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Sony files new patent for ‘Accelerated Ray Tracing’ - speculation that it could be more performant

CobraAB

Member
mark_cerny_9de40b0d-47bd-4018-83a7-c4ef86c28bfd.jpg

Mark Cerny = Old School. Started at Atari’s Arcade division around 1981 or so.
 

winjer

Gold Member
He didn't make a compelling argument as to why the patent would be for PS5 Pro and not PS5. He just said he doubts it because that's not how AMD described it's rt approach. Why would that prevent programmers from finding different methods for optimizing RT? Maybe I'm missing something.

I don't think he understands the patent. From what I see, it's intended for the PS5 hardware. He talks a lot about shortening rays, but that is just culling rays after test is successful.
According to the patent the RTU is doing just ray-bounding volume and ray-primitive intersections.
The rest is passed to the shader units. It seems they intend to use Async compute to have shaders that are unused in each work wave, doing the work.
The patent also talks a lot about the how a traditional bvh structure works. But adapted to be built by software.
So basically an optimized RT implementation for RDNA2, where only the ray-bounding volume and ray-primitive intersections are accelerated in hardware.
 
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I mean what would you want the solution to be, then? Have the studios so at each other's throats leads from one threaten to leave if their tech is used by another? We don't need any further Yuji Naka incidents (he threatened to do this to Chris Penn and the Sonic Xtreme team; MASSIVE reason why Penn almost died from sickness from crunch and Xtreme getting cancelled).

We know part of Sony's roadmap includes live-service games, but they're in a unique position where they can bring all of the experience from their single-player projects into more multiplayer-centric projects. Just thinking of something like Forbidden West on a graphical/fidelity level (particularly the PS5 version) with the gameplay "loop" of a VALORANT or Apex Legends, or Destiny 2, would be genuinely massive and eye-catching.

And I think that's what they'll be doing, but with specific teams for those type of games i.e Bungie. But for that same reason I'm curious to see TLOU Part II: Factions because that will likely be a service game as well and Naughty Dog are arguably the best in the industry when it comes to character animations.
You seem to be under the impression that it can only be one extreme or the other. Sony's first party devs have been sharing too much over the past few years, and it's becoming more obvious as time goes by. Should their studios be at each other's throats? No. Should their studios be up each others ass so as to make many aspects of their games too similar? No. There's a massive middle ground between the two. Surely you don't either fight or screw everyone you meet do you?

As for the rest? I guess we'll just have to wait and see the results, but I can't honestly say that I share your enthusiasm. None of Sony's first party studios have succeeded in any measurable way in their multiplayer games, much less a live service one which is somewhat of a further progression from just multiplayer.

While it wasn't your intent, you perfectly highlight the issue. You point to ND's talents in character animations, as though it suggests they're fully capable of making a decent multiplayer game. That's not even factoring in the live service aspect. Character animation has about as little to do with making a decent multiplayer game as matchmaking does with creating a singleplayer one.
 
You seem to be under the impression that it can only be one extreme or the other. Sony's first party devs have been sharing too much over the past few years, and it's becoming more obvious as time goes by. Should their studios be at each other's throats? No. Should their studios be up each others ass so as to make many aspects of their games too similar? No. There's a massive middle ground between the two. Surely you don't either fight or screw everyone you meet do you?

What aspects of their games are too similar? What game mechanics? What story themes and plot beats? Character designs? Art design? What things can you point to and say with certainty that they are too samey? Focusing on third-person, action-adventure story/narrative-driven games isn't enough of a prerequisite.

You're vastly underestimating the costs involved with high-tier AAA game development; there's a financial reason their studios share techniques and technologies with one another and it's only been beneficial for them in doing so, not a detriment.

As for the rest? I guess we'll just have to wait and see the results, but I can't honestly say that I share your enthusiasm. None of Sony's first party studios have succeeded in any measurable way in their multiplayer games, much less a live service one which is somewhat of a further progression from just multiplayer.

Well that's what the Bungie acquisition was for; to provide experience from one of the best in the industry when it comes to live-service content.

While it wasn't your intent, you perfectly highlight the issue. You point to ND's talents in character animations, as though it suggests they're fully capable of making a decent multiplayer game. That's not even factoring in the live service aspect. Character animation has about as little to do with making a decent multiplayer game as matchmaking does with creating a singleplayer one.

Again, that's where studios like Bungie, and yet even others like Guerrilla and Insomniac come into the picture, and it's not like Naught Dog haven't already taken a go at MP content with both inclusion in the original TLOU and Uncharted 4's MP component; they aren't oblivious to what it takes to make a multiplayer component.

Making something that's a live-service? Well that's up to the air, if they are even interested in doing a game along those lines. But the reason I mentioned them as an example (among other Sony 1P studios) is because they definitely excel in the area of visual fidelity, character animations etc. beyond any other MP-centric or live-service game on the market, and a lot of that work in the single-player space can be translated to a multiplayer space (they've already shown this to be the case in the past with things like Killzone: ShadowFall's MP mode).

Combining that with proven MP/live-service game design from experienced teams like those of Bungie could result in some wild innovations in the MP-centric/live-service space when it comes to presentation, production values combined with tight gameplay, content, and shooting mechanics/physics. It'll be pretty interesting to see how this initiative develops over time.
 
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