The latest 1.2.8 update for Alan Wake 2 has arrived, marking it as one of the initial titles to incorporate Nvidia’s innovative RTX Mega Geometry technology. According to a comparative analysis shared by Compusemble and reported by Wccftech, players can expect an average 13% decrease in VRAM consumption alongside an increase in frames per second, all while utilizing an RTX 4090 graphics card.
The comparison featured gameplay from both version 1.2.7 and the new 1.2.8 side by side, employing DLAA for one instance and DLSS for the other. The tests were conducted at 4K resolution with maximum settings on an RTX 4090. Observers can easily notice the drop in CPU usage percentages and the uplift in frame rates by examining the data closely.
While RTX Mega Geometry was launched alongside the new RTX 50-series GPUs, it is compatible with all RTX graphics cards. This indicates significant enhancements even for older models. The new RTX 5090 and 5080 GPUs, which feature fourth-generation ray tracing cores specifically designed to work with Mega Geometry, are anticipated to deliver even more impressive results.
You might not be familiar with RTX Mega Geometry, but this technology significantly boosts both performance and visual fidelity in ray-traced games. It achieves this by increasing the number of triangles that developers can ray-trace while reducing the CPU overhead involved. This efficiency is largely due to the application of artificial intelligence.
One of the major costs associated with ray tracing relates to the various levels of detail (LOD) each in-game object possesses. Objects that are closer to the camera display high-detail meshes with a greater number of small triangles, which are referred to as LOD 0. As objects recede into the distance, the LOD level rises, resulting in less detail and fewer triangles, which is more suitable for distant items.
As players navigate through the environment, the LODs of various objects continually adjust based on their distance from the camera. The overall performance improves as the number of triangles increases, allowing for more LODs to switch between seamlessly.
The traditional method of handling LODs has been in place for quite some time. However, as technology like ray tracing and Nanite progress, the complexity has escalated. Unreal Engine 5’s Nanite system enhances geometry detail dramatically, resulting in numerous triangles and levels of detail. In games designed with Nanite, each single frame could potentially involve hundreds or thousands of LOD transitions.
The challenge arises because, in ray-traced environments, a complete rebuild is necessary each time one LOD replaces another to apply ray tracing to the updated mesh. This process can be extremely resource-intensive; thus, an excessive number of LOD changes might hinder the ability to maintain real-time frame rates.
RTX Mega Geometry addresses this issue by updating clusters of triangles in batches, intelligently determining which ones to refresh and when to do so for maximum efficiency. The aim is to empower developers utilizing Nanite to apply ray tracing to every triangle in their projects while achieving viable real-time frame rates. The ultimate outcome? Enhanced ray tracing capabilities and improved performance for users! For the time being, this technology is exclusive to Nvidia RTX users, but it is likely to expand throughout the industry in the future.
With the integration of RTX Mega Geometry in Alan Wake 2, players can experience these enhancements automatically upon updating the game, provided they have an Nvidia RTX graphics card.
