4A Games, best known for the Metro series, is already working on its next-gen projects. Though ray tracing is one of the known next-gen elements the developer is actively working with, 4A Games CTO Oles Shishkovstov says he’s actually most excited for secret PS5 features that Sony hasn’t revealed yet.
In an interview with Digital Foundry, Shishkovstov talked extensively about the studio’s work with the new next-gen ray tracing technology. When asked to comment on currently known elements of next-gen, ray tracing was the prominent topic of discussion. “We are fully into ray tracing, dropping old-school codepath/techniques completely,” he said. “Internally we experimented a lot and with spectacular results so far. You will need to wait to see what we implement into our future projects.”
Though developers have been working with software-based ray tracing, 4A Games is one of the developers leading the charge on hardware-accelerated ray tracing. It’s said that its work on the PC version of Metro Exodus (and its DLCs) are a “first-generation effort and that ray tracing has a more central role to play in its future games and the next iteration of the 4A engine.” For console players, these ray tracing benefits are ones we don’t get, or that we see in a very much reduced fashion not supported by the hardware. Digital Foundry, a media outlet known for detailed technical analysis, calls Metro Exodus and its DLCs “essential purchases” for any PC player running an RTX-enabled graphics card.
However, spectacular lighting and sounds via ray tracing may take a backseat in the next-gen discussion once Sony opts to reveal additional details about the PlayStation 5. Though Shishkovstov didn’t specify a console, he concluded the interview saying “I am more excited for not yet publicly revealed things.”
Jim Ryan hinted earlier this year that there were a number of secret PS5 features yet to be revealed. We already know about hardware-based ray tracing, the SSD for super fast and imperceptible load times, and the dynamic haptics of the DualShock 5 controller. “There are still more unique elements for PlayStation 5 to come that separate it from previous consoles,” Ryan explained. “The ‘bigger differences’ have yet to be announced.”
[Source: Digital Foundry]
