Bloober Team has just released a new version of >observer_ on Steam. Observer System Redux features Ray Tracing effects, so it’s time to benchmark them and see how demanding they are on the PC.
For these Ray Tracing benchmarks, we used an Intel i9 9900K with 16GB of DDR4 at 3600Mhz. We’ve paired this machine with an NVIDIA RTX 2080Ti, and used Windows 10 64-bit, as well as the latest version of the GeForce drivers.
From the looks of it, Observer System Redux uses Ray Tracing in order to enhance its reflections. Moreover, there isn’t any DLSS option (which is kind of weird, to be honest).
At both 1080p and 1440p and on Max Settings with Ray Tracing, our RTX2080Ti was able to run the game with 60fps. This is definitely great news for all those that want to experience the game with these RT effects.
Now while you can run the Ray Tracing effects on GPUs equivalent to the RTX2080Ti, they are not really worth the big performance hit. Below you can find some comparison screenshots between RTX On and RTX Off. As you can see, it’s really difficult distinguishing the differences between them. Seriously, the Ray Tracing reflections are so subtle that it’s best to simply disable RT and enjoy the game with high framerates.
Our PC Performance Analysis (in which we’ll test both AMD’s and NVIDIA’s GPUs) will go live later this week, so stay tuned for more!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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Gonna be brave and say that the FPS hit is not worth it.
here is a reflection….at half performance.
Theres almost no difference, the lighting in the original version was already really well done so this isnt much of an upgrade but it does seem to be good at eating framerate
Yup, gotta agree on the raytracing implementation being kinda pointless given how expensive it is.
Still, it looks gorgeous, i like the art direction on this. One of the few nice walking simulators out there.
Looks… Almost the same?
Reflections are probably the least significant use case for RTX. If they did RTGI or RTAO it would’ve been much more apparent.
Definitely better to just disable it and play the game without RTX here.
The least significant are the shadows..
You mean direct shadows? Because AO is shadowing too.
But I would honestly have raytraced shadows over raytraced reflections. The current techniques for reflections are pretty good even without rtx.
Shadows on the other hand almost always suffer from short draw distance and bias as well as jittering. Games that have rtx shadows and reflections also seem more visually bolstered by shadows over reflections
In my opinion current techniques for reflections are not so good. Screen scape reflections disappear when the object moves out of the screen and it looks weird whereas RT Reflections are always visible and much more detailed than SSR and also even the player is reflected with RT. RT shadows are nice, yes, but they are a much more subtle change as they look like the current shadows we have had for years but a bit less dense in some away. But that’s just my opinion. Also the game environment matters too, as for example in Control and Deliver us the Moon where there are a lot of reflective materials, for example glass panels, the games look more “alive” and the scenes more full. RT reflections in Control had also a practical usage for me as i had some enemy in my back that I couldn’t see and he threw some ball of energy towards me which I saw its reflection on a window and managed to dodge it. With SSR this wouldn’t have been the case as the object casting the reflection was off screen so its reflection would not be rendered..
The game takes place inside rooms and corridors, virtually any effect would be wasted.
Reflections depend on the environment, in the new Spider Man it makes a massive difference since you’re swinging and running around buildings covered with windows and glass.
Yes rtx reflections depend on the environment. RTGI does not. It always looks great wherever it’s added since basically every environment except empty space has bouncing light.
A game with corridors is ESPECIALLY benefitted by RTGI since indirect illumination plays such a big part in doors.
Scripted mostly linear games are a waste for RTGI when everything can be baked. It would look no different.
Well what if you have dynamic environments?
Just because the lighting doesn’t change doesn’t mean the objects within that environment have to be static.
E.g. what if you wanted destructible assets or moving assets? That would require realtime lighting and RTGI would work nicely in that case.
I’m not talking about what ifs, I’m talking about this game specifically.
Fair point. Although given this runs on UE4, they probably already baked everything anyway. UE uses lightmaps + dynamic lights.
No, you think its a waste because Metro Exodus only had sunlight being RT, in reality, interior lightsources being RT’d would make a HUGE difference.
Exodus DLC was updated to use ray tracing with emissive light sources, meaning interior lights got RT, and the difference was not huge. The same effect could have been achieved with traditional methods.
FPS is halved for almost no visual difference? Allow me to laugh out loud! At least the cheap fu**s could have implemented RTGI… Cheap sh*ts!
Maybe I’m just getting old, but I can honestly can’t tell the difference in most of these.
as always was the case,gains are not worth the fps loss currently.
Is there anything new content wise to this? New missions/side quests or anything? Cause just this graphical “boost” is not worth it for me.
The frame hit makes the game scarier!!
Cinematic experience…..