When it was released in 2011 for the PS3, Xbox 360, and PC, the Elder Scrolls: Skyrim was a beautiful looking game. Mods and tweaks have kept it cinematic and relatively relevant graphically since then, but none have changed its aesthetic quite like the reshade post-processing layer that is currently testing a new ray tracing plugin. Currently under development by the pseudonymous Marty McFly, the plugin now works with Skyrim in its alpha state and the results are glorious.
Reshade is a post-processing effect layer that can add all sorts of neat visual tweaks to a game, often with little performance overhead. It can add sharpening, coloring, motion blurs, depth of field effects, embossing, and much more. The latest feature to be added that's undergoing testing though, is ray tracing or more accurately, path tracing. As the creator explains, "When compared to DirectX RayTracing, [using ReShade’s depth buffer method] has several limitations. Anything behind another object does not contribute, anything outside the screen does not contribute, backfaces do not contribute."
"The benefit of this shader is that it can run on every game and GPU and it’s a step up from regular SSAO," he said, via PCGamesN. "I hope this serves as a sneak peek at what DXR ray tracing can do and why everyone in vfx can’t wait to get real ray tracing for their games."
The overall effect might not be as clean as Nvidia-powered RTX ray tracing, but it's close enough that many of the benefits can be felt and the fact that it doesn't require a $700+ GPU to run it at even 1080p suggests that it could be the ray tracing solution we all enjoy for a good few years to come.
