Gran Turismo Developer Polyphony Digital Are Working on Real-Time Ray Tracing tech

At SIGGRAPH Asia 2018, Polyphony Digital confirmed that they were experimenting with real-time ray tracing, developing their own path tracing solution to offer accurate reflections that offer a notable graphical leap over the pre-baked reflections that are used in their recent games. 

In their demo, which is available to view below, dynamic/moving lighting is used to see these reflections in action. Two things are worth noting here, first, that Polyphony is working on real-time ray tracing and second, that Polyphony Digital only develop games for Sony hardware. The studio is most famous for their Gran Turismo series, which has been exclusive to Sony platforms since the PS1. 

Does this mean that the PS5 will be capable of real-time ray tracing? Perhaps, but simply working on a new graphical technique does not guarantee that it will be used on Sony’s next console. That being said, Sony is known for adding custom hardware to their recent PlayStation silicon, with Sony’s PS4 Pro featuring specialised hardware for Checkerboard rendering, which is designed to help produce higher resolution images with a lower performance cost. 
  

Polyphony has not confirmed that their ray tracing tech will be used in any upcoming games, stating that the company is still exploring the possibilities. The demo showcased at SIGGRAPH Asia 2018 was not accelerated, using a compute method for path tracing, which should put to bed any potential rumours of an Nvidia RTX-powered PlayStation 5, though the consequences of this is the demo’s low framerate, appearing jerky in places.  

While we are uncertain if we will see this technique used in games anytime soon, it is exciting to see a console-only developer invest time in real-time ray tracing, showcasing a clear interest in integrating some of the latest techniques from the PC space into what could become a future console title. 

You can join the discussion on Polyphony Digital working on real-time ray tracing tech on the OC3D Forums. 

Special thanks to Dicehunter for providing us with this information.