Can someone demonstrate the "Raytraced Lighting" differences?

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I've tried and tried - and I simply can't tell the difference. I'm sure there is one, but staring at screenshots and the screen (enabling and disabling Psycho RT Lighting) - I simply can't tell the difference. This is both inside and outside - during the day and the night.

Can someone who understands this feature post a couple of screenshots - and explain to stupid me what the actual differences are - and why they're worth 10-15% FPS loss?

Please :)
 
I've tried and tried - and I simply can't tell the difference. I'm sure there is one, but staring at screenshots and the screen (enabling and disabling Psycho RT Lighting) - I simply can't tell the difference. This is both inside and outside - during the day and the night.

Can someone who understands this feature post a couple of screenshots - and explain to stupid me what the actual differences are - and why they're worth 10-15% FPS loss?

Please :)
I can't screenshot as I've uninstalled the game for now (I don't want to be addicted to it until the expansion, having completed it once already), but:

- In sunny conditions go to an industrial area and find an orange crane or gantry that connects to concrete. Look at how the colour of the crane or gantry reflects on the concrete.

- Go to Charter Hill on a sunny dawn, to the open area with AV landing sites in a row down one side. Look at the dawn sun reflecting off the black buildings.

- Somewhere indoors with directional light, eg the grand imperial mall with a spotlight turn on, look at the shadows and, specifically, V's shadow with the new local shadows setting turned on. Also notice what happens to the overall lighting level when you walk across the light.
 
its very subtle.. esp if you have RT reflections turned on. you'll see light from light sources reflect and bleed off on to surrounding geometry. its very diffuse and looks nice... not nice enough for the performance hit IMHO.. Reflections kinda do this too, but what you're seeing there is the reflection of the light source's model... its a lot sharper than the glows put off my the lighting
 
Thanks guys.

Sadly, I still can't really see much :(

Maybe it's just me, but the light bleed seems almost identical between RT Lighting Psycho and off. I do play with RT Reflections - and I always assumed that included the reflection of light as well - but I guess there's some kind of difference.

I CAN see a difference in terms of the amount of bleeding and the subtleties - but I struggle to tell which is better, and I would never notice something like that during normal play.

I'm just looking to educate myself - and I want the best possible visual experience. But if the differences are really that subtle - I have to wonder why anyone would suffer the significant FPS drop for them.

It would help greatly with just 2 screenshots where the difference is easy to spot - if it's pointed out :)
 
So maybe not the question and it's not in 1.5 but :

Thanks, but I've already watched all the official videos :)

They don't exclusively focus on RT Lighting - so it's impossible for me to tell which part of RT is responsible for what visual effect.
 
For me the RT mode on XSX isn't worthy. So I prefer to play with the performance mode for a smoother gameplay.
 
They don't exclusively focus on RT Lighting - so it's impossible for me to tell which part of RT is responsible for what visual effect.
If you go in JIG JIG Street at night, I think you would see a significant difference between" RT lightning" off and on (In open areas with sun, it could be not really as evident).
 
I think the most obvious ways to see it are to look at the places where objects connect to other objects (hence my point about orange cranes) because it can make the difference between things looking like different assets plopped down in a computer game and objects that inhabit a real world, and, at night, light sources themselves and what happens to the light they cast, especially, for example, neon signs. I wouldn't use roads to test that latter point because the roads are often wet and therefore highly reflective.

But if it doesn't make a difference to you (and it is very subtle much of the time) you might as well turn it off given the huge performance loss, and there is very little gain to most people between RT lighting psycho and ultra, anyway. Also, the smaller your screen, the less discernible the difference will be, and unless they have been tweaked in 1.5 there are unfortunately a handful of scenes where raytracing makes things look significantly worse. Sadly this includes one of the endings.
 
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I have the impression that it looks worse after the latest update.
That's the opposite of my experience.
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Maybe it's just me, but the light bleed seems almost identical between RT Lighting Psycho and off. I do play with RT Reflections - and I always assumed that included the reflection of light as well - but I guess there's some kind of difference.

I CAN see a difference in terms of the amount of bleeding and the subtleties - but I struggle to tell which is better, and I would never notice something like that during normal play.

Devs in gaming have gotten *really* good at simulating lighting effects. It's kind of a "smoke and mirrors" show, but is very close to what current RT lighting can do, IMO. I can see the differences, but they are subtle and in some cases I prefer the look of the non-RT effects.

I use RT on Ultra when I play, but the main reason is to avoid the terrible sparkly/grainy effect of screen space reflections on surfeaces like pavement and sidewalks that just look terrible in this game. If they would fix the SSR algos to eliminate that effect I'd go full non-RT lighting and enjoy the higher frame rates.
 
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So your just interested in the Lighting part? Shadows are much easier too demonstrate -.- hmm. Its more about the light bounce and the way it the light gets "interacteble" coloured light also really colour things with RT light on higher settings. Gonna see if i can get a video or something on the topic. Its quite subtle but i kinda agree with "Nvidia" on this one. Its the way forward...
 
When ray traced lighting is enabled, the ground gets brighter:
[in-game Gamma: 1.01]

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I personally think that it's too bright, so I usually keep it disabled for the most time. Only using it for the photo mode where I can lower the exposure.
 
When it comes to reflection I would say it is easy to spot in many cases (last picture).
But the lighting it is definetly not just more (in the Metro people claim less) light. It is better distrubuted light—more accurately.

Look at the first picture. There are darker places on the RT version where the light could not get to (green arrows). And there are brighter places where more light gets (red ones).

Also under the Mustangs exhaust: The RT version is correctly dark while the non-RT has bright spot.
That is because RT calculate it with geometry while the non-RT calculated it from the 2d picture (screen).

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When it comes to reflection I would say it is easy to spot in many cases (last picture).
But the lighting it is definetly not just more (in the Metro people claim less) light. It is better distrubuted light—more accurately.

Look at the first picture. There are darker places on the RT version where the light could not get to (green arrows). And there are brighter places where more light gets (red ones).

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Thank you!

This is exactly what I was hoping for.

I can see the difference, definitely, but I find it very, very minor in the grand scheme of things.

It is as I thought it was - but I just wanted to know if there was something I was missing.

Ultimately, I would definitely play with RT lighting if the FPS hit wasn't so big - but, as is, it's just not worth it to me.

But thank you for taking the time to demonstrate it in such a detailed way!
 
Thank you!

This is exactly what I was hoping for.

I can see the difference, definitely, but I find it very, very minor in the grand scheme of things.

It is as I thought it was - but I just wanted to know if there was something I was missing.

Ultimately, I would definitely play with RT lighting if the FPS hit wasn't so big - but, as is, it's just not worth it to me.

But thank you for taking the time to demonstrate it in such a detailed way!

It is definetly matter of taste and it is different game to game too.
All things RT does could be faked in another way. Just with drawbacks (no day/night cycle, less interactivity or/and movement freedom... etc).

I think Cyberpunk looks great even without RT so I usually take the fps too.
Just sometimes I turn it up for screenshots or a casual walk trough the city.
 

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I definitely notice it on rainy streets or shiny surfaces. I'm using it this playthrough, but I normally don't, because like most people say it adds a little bit but not a lot.
 
Yea its subtle, but once you notice it its really nice. Gives the light a more realistic feel pretty much. Sadly it still has quite the performance hit but hopefully it will keep getting better and better with new cards and better drivers.
 
I don't have an RTX card so I don't know about PC, but on Xbox Series X, Raytraced vs Performance Mode there's a good difference IMHO. Try driving at night, after rain, or go to Jig-Jig street or indoors at Afterlife, it's obvious. I guess I'm used to console games being 30 fps so it doesn't bother me, and on my 65" OLED it's worth it (maybe HDR helps RT shadows/lighting "pop" more?)

But on PC, I couldn't bear 30 fps, ever... :shrug:
 
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