It’s a lighting technique that creates more realistic visuals, especially reflections.
The technique allows the GPU to “track” / calculate how the light should actually travel and what it bounces off of (like light in real life), compared to the pre-calculated methods of before.
So it will cost you processing power and therefore frames, but it greatly increases the visual accuracy of lighting, shadows and reflections.
A simple but effective example is Minecraft with Ray Tracing. The following video showcases the difference:
It’s a lighting technique that creates more realistic visuals, especially reflections.
The technique allows the GPU to “track” / calculate how the light should actually travel and what it bounces off of (like light in real life), compared to the pre-calculated methods of before.
So it will cost you processing power and therefore frames, but it greatly increases the visual accuracy of lighting, shadows and reflections.
A simple but effective example is Minecraft with Ray Tracing. The following video showcases the difference:
https://youtu.be/9qxfavtUs7w?si=pBSq7iysC0HvHoYz
Notice how the game looks completely different. That’s what lighting can do for a game.
Obviously this is less noticeable when it’s a game with realistic graphics and a lot of time spent on getting the (prebaked) lighting just right.