RTX and DLSS in Shadow of the Tomb Raider

[W1zzard]

Today, Eidos released their long awaited RTX and DLSS patch for Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Raytracing in the game helps improve the quality and realism of shadows. We took a close look at image quality and measure the performance impact using the complete GeForce RTX lineup.

Show full review

 

[sauron]

I dont see anything special that couldn't be done without rtx

 

[M2B]

I dont see anything special that couldn't be done without rtx

Because your expectations are unrealistic.
What do you want from ray tracing to do?
Make your life-like looking games look fantasy-like?

 

[Al Chafai]

Amazing Content as usual,but is it me or the RTX on in outdoor scenes kinda looks the same as RTX off!!
so the only big difference is inside the Tombs.

 

[Manu_PT]

Not a big performance hit like on Battlefield V. But battlefield is that bizarre game where even a 9900k struggles in some scenarios (narvik for example).

Eithet way, Ray Tracing is not that big game changer, at least for now. Sure it improves graphics but not a revolution.

 

[Al Chafai]

Because your expectations are unrealistic.
What do you want from ray tracing to do?
Make your life-like looking games look fantasy-like?

there is nothing unrealistic,for me RTX shines under certain scenes but not everywhere.also the performance hit is still massive.
so for me i think the RTX implementation in Metro Exodus is better than this game,i am not talking about DLSS cuz it was blurry AF in that game.looks okay in this one tho
so there is nothing as unrealistic because Nvidia was hyping the shit out of this tech so don't blame people's expectations.

 

[rtwjunkie]

@W1zzard thanks for the redo. I especially like the sliders allowing me to go back and forth numerous times for comparison!

The differences are very subtle. At least they didn’t go overboard...conservative realism seemed to be their goal. The performance hit is big, but it will be interesting to see what a 1080Ti will get for frames on this RTX rendition...just for fun.

 

[15th Warlock]

Thanks for the quick review.

One question, I looked many times at the article, and couldn't find numbers regarding DLSS performance when combined with RT settings, idk if I'm looking in the wrong place? Please correct me if I'm wrong.

I mean, I see the framerate difference in the screenshots, but are those taken with Ray Tracing enabled? And if so, at what setting?

I look forward to downloading the patch after work today, I never finished the game, with BFV, Exodus and Anthem occupying all of my gaming time, I didn't have a chance to, but this is definitely a great incentive to go back and give it another shot.

 

[Al Chafai]

Not a big performance hit like on Battlefield V. But battlefield is that bizarre game where even a 9900k struggles in some scenarios (narvik for example).

Eithet way, Ray Tracing is not that big game changer, at least for now. Sure it improves graphics but not a revolution.

from 155 fps to 75 isn't a big hit? okay bro

 

[Wavetrex]

By the time Nvidia announces their next gen RTX 3000 there will be a grand total of 5 games that actually implemented it.

PARTY TIME !
</s>

 

[Vayra86]

Because your expectations are unrealistic.
What do you want from ray tracing to do?
Make your life-like looking games look fantasy-like?

Well... an example would be that shadows are actually drawn correctly which, unfortunately, the pre-cooked shadowmaps do better still. if you look at the first screenshot, the RTX side is a blurry mess, and the shadowmap of the tree and leaves is crisp and dark. You could say its 'more refined' but really, it lacks the detail to call it that, its just not as dark. Its an additional shadow quality setting I think describes it best: in some places, it creates scenes that are harder to play, in others its dynamic nature adds to the immersion, and in yet again others the quality is considerably more blurry and less defined than a precooked shadowmap.

That's the thing I'm also missing here. What does it really add that is objectively better? So far I've only seen it in very specific situations. Both Metro and SoTR suffer from this problem. In Metro the refined lighting of complex objects is great to see, but you also get that weird blue sauce over many scenes, and other (indoor) scenes are far too dark.

Overall, not impressed. And that's not even factoring in the performance penalty.

And then DLSS... still disfiguring the image with color adjustments and a complete lack of small detail. The embers from the fire in the temple are barely visible in DLSS, for example, and most highlights are gone from the totems/statues reflecting light.

They're gonna have to really step up the game if they want to sell this technology.

 

[W1zzard]

I mean, I see the framerate difference in the screenshots, but are those taken with Ray Tracing enabled? And if so, at what setting?

DLSS shots are with RTX off in both comparison images. The only difference is DLSS on vs off

 

[M2B]

there is nothing unrealistic,for me RTX shines under certain scenes but not everywhere.also the performance hit is still massive.
so for me i think the RTX implementation in Metro Exodus is better than this game,i am not talking about DLSS cuz it was blurry AF in that game.looks okay in this one tho
so there is nothing as unrealistic because Nvidia was hyping the shit out of this tech so don't blame people's expectations.

Of course Nvidia would do that. That's how business works; but keep in mind that RTX is not just enhanced shadows. The current implementations that we're looking at in today's games are just a little bit of what this technology can do.

 

[W1zzard]

i am not talking about DLSS cuz it was blurry AF in that game.looks okay in this one tho

so it's not just me imagining things

so for me i think the RTX implementation in Metro Exodus is better than this game

from a technical perspective definitely. SOTTR does shadows only, Metro does global illumination which is lighting + shadows

 

[Al Chafai]

so it's not just me imagining things


from a technical perspective definitely. SOTTR does shadows only, Metro does global illumination which is lighting + shadows

lol thnx for the content bro,keep it up

 

[M2B]

if you look at the first screenshot, the RTX side is a blurry mess

The first screenshot looks blurry to my eyes regardless of ray tracing being enabled or disabled.
But I'm currently viewng the screenshots on a fairly small screen.

 

[venturi]

Well

the improvements in the shadows are small, I'm tempted to say negligible when compared to the performance hit (huge).

The DLSS - realize it increases performance, but the side effect is a noticeable loss in detail. I would personally not buy a 4k monitor jkust to have it look like 1920x1080- with DLSS on. That is just my opinion.


Lastly the inclusion of Ray Traced shadows is nice. I believe SOTTR was already adept and being a good looking game so the improvements on an already nice looking game are negligible.

except for DLSS - that is a definitely a step backwards



my PC world:

https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/...st-powerful-god-box-in-a-miniitx-case.252663/

 

[rtwjunkie]

I find the differences very subtle with the RTX, but with close observation it is appreciated. DLSS though is krapp. I would definitely not use it if I had an RTX card, I am more about IQ than pure performance.

Am I right that you can run RTX and not turn on DLSS? The settings look that way, and I would prefer not having a blurry mess.

 

[M2B]

Am I right that you can run RTX and not turn on DLSS?

Of course you can.

 

[W1zzard]

Am I right that you can run RTX and not turn on DLSS?

Let me add that to the article

 

[Mescalamba]

Not a big performance hit like on Battlefield V. But battlefield is that bizarre game where even a 9900k struggles in some scenarios (narvik for example).

Eithet way, Ray Tracing is not that big game changer, at least for now. Sure it improves graphics but not a revolution.

DICE has history of amazing optimization of their games. /s

Amazing Content as usual,but is it me or the RTX on in outdoor scenes kinda looks the same as RTX off!!
so the only big difference is inside the Tombs.

Shadows are vastly improved. Which is all about is raytracing, to "trace-a-light" and create more realistic shadows and reflections. I would say in case of Tomb Raider it actually does work exactly as it should.

Realistic doesnt mean it will look "better" than before, just different a bit. Game engines are already really good in faking shadows and reflections, so difference isnt huge.

But Im positive in the future, there will be game where difference will be more striking.. just might take some time. For games its really fresh tech, those usually take a lot of time to get full benefit from.

 

[Lightning]

Because your expectations are unrealistic.
What do you want from ray tracing to do?
Make your life-like looking games look fantasy-like?

It's not the full ray tracing experience. If you'd read the article you'd know that only the shadows are being done by these mighty rt cores. There's no awesome lighting, where the name "ray" comes from or any reflections.

 

[M2B]

It's not the full ray tracing experience. If you'd read the article you'd know that only the shadows are being done by these mighty rt cores. There's no awesome lighting, where the name "ray" comes from or any reflections.

Oh boy, don't make me laugh.
I knew it was going to be just shadows months ago, everybody knew.

 

[Xzibit]

Well... an example would be that shadows are actually drawn correctly which, unfortunately, the pre-cooked shadowmaps do better still. if you look at the first screenshot, the RTX side is a blurry mess, and the shadowmap of the tree and leaves is crisp and dark. You could say its 'more refined' but really, it lacks the detail to call it that, its just not as dark. Its an additional shadow quality setting I think describes it best: in some places, it creates scenes that are harder to play, in others its dynamic nature adds to the immersion, and in yet again others the quality is considerably more blurry and less defined than a precooked shadowmap.

That's the thing I'm also missing here. What does it really add that is objectively better? So far I've only seen it in very specific situations. Both Metro and SoTR suffer from this problem. In Metro the refined lighting of complex objects is great to see, but you also get that weird blue sauce over many scenes, and other (indoor) scenes are far too dark.

Overall, not impressed. And that's not even factoring in the performance penalty.

And then DLSS... still disfiguring the image with color adjustments and a complete lack of small detail. The embers from the fire in the temple are barely visible in DLSS, for example, and most highlights are gone from the totems/statues reflecting light.

They're gonna have to really step up the game if they want to sell this technology.

If I recall during the RTX tech reveal last year they hinted at this limitation in one of their dev presentations. 1spp+shadow denoiser and fine detail would lean towards "soft" shadow appearance rather then ground truth.

 

[moproblems99]

In Battlefield, the developer DICE, was able to gradually reduce the RTX performance hit over several patches (NVIDIA's developer relations helped a lot here).

While I didn't go back and reread it, didn't that performance improvement come with a quality reduction?

so it's not just me imagining things

I was thinking the same thing, that DLSS looks pretty decent in this. Judging by the normal FPS, I would assume that these scenes are simpler to render causing less blurriness?