We’ll have to wait for Microsoft’s DXR rollout before trying raytracing in games

Nvidia's RTX 20 launch is taking place in just a few days time but early adopters will need to hold on for a bit longer to experience real-time ray-tracing first hand. This is Nvidia's key feature for this launch but unfortunately, the ball currently lies in Microsoft's court when it comes to making it a reality.

The RTX 2070, RTX 2080 and RTX 2080Ti will all support real-time ray-tracing in games, with Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Battlefield V being amongst the first major titles to support the technology. Shadow of the Tomb Raider is already out but RTX features are notably absent. Now we know why that is. Speaking with PCWorld earlier this month, Nvidia's Senior VP of Content and Technology, Tony Tamasi, confirmed that in order to take advantage of ray-tracing, we need to wait for Microsoft to roll out its DirectX Raytracing API, which is currently set to launch in October.

This unfortunately means that launch reviews for the RTX 2080 and RTX 2080Ti won't feature any ray-tracing game benchmarks. However, next month the situation should improve once Microsoft has its API situation in order. The DXR API was announced during GDC in March this year as part of the industry's push for raytracing in gaming. The final public build should be packaged in as part of the upcoming Windows 10 October feature update.

Developers have had access to the DXR API as part of the Insider build of Windows 10 since March this year, which is why so many games have already been able to implement support. We'll need to wait a bit longer to get our own hands on it though.

KitGuru Says: I was quite surprised by this news but it is understandable. The ball is in Microsoft's court for the time being, so we'll be looking forward to checking back in next month to get some hands-on with raytracing.

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