Exploring the Mind-Blowing Results of Ray Tracing in Dragon’s Dogma 2

For those who missed it…

…Dragon's Dogma II, released in March 2024, is an open-world action RPG developed by Capcom. It is the sequel to a somewhat niche game from the Japanese developer. Due to its launch at a time close to Skyrim and the resulting comparisons, the title did not meet with the expected success upon its release, but over the years Dragon's Dogma has gained cult status through successive ports and the release of its full version Dark Arisen. Recognized for its narrative qualities but above all for its original gameplay ideas for the time and still today, making the charm and success of the second opus. One of the strengths of the title is its pawn system which allows you to create your own pawn, a customizable AI companion, or recruit pawns from other online players who accompany you throughout your adventure.

Dragon's Dogma 2 uses the famous RE Engine, which you saw in action for the first time in Resident Evil 7, then in Village, Monster Hunter Rise and Street Fighter 6, offering breathtaking graphics at its core. However, the game has not finished dazzling us with technology highlighted in a video from Digital Foundry.

Path Tracing

Path tracing is not a simple evolution, but downright a revolution in the field of graphics rendering. Unlike traditional rendering methods like rasterization, which simplify the behavior of light for performance reasons, path tracing takes an entirely different approach to other lighting techniques like ray tracing.

These two graphics rendering techniques aim to simulate the behavior of light in virtual environments. Ray tracing follows the path of light rays from the source to the camera, calculating direct interactions with surfaces in the scene, while path tracing goes further by also taking into account indirect interactions, such as multiple reflections and diffuse light. This more comprehensive approach allows path tracing to produce even more realistic and immersive graphics renderings, capturing complex lighting effects such as soft shadows, as we can see in Digital Foundry's Dragon's Dogma II video.

One of the most striking benefits of path tracing is its ability to capture complex lighting effects in a natural and realistic way. Reflections on shiny metal surfaces, the play of light and shadow in forest environments, and even refractions in water are rendered with impressive precision, creating games with even more photorealistic settings.

However, this visual precision comes at a cost. Path tracing is extremely computationally intensive, requiring crazy configuration to run smoothly in real time. Modern graphics processing units (GPUs) are often on their knees to render images with path tracing, and even with the technological advances of GPUs, real-time performance is clearly not yet within everyone's reach.