Reshade Rtgi 0361 Guide

Since version 0.36.1 represents a specific point in the development of Pascal Gilcher’s (Marty McFly) RTGI shader, a paper on this topic would typically explore the technical intersection of screen-space ray marching and global illumination within a post-processing framework.

Disable In-Game AA: Anti-aliasing can blur the depth buffer, breaking the ray tracing. reshade rtgi 0361

Because ReShade does not have access to the game’s 3D engine geometry, it uses Ray Marching. Since version 0

: Since it only knows what is on your screen, objects behind the camera or hidden behind other objects cannot cast shadows or reflect light. Version 0.36.1 and Development Context Before RTGI: A character stands in a dark green forest

(Pascal Gilcher). It is designed to simulate ray-traced lighting effects in games that do not natively support them by using the game's "depth buffer" to calculate how light should bounce off surfaces. Core Features & Visual Impact Global Illumination (GI):

  1. Ray Generation: For every pixel, the shader casts rays based on the estimated normal and a random noise pattern (temporal noise).
  2. Step Iteration: The ray marches through the depth buffer in steps. It checks if the ray’s Z-value intersects with the geometry stored in the depth buffer.
  3. Ambient Occlusion & Color Bleeding: When a ray hits geometry, the shader calculates the distance to determine occlusion (AO). It then samples the color of the hit pixel to simulate color bleeding (global illumination).
  4. Sky Light: If a ray misses all geometry and reaches the "far plane," it registers a hit with the "sky," applying a sky color or HDR sampled color to simulate sunlight.

Key Features

However, this power comes with responsibility. Because RTGI is screen-space, it suffers from disocclusion. If you turn the camera quickly, information at the edge of the screen disappears. For a split second, the "bounced light" might vanish until the new pixels are processed. Version 0361 handles this smoothing better than most, but it requires the user to understand that this is a post-process effect, not native engine integration.