Developers Techland discusses how ray-tracing is making Dying Light 2 dark zones a whole lot scarier.

Speaking in the latest issue of OPM (Official PlayStation Magazine), Techland’s rendering director Tomasz Szałkowski opens up on how ray-tracing is improving their game and giving Dying Light 2 dark zones a darker, scarier and intense feeling.

Dying Light 2 is the largest game created using our in-house C-engine. It is very important for us to achieve our ambitions in terms of graphics, which is why this will be the first Techland production to support ray tracing. We are implementing it in cooperation with Nvidia [on PC] and using the latest achievements in this domain.

Thanks to this technology, our shadows in sunny weather look like they really would (among other reasons, because they take into account the size of the sun in the sky). Ambient occlusion effects have gained spatial stability and no longer suffer from compromises tied to the specifics of effects affecting screen space (they operate only on what is visible on the screen, meaning the floor under a table doesn’t affect the displayed image when we look down at the tabletop)

Dark Zones are an important element of our game, which is why we are experimenting with secondary illumination (reflected off surfaces) from artificial light sources (such as the player’s flashlight), which will make the experience of exploring these regions even more intense.

While the quote only mentions PC, next-gen console buyers (PS5, Xbox Series X) can rest easy knowing that the next-gen version of Dying Light 2 will indeed support ray-tracing on both systems. Dying Light 2 currently does not have a release date as the studio announced a delay back in January. We most likely won’t hear about one anytime soon either, with the current COVID-19 pandemic happening and all.

Source: GamesRadar