What is Xbox Series X Ray Tracing?

May 7, 2020 at 3:16am
By Jason Stettner

There have been a number of specific new marketing terms from Microsoft in regards to their next generation console and this is one of them. You might be wondering what exactly Xbox Series X Ray Tracing means. This is the next step for lighting, realism and audio within games on the Xbox console.

Also known as Hardware Accelerated DirectX Raytracing (DXR) this will allow developers to provide improved lighting, shadows and reflections. This will also allow for more realistic acoustics and spatial audio, an aspect being included with this take on what ray tracing will provide. It essentially allows for more physically accurate worlds.

It’s also mentioned that “For the very first time in a game console, Xbox Series X includes support for high performance, hardware accelerated raytracing.” The console is uses a custom designed GPU leveraging the latest innovation from AMD and built in collaboration with the same team who developed DirectX Ray Tracing.

It will grant developers the ability to deliver incredible immersive visual and audio experiences using the same techniques as to what’s being deployed on the PC platform prior to the start of the new console generation. They team at Xbox hopes that developers will even be able to go beyond that of which is already present on the PC ecosystem. Some examples include perfectly mirrored reflections upon any surface, and exact lighting options.

More information on just what else this provides will be revealed in the near future and this will be updated. Read a recent opinion piece on the state of the platform going forward, or the general hub for additional coverage and news.

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