NVIDIA’s Real-Time Path Tracing Takes Ray Tracing Graphics Technology to the Next Level

There’s ray tracing, and then NVIDIa’s new path tracing, which is touted as of the largest breakthroughs for real-time graphics in many years. Put simply, this graphics technology is the most accurate way of rendering, but also computationally intensive due to the simulation of light/material interaction through many bounces. Thanks to the many advances in hardware ray tracing, including systems research, stochastic light sampling, and denoising, NVIDIA has created a path towards path tracing of scenes with billions of triangles and millions of light emitters in real time.

(1/10) Slides + Recording of Petrik Clarberg’s GDC/GTC real-time path tracing research talk are now available online #GDC2022 #GTC22https://t.co/CNAlWkIwlP pic.twitter.com/lhypEZAoTx

— Aaron Lefohn (@aaronlefohn) March 29, 2022

Path tracing takes ray tracing to the next level by going real time and unleashing interactive, photorealistic 3D environments filled with dynamic light and shadow, reflections as well as refractions. Aside from video games, path tracing is used for the effects in the biggest animation blockbusters, casting subtle light and shadow on the most immersive melodramas.

Right now a growing number of games are partially ray traced. They combine traditional rasterization-based rendering techniques with some ray-tracing effects. So what does path traced mean in this context? It could mean a mix of techniques. Game developers could rasterize the primary ray, and then path trace the lighting for the scene,” said NVIDIA.

(3/10) This is real-time path tracing research.

30-bounce path tracing in a scene with ~3B instanced triangles. pic.twitter.com/bs9MxHnwUS

— Aaron Lefohn (@aaronlefohn) March 29, 2022

(8/10) This is real-time path tracing research.

Fully dynamic path traced lighting on ~3B instanced triangles pic.twitter.com/ODztux8FbP

— Aaron Lefohn (@aaronlefohn) March 29, 2022