Nvidia’s Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) has made a significant impact in the gaming world since its introduction. The tech giant has successfully integrated this feature into a multitude of games, making it a highlight of Nvidia’s leading graphics cards. Most new major game releases now include the DLSS feature.
The launch of DLSS 3 and its Frame Generation feature has further bolstered this trend, with recent game releases like Ghost of Tsushima and The First Descendent featuring it. However, one DLSS feature, Ray Reconstruction, has seen disappointingly low uptake.
Ray Reconstruction enhances the visual quality of games, but it is currently only available in five games, despite being released over a year ago. Its impact became particularly apparent during my recent experience playing Black Myth: Wukong.
Nvidia often uses specific games to showcase its graphics technology. In the past, these included Atomic Heart and Cyberpunk 2077. More recently, Black Myth: Wukong has been the focus, a visually stunning reinterpretation of Journey to the West, made possible by path tracing or, as Nvidia refers to it, “full ray tracing.” Path tracing is a demanding process but results in outstanding realism in games like Alan Wake 2 and Cyberpunk 2077.
However, during my time playing Black Myth: Wukong, I chose to turn off the path tracing feature due to the significant performance drop it causes, even on an RTX 4090. The difference in image quality was not sufficient to justify the performance loss, a problem that could be remedied with the underutilized Ray Reconstruction feature.
In gaming, ray tracing or path tracing can result in a grainy image. Games use a denoiser to smooth over these rough edges and create a more cohesive image, which is precisely what Ray Reconstruction does. However, it does so using AI and has been trained on more data than even the DLSS Frame Generation feature. This AI-powered denoising can significantly improve image quality, as demonstrated in Alan Wake 2.
Ray Reconstruction not only improves the visual quality but can do so without any performance loss and, in some instances, even results in slight performance improvements. For example, the diner scene in Alan Wake 2 shows how Ray Reconstruction captures so many minute details that are otherwise lost.
Despite its effectiveness, Ray Reconstruction is currently underutilized. This is especially true for games that heavily rely on ray tracing for photorealism, like Black Myth: Wukong. Without Ray Reconstruction, the hard work put into tracing those rays by your PC is masked by the built-in denoiser.
However, unlike DLSS Frame Generation, Ray Reconstruction is not restricted to the latest Nvidia GPUs and can be used on older RTX graphics cards. While it may not be suitable for every game, especially those that don’t heavily use ray tracing, it makes perfect sense for games like Black Myth: Wukong. As more games lean into heavy ray tracing, the inclusion of Ray Reconstruction could significantly enhance the visual experience.
