Doom The Dark Ages idtech8 engine trades storage for real-time ray tracing performance

id Software has revealed technical details regarding its upcoming title Doom: The Dark Ages. The developer is utilizing a new engine version known as idtech8 for this release. This update represents a significant shift in how the game handles lighting and rendering processes.

id Software switches from pre-baked global illumination to real-time ray tracing technology

The studio switched from pre-baked global illumination to real-time ray tracing technology. According to Tiago Sousa, the maps used for development totalled around 5,000km. Without this engine update, the project could have required between 44GB and 110GB of storage for lighting data alone. The new approach also reduced the estimated pre-render time from 27 days to 68 days.

id Software stated that using real-time ray tracing hardware allows modern GPUs to handle lighting calculations directly. This method trades significant disk space and development time for better backwards compatibility and PC performance. The company noted that while ray tracing might impact frame rates, it saved the team from needing to pre-render massive amounts of data.

The transition to idtech8 effectively changes the trade-offs between storage capacity and hardware requirements. Developers can now rely on the processing power of current graphics cards instead of storing static lighting information. This decision impacts how players experience the game on various systems with different specifications.