DirectX Raytracing 1.1
DirectX Raytracing (DXR) brings a new level of graphics realism to video games, previously only achievable in the movie industry. The effects achievable by DXR feel more real, because in a sense they are more real: DXR traces paths of light with true-to-life physics calculations, which is a far more accurate simulation than the heuristics based calculations used previously.
We’ve already seen an unprecedented level of visual quality from titles that use DXR 1.0 since we unveiled it, and built DXR 1.1 in response to developer feedback, giving them even more tools with which to utilize DXR.
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Microsoft coming hard this generation coming up
DXR 1.1 is an incremental addition over the top of DXR 1.0, adding three major new capabilities:
- GPU Work Creation now allows Raytracing. This enables shaders on the GPU to invoke raytracing without an intervening round-trip back to the CPU. This ability is useful for adaptive raytracing scenarios like shader-based culling / sorting / classification / refinement. Basically, scenarios that prepare raytracing work on the GPU and then immediately spawn it.
- Streaming engines can more efficiently load new raytracing shaders as needed when the player moves around the world and new objects become visible.
- Inline raytracing is an alternative form of raytracing that gives developers the option to drive more of the raytracing process, as opposed to handling work scheduling entirely to the system (dynamic-shading). It is available in any shader stage, including compute shaders, pixel shaders etc. Both the dynamic-shading and inline forms of raytracing use the same opaque acceleration structures.
