A slew of viral posts on social media overnight have sparked a debate about the merits of ray tracing.
As far as we can tell, the discussion was started by PlayStation power user Pyo, who some of you will be familiar with if you use X (or Twitter).
He said: “Hot take but ray tracing is one of the most unnecessary things implemented to games. It destroys [frame rates] and gives nothing to add to the story or gameplay in my opinion.”
The post naturally bristled with some users, and Pyo was quick to reiterate that it's merely his opinion.
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But it was later picked up by an even bigger account, which quoted the original comment and added “Art Direction > Ray Tracing”. It attached four screenshots of particularly beautiful games, like Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End.
There’s been a growing discussion among the gaming community around whether we need the PS6 right now, which has been fuelled by rumours it may (or may not) be delayed outside of its internally intended 2027 release window.
If the console does launch as planned, then it’d be safe to assume improved ray tracing will be among its selling points.
So, where do you stand on this discussion?
Well, first it’s important to establish what ray tracing is for the uninitiated. In simple terms, it’s a technology that simulates the way light interacts with different surfaces.
In the real-world, light bounces around our environment naturally, creating the scene our eyes absorb. In many games, this effect is faked – or “baked” – but ray tracing enables each individual beam of light to bounce naturally off each pixel in the game, creating a more realistic environment.
Resident Evil Requiem on PS5 Pro is the most recent example of this technology being used to excellent effect. While the game still looks great on the standard PS5, you get a much more compelling image on Sony’s supercharged system, running at 60fps with the upgraded PSSR upscaler enabled.
It’s safe to assume that the PS6, whenever it releases, will be able to deliver superior results to even the PS5 Pro – offering improved ray tracing without necessarily compromising performance, like Pyo hypothesises.
In fact, the PS6 may be able to power the more computationally demanding path tracing technology, which even more accurately simulates the way light and reflections work.
While we can certainly see Pyo’s point of view, that ray tracing adds little to a title’s narrative or gameplay, we’d argue that this is true of practically all modern technologies.
If all you’re interested in is the core story, then why not just play a visual novel, for example? If the presentation is adding nothing to your experience, then why not stick with the Famicom?
Ultimately, video games are named such because they have a visual element – the clue is in the name, video games.
So, while we can certainly appreciate why some people feel ray tracing isn’t adding a lot to their games, we’re not sure we’d describe it as “unnecessary”.
At the end of the day, this is all about creating more beautiful, immersive experiences. And no matter where you stand on this, ray tracing undoubtedly adds to that.