net 3" the average frame rate of 47.79 frames per second, because martial arts online games are not like FPS games, so this frame rate is acceptable. From the test point of view, in order to smoothly experience the real-time ray tracing effect of "sword net 3", it is necessary to start with a RTX 2080 SUPER.
Summary
Cold northwest who sword, sound filled with several places in the southeast Xiao. Martial arts is a fascinating world for many Chinese people, which is deeply rooted in our culture. As a word-of-mouth work of domestic online games, "sword net 3" can be called a leader in the artistic conception of rivers and lakes. to a large extent, this shaping depends on its picturesque game screen, and "sword net 3" has also become one of the few games in which many players are willing to spend money to see the scenery.
RTX OFFRTX ON
Behind this beautiful and haunting picture is the result of the latest technology and the powerful computing power of the graphics card. Gigabyte RTX 2080 SUPER GAMING OC graphics card has a high-specification GPU core such as NVIDIA Corp RTX 2080 SUPER, and the cooling fan uses a positive and reverse air flow-oriented design to enhance the heat dissipation efficiency, so that the graphics card can still maintain a stable performance under long hours of high load.
RTX OFFRTX ON
Better game pictures can bring players a more immersive game experience, which is why the game has been moving forward in the direction of more realistic pictures. After NVIDIA Corp brought real-time ray tracing technology into the consumer field, the player's experience of the game screen has risen to a new level. Previously, I thought the game was exquisite enough under the extreme picture quality of "Sword net 3", but after experiencing the exploration picture quality with real-time ray tracing effect, I knew that the world was far more beautiful than I thought. If you are also fascinated by such a world of rivers and lakes, open the exploratory picture quality of "sword net 3" as soon as possible.