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A modder has made an even bigger improvement to Grand Theft Auto IV than Fusion Fix.
xoxor4d created an Nvidia RTX Remix build for the game that runs on path traced graphics. This makes it the most beautiful version of the game so far, much better than what Fusion Fix was able to do.
And the big secret to this is path tracing itself.
What Is Path Tracing?
Path tracing is a form of lighting that brings computer generated graphics to the cutting edge of what’s possible. It is itself an improved version of ray tracing.
Before ray tracing, computer graphics generated lighting using rasterization. Rasterization figures out how images are lit using a single point.
Surprisingly, ray tracing is a lighting technique used by artists like Dürer from as far back as the Renaissance. Dürer used a mechanical aid to study how multiple sources of light reflected on a single object.
It was first used to make computer graphics by Arthur Appel in 1968. Of course, it would get iterated through the decades to get where we are today.
The key to ray tracing is the algorithm that makes calculations on where lighting reflects. Path tracing is more advanced than normal ray tracing because of its refined algorithm.
So what make path tracing different? The Monte Carlo method. Using this system, path tracing’s algorithms take random samples to calculate where lighting is reflected.
You can think of this like someone cheating at a 1,000 box Sudoku puzzle by putting in every number they can think of to find the correct answer. And they’re doing this much faster than a human can.
Why You’re Probably Not Trying This Mod
Both ray tracing and path tracing require a lot of computational power to work effectively. As you may already know, ray tracing is already enough to humble the latest generation of PlayStation and Xbox.
You’ll need the most powerful, state-of-the-art PCs to utilize path tracing in your video games. And that’s why xoxor4d’s mod can be free, but still be unavailable to nearly everybody.
At least, that’s the case for now. Given how quickly computers progress, it may not take that long before path tracing becomes commonplace on even the cheapest laptops. But for now, this is more of a showcase for gamers who have the Nvidia RTX builds powerful enough to take advantage of this mod, and every impressive thing that it shows off.
