Far Cry 6 will not have ray-tracing on the PS5 or Xbox Series X, according to a Ubisoft developer. Ubisoft 3D Team Lead Programmer Stephanie Brenham confirmed to Wccftech that Far Cry 6’s ray tracing will be a “PC only feature.” Along with ray tracing, AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution will only be available on the PC version of Far Cry 6, allowing PC gamers to enable ray tracing at higher resolutions without significantly lowering framerates.
The PC-exclusive ray tracing is surprising, considering the feature has already been implemented on the PS5 and Xbox Series X. Ubisoft has not confirmed why ray tracing will not be present in the PS5 and Xbox Series X versions of the game, but TechRadar has reached out to the publisher for comment.
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While Far Cry 6 will only have ray tracing on PC, Ubisoft will be leveraging the power of next-gen consoles, “optimizing performance targeting 4K and achieving 60fps,” according to Brenham.
Furthermore, the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions of Far Cry 6 will have better LODs (levels of detail), draw distances, and HD textures than the PS4/Pro and Xbox One/One X versions.
Opinion: Ray tracing as a standard feature on next-generation consoles was a pipe dream.
Ray tracing on next-generation consoles has arguably not lived up to its hype, with few games making use of the feature. It’s possible that this is due to the negative impact ray tracing has on game performance. Achieving both 60fps (which Far Cry 6 is aiming for) and ray tracing in a game is not an easy task for console hardware.
In October 2020, Gavin Moore, Creative Director of Demon Souls on PS5, stated, “There is a cost [to implement raytracing].” “If we had implemented ray tracing in the game, we would have had to leave something out.” Looking at the Demon Souls Remake, I’m not sure how ray-tracing would have improved the title’s already stunning visuals. Every time I died to those fat officials, the beauty of Stonefang Tunnel helped to soothe my pain.
So far, Sony’s Insomniac Games appears to be one of the few developers who have successfully implemented ray-tracing in their next-generation games. Spider-Man Miles Morales and Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart both had ray-traced performance graphic modes that allowed their games to run at an upscaled 4K resolution with ray-tracing at a smooth 60fps. Perhaps Insomniac should divulge their ray-tracing techniques to other triple-a developers.
