Can You Actually See Ray Tracing?

A video on YouTube from UFD Gaming takes a look at real-time ray tracing in video games (thanks [H]ardOCP). Or rather attempts to take a look at the effect in a video game, as they use Battlefield V to see if they can tell the difference between ray tracing being turned off and on. "I honestly thought it would be more obvious" is the first impression offered, and this is indicative of the results, as most of their crew was vague about whether they can tell the difference. One of them was convinced he could spot the effect in the first video since there was reflective water in the scene, which inspired a second test on the snow map for an additional challenge. When it was all said and done, they actually did pretty well for the most part, but there were wrong answers along the way. More significantly, the participants admitted that in some cases they were guessing, and one of them in particular said his answers relied on all the RTX videos he had already seen. This leads to the statement: "Ray tracing. At least from a panel of four people, we can kinda guess when it's on, but only if we're looking for it. And even then, ehhhh?" The host backs off from that even more in his conclusion: "That's going to wrap up this video of whether or not we can tell if Ray Tracing is on or off. Spoiler alert: no."