Here’s a useful write-up on the release, aimed at users of Pascal Gilcher’s popular ReShade shader.
RTGI 0.17.0.2 (Ray Traced Global Illumination) release by Pascal Gilcher (Marty McFly) rtgi 0.17.0.2 release
: Improvements to the diffuse global illumination algorithm for more natural light distribution. Enhanced Ambient Occlusion RTGI (Realtime Global Illumination) v0
Improved how lighting data is carried over between frames to prevent sudden shifts in shadows or light bounces. reducing memory churn and allocation overhead.
RTGI (Ray-Traced Global Illumination) simulates how light bounces off surfaces to illuminate areas not directly hit by a light source. It transforms the look of classic and modern games by: Physical Grounding : Objects feel like they truly belong in the world. Color Bleeding
All three are expected to be addressed in the upcoming 0.18 branch, which will experiment with a hybrid screen-space + world probe approach.
One of the long-standing criticisms of screen-space GI is the handling of rough, glossy, or metallic surfaces. The new hybrid mode blends two different ray lengths based on material roughness values sampled from the depth buffer. This results in more accurate reflections on wet roads or polished wood, especially in games like Cyberpunk 2077 (when used alongside the built-in RT) or Skyrim with ENB.