Ray Traced Global Illumination Heading to Forza Motorsport

Get ready for a visual overhaul in the world of Forza Motorsport! Starting December 9th, PC players can experience a significant graphics upgrade with the introduction of Ray-Traced Global Illumination (RTGI). This cutting-edge technology promises to improve the game’s visuals, bringing improved lighting and realism to this already rather gorgeous-looking game. By accurately simulating how light interacts with the environment, RTGI enhances the way cars and tracks are illuminated, creating a more authentic and visually stunning racing experience.

This free update, available to all PC players, allows for more precise indirect lighting and occlusion effects. RTGI promises to elevate the visual fidelity significantly. To enable this feature, players will need to adjust their graphics settings, selecting “Full Reflections + RTGI” under Raytracing Quality. While RTGI is supported on a range of graphics cards, including NVIDIA’s RTX 20 series and AMD’s RX 6000 series, Turn 10 recommends at least an RTX 3080 for optimal performance and an RTX 4090 for the ultimate experience. RTGI is easily one of the best ray tracing features you can have, but it’s very computationally expensive.

The impact of RTGI extends beyond just gameplay. It enhances the visuals across various aspects of Forza Motorsport, including cinematics, the “Homespace” where players showcase their car collections, and the Photo Mode for capturing stunning in-game images. With the addition of RTGI, Forza Motorsport is pushing the boundaries of racing game graphics, offering PC players a chance to immerse themselves in a truly next-generation visual experience.

The developers revealed a bit of information in a Q&A on the Steam Page.

Q: What is Ray-Traced Global Illumination (RTGI)?

A: RTGI uses ray tracing hardware to compute more accurate indirect lighting and occlusion across the track and car in real time. This results in enhanced visual fidelity and realism in the game.

Q: Which versions of Forza Motorsport can RTGI be enabled on?

A: RTGI can be enabled on all Forza Motorsport PC versions (Microsoft Store, Steam, PC Game Pass) with Update 15 or later installed. This feature is only available on PC.

Q: How do I enable RTGI in Forza Motorsport?

A: RTGI is a new setting that must be enabled and is not on by default. RTGI can be enabled in the Forza Motorsport Graphics menu using the following toggles:

Set Raytracing Quality to “Full Reflections + RTGI”

Set RTGI Quality to “High”

Q: What PC graphics cards are recommended for RTGI in Forza Motorsport?

A: RTGI is a cutting-edge rendering feature recommended for high-end PCs with Ray Tracing-capable GPUs. The minimum GPU specification to enable RTGI is the NVIDIA RTX 20 Series and AMD RX 6000 Series. However, we recommend at least an NVIDIA RTX 3080 or above to run RTGI High settings, and an NVIDIA RTX 4090 for the best experience.

Q: Where is RTGI used in the game?

A: When enabled, RTGI will apply to all gameplay and cinematics, as well as your Homespace and Photo Mode.