Reshade Ray Tracing Shader Rtgi 033 2021 |work| [ Premium ]

In the world of PC gaming graphics modding, few releases have caused as much of a seismic shift as the rollout of in early 2021. Specifically, version 0.33 of the ReShade Ray Tracing Shader became the holy grail for gamers stuck with older GPUs or playing titles devoid of native ray tracing.

This article is a deep dive into what made RTGI 0.33 special, how it differed from "real" ray tracing, and why it remains a vital tool for visual enhancement years later. Let’s cut through the marketing hype. RTGI stands for Ray Traced Global Illumination . In the context of 2021’s version 0.33, this is not the hardware-accelerated ray tracing found in Cyberpunk 2077 (RTX) or Control . Instead, it is a compute shader running entirely within the ReShade post-processing pipeline. The "Fake" Ray Tracing Distinction RTGI 0.33 works by analyzing a single frame of a game (the depth buffer and color buffer ) and tracing rays in screen-space. It asks: "Where is light bouncing from the pixels I can see?" reshade ray tracing shader rtgi 033 2021

Because it works via depth buffer, RTGI cannot see glass. You won't get ray traced reflections in a window. In the world of PC gaming graphics modding,

Unlike native ray tracing, RTGI 0.33 does not require specific tensor cores. It runs on pure compute units, which is why AMD and older Nvidia cards saw a much smaller performance hit. Top 5 Games That Shined with RTGI 0.33 If you are digging through 2021 archives, you want to know which games looked best. 1. Grand Theft Auto V Without RTGI, Los Santos looks flat. With version 0.33, the neon lights bounce off wet pavement. The temporal stability fixed the awful ghosting of older RTGI versions on car windows. 2. Skyrim (Special Edition) ENB presets are heavy. RTGI 0.33 combined with a simple weather mod (Cathedral) produced physically based lighting that Bethesda never coded. Caves actually became dark, and torches illuminated realistically. 3. Red Dead Redemption 2 RDR2 has great rasterized lighting, but RTGI 0.33 added bounce light in forests. Green light from leaves bled onto Arthur’s coat. It was subtle but immersive. 4. The Witcher 3 (Pre-Next Gen) Before CDPR released the official next-gen update, RTGI 0.33 was the only way to get true Global Illumination in Novigrad. The shader fixed the "floating character" look by grounding them with proper ambient occlusion. 5. Assetto Corsa (Competizione) Racing sim fans used RTGI 0.33 to replace the dull cockpit shadows with realistic light bleed from the track. It made sunset races look photorealistic. The Limitations: Honesty about 0.33 You must understand the flaws. Searching "reshade ray tracing shader rtgi 033 2021" often leads to disappointment if you expect Cyberpunk RTX Overdrive. Let’s cut through the marketing hype

| GPU Model | Native FPS (1080p) | With RTGI 0.33 (High) | Verdict | | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | | | 75 | 55 | Perfect for 60Hz V-Sync | | GTX 1080 Ti | 120 | 85 | Smooth as butter | | RTX 2060 | 100 | 75 | Use native RTX if possible | | RX 580 | 70 | 48 | Playable, lower to Medium quality |

Move your camera fast, and the GI disappears for a frame. If an object goes off screen, its light contribution vanishes instantly (unlike true RT).

Published: October 2023 (Retrospective on the 2021 Milestone)