Alan Wake 2 PC Performance Review and Optimisation Guide
RT On VS RT Off
Alan Wake 2’s heavy use of ray tracing on PC
Just like Control, Ray tracing has a huge impact on Alan Wake 2’s visuals. With ray tracing set to high, reflections are more detailed, transparent reflections are present, and shadows are a lot more detailed. Objects are more grounded, shadows are more realistic, and light behaves as it would in the real world.
Below you can see how shadows and ambient occlusion changes when ray tracing is set to high. Look at the electrical box and you will see more accurate shading between each unit, and more accurate shading beneath the table.
Remedy did a great job emulating the effects of ray traced reflections using screen space reflections and global reflections. Even so, ray tracing brings Alan Wake 2’s reflections to another level, especially when looking through glass screens or other transparent but reflective objects.
