Ray-Tracing is a performance hog, so much so that it still makes games nearly unplayable for most GPUs unless they’re using some form of upscaling such as DLSS, FSR or XeSS. Over time this of course will change as GPUs become more powerful, but Microsoft has recently published a patent for one of their upcoming steps in improving Ray-Tracing performance.
Microsoft LOD Ray-Tracing System
Via TomsHardware, Microsoft recently published a new patent which is described as a method to reduce the memory footprint of ray-tracing, which is one of the big talking points surrounding GPUs with 8GB being said to not be enough. The patented technology will use a Level of Detail (LOD) system for Ray Traced lighting, if you’re not aware of what an LOD is, it’s used by many games to improve performance by reducing the level of detail for far away objects that the player cannot see. This patent will in theory apply this to Ray Tracing which could really improve performance for it in the future.
In the patent’s description, it states that this will be achieved through the use of a hierarchy of objects which can then be used to decide what Ray-Traced graphics take priority at this time. So that neon LED light in front of you and that puddle get the priority, but the reflection of the car far down the road will not be as detailed. This should help lower VRAM cards but at the same time, games without Ray-Tracing do still eat up a lot of VRAM on their own so the gains there are a bit debatable.
