4A games confidently embrace the evolution of light and shadow rendering, ray tracing. The developer of the Metro series released the third installment in their franchise, Metro Exodus, in early 2019 to much critical praise. The title was lauded for its next-generation graphics and immersive movement systems that put you in the shoes of a soldier braving the harsh apocalypse.
The Metro series was initially written as a novel by Dmitry Glukhovsky, who released Metro 2033 in 2005. The world is Glukhovsky’s take on post-apocalyptic science fiction, taking place in Moscow before branching out across much of the world in later novels. We follow Artyom as one of the people who live underground in the Russian metro system. The games take much of this story and adapt it into a first-person shooter with horror elements. The first title was released in 2010, while the second, Metro: Last Light, was released just three years later in 2013.
Eurogamer reports that Shishkovstov, the chief technical officer at 4A Games, is eager to see a future with ray tracing. “We are fully into ray tracing,” says Shishkovstov, “Dropping old-school code path/techniques completely… Internally we experimented a lot, and with spectacular results so far. You will need to wait to see what we implement into our future projects.” The reality of the situation is that ray tracing is far too difficult to render for every current-generation console, which is why every title released with it has featured an impressively detailed port on the PC.
With ray tracing being eyed as a possible future for next-generation consoles, it could become a far more commonplace option for developers. The change provided is immediately noticeable, as pre-baked lighting and a lack of real-time reflections are replaced with fully realistic light and shadow renders. Essentially, ray tracing is the system that is still used in films today to integrate computer effects with real-life actors and scenery realistically. This complex compositing is made easier with these advanced systems.
The Metro franchise is perfect for such an implementation, as it has always been at the forefront of graphical capabilities. Similar to the likes of Crysis developed by Crytek, 4A studios created an in-house engine, 4A, to bring the game to life. This engine was admired as an impressive feat for a small studio that isn’t working with a Triple-A budget. It only received improvements in the following titles, as Metro: Last Light added complex, large open areas for the player to explore. Complex tessellation was added to objects and creatures, and realistic physics to smaller objects.
Metro Exodus only improved on these already impressive systems in 2019. This was one of the first games to do so successfully, with many citing the impressive technical achievement as a landmark moment for graphical evolution. Unfortunately, much of this progress couldn’t be brought to the current generation of consoles. Expect to see ray tracing as a recognized commonality within the next decade, as soon as consoles can keep up.
Next: Metro Exodus Is Brutal And Doesn’t Want You To Survive
Source: Eurogamer
