Forza Motorsport is getting a new update on December 9 and PC players will be able to benefit from a new party trick: raytraced global illumination (“RTGI” for short.)
This new feature will bring enhancements to the lighting and shading of the racing sim, resulting in a more realistic presentation.
Shining lights
As Turn10 describes it, the implementation of RTGI “uses ray tracing hardware to compute more accurate indirect lighting and occlusion across the track and car in real time. This results in enhanced visual fidelity and realism in the game.”
PC players can access ray-tracing by hopping into the settings and switching the Raytracing Quality to “Full Reflections + RTGI.” RTGI Quality must then be set to “High.” This functionality is not enabled by default.
As shown in the above comparison image, RTGI being enabled gives the scene a more realistic hue. The sunshine is slightly punchier, and the colours of the autumn leaves are more vivid.
Most notable is the surface of the asphalt; with RTGI off, it retains a typical black/dark-grey tone. With RTGI on, however, the reddish-orange glow of the leaves is cast down onto the surface. This is very close to how light behaves in the real world.
Of course, making use of the new RTGI settings will come at a hardware cost. Turn10 notes that at minimum, you’ll need an Nvidia RTX 20 Series GPU or AMD RX 6000 Series.
Turn10 recommends an RTX 3080 or above, with an RTX 4090 being touted as offering “the best experience.” As of the time of writing, the latter is a GPU priced at an eye-watering $2,000. In short, monstrous rigs will be the ones capable of truly producing the light show that Turn10 is aiming to provide.
Interestingly enough, Turn10 confirms that this new graphics option is PC-only. Considering the hardware requirements, it’s not too surprising that the Xbox Series consoles are left out of the mix.
Be on the lookout for the upcoming Forza Motorsport update dropping on December 9. All PC editions (Steam, Microsoft Store, and Game Pass) will be able to make use of the RTGI feature.
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