Speaking with Wired on ray tracing, Head of Gaming at Microsoft, Phil Spencer, gave some honest remark on the expounding feature of the upcoming-next generation consoles. Spencer went on to confirm that the ray-tracing support has not been effective for gamers.
According to Phil Spencer:
When I think about games where ray tracing has dramatically impacted my experience as a player, it’s kind of spotty.
Xbox head Phil Spencer isn't convinced that 8K will ever be standard for video games. https://t.co/t5HHLA1jSW pic.twitter.com/r1014BBcYM
— IGN (@IGN) October 6, 2020
However, when it comes to ray tracing support, PC has come a long way, making it ahead of consoles, and has established a path with NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 2000 Series—popularly known as the Turing architecture—two years ago. Although, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X games are not slacking in this area as some of these games have already confirmed to feature ray tracing, like:
• Quantum Error—PS5 • Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales—PS5 • Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart—PS5 • Call of the Sea—Xbox Series X • The Medium—Xbox Series X • Bright Memory Infinite—PS5, Xbox Series X • The Ascent—Xbox Series X • Devil May Cry 5 Special Edition—PS5, Xbox Series X • Gran Turismo 7—PS5 • Observer: System Redux—PS5, Xbox Series X • Chorus—PS5, Xbox Series X • STALKER 2—Xbox Series X
During the interview, Spencer showed a bit of pessimism that 8K displays will be the status quo for games soon, if at all.
According to Phil Spencer:
I think 8K is aspirational technology. The display capabilities of devices are not really there yet. I believe we are years away from 8K being—if it ever is—standard in video games.
On that note, it’s quite difficult to disagree with Phil Spencer, especially when developers have been trying to come up with intelligent ways to reduce the performance cost of rendering at 4K resolution, unlike 8K resolution, which isn’t feasible at the moment, even though it seems possible with HDMI 2.1 specification.
However, the recent GeForce RTX 3090, priced at $1499, can render at 8K resolution with some titles. Still, it’s only possible when the game in question is optimizes pretty well and graphically light, or it supports the new NVIDIA DLSS 2.1 8x that recently got annouced. (Dynamic resolution)
In essence, 8K games will not be playable until the generation after the upcoming next-generation consoles. Fingers crossed, the difference may not be so visible, yet it’s something you can look forward too.