How will mandatory RT affect the future third party ports on Switch 2?

Parazels

Parazels

Member
With PS6 coming up in several years, we expect RT to be inbuilt in game engines, right?

Will developers create special "RT-less" versions for Switch 2?
 
It wont, Sw2 is powerfull as a PS5 and has NVidia chip, ll probably run Cyberpunk patchtrayced in the Future.
 
Last edited:
Few games have mandatory RT. Metro Exodus, Indiana Jones, and the upcoming Doom. We won't see that be the norm the rest of this generation and even in the next one.
 
These games have to be built for Series S and mandatory RT will push the favor towards Switch 2 due to Ampere having better RT acceleration and it having more memory.

Edit: Oh you are talking about PS6 only games? Those won't come to Switch 2 at all, of course.
 
Last edited:
Parazels said:
With PS6 coming up in several years, we expect RT to be inbuilt in game engines, right?

Will developers create special "RT-less" versions for Switch 2?
Click to expand...
ps6 needs to be at least 3x stronger from base ps5, and for that sony needs 3nm tsmc manufacturing process just to keep powerdraw at bay and console form factor viable(we got officially measured 240W peak powerdraw by DF btw, thats how much ps5pr0 can eat from the wall while base ps5 is around 220W).
Knowing all that we can safely assume mashine gonna launch holidays 2028, add at the very least 2 years of crossgen period, after that time so 2030 maybe 2031 onwards, switch2 likely not gonna get many big budget multiplats if ps6 gonna be base platform devs gonna focus on(it will get fifa, nba2k and the likes tho ;)

TLDR: S2 will be fine till around 2030-2031 hardware wise, after that all bets are off even if it sells well over 100m units. Keep in mind nothing stopping nintendo from launching switch 3 in 2031-2032 on 3nm or maybe even 2nm node, with much beefer specs and much improved rt capabilities.
 
With AMD powered consoles?

Steve Harvey Wow GIF by NBC


RT isnt a silver bullet. Doesnt make sense to add RT to every game.

So nah, it wont become "mandatory", anytime soon. Only when the performance penalty for it becomes meaningless. So it will take some time.
 
with everyone jumping to Unreal Engine 5? software lumen will make it possible. it will look like shit, because it's Lumen, but it will run
 
Rt on switch 2 is inherently less performance draining being nvidia so it will be interesting to see what happens.
 
PS6 only games will start to come out like in 2035 at this rate. Sony basically still have not released the first wave of PS5 only games and the second wave will be cross-gen PS5/PS6. I think before that there will be a Switch 3 so will be a no problem.
 
Last edited:
Parazels said:
Isn't RT simpler for developers, than fake lighting, shadows etc?
Click to expand...
If the devs want to go for an ultra-realistic style.

But many indies still choose baked lighting and having full control over their scene.

RT isn't a super fix that you click on like the Nvidia videos say and now your entire game is perfect.
 
LordOcidax said:
The generational jump from PS5 to PS6 is going to be worse than the PS4 to PS5 jump.
Click to expand...

I completely agree with this.

Rising costs and limitations to how far GPUs and CPUs can be scaled, particularly for more power constrained console hardware, means that at best the PS6 will be a small improvement over PS5 and PS5 Pro and at worse an iterative upgrade in my opinion using AMD's FSR4 (or 5?) or a newer version of PSSR to hit 4K with RT as standard.

We are already seeing graphics cards hit limitations except for the very high end cards which cost over £1,000. Even mid-tier cards cost £600+. I suspect this is why companies are keen to push AI which can be used to not only speed up games development but also be used for upscaling and frame generation to offset the performance cost of using ray-tracing. Ray-tracing is the biggest step in computer graphics since 3D so every developer wants to use it (except for Nintendo, I guess) but it is computationally expensive and relies on using upscaling and frame generation even on £2,000 GPUs like the RTX 5090.

I do not think for one second that the PS6 will ship with the same performance as the 5090 even if it ships in 3-4 years time but it may be more reliant on AI to pick up the slack so to speak. I think this is where Microsoft are headed with their next Xbox.
 
LordOcidax said:
Why RT is going to be mandatory in the first place OP? Doesn't make any sense, especially on a AMD chip.
Click to expand...
Think DOOM: The Dark Ages, Indiana Jones and The Great Circle, etc… games that assume ET capabilities not to have to create dual lighting setups for the game (higher content costs otherwise) and other gameplay aspects (per pixel collision detection in DOOM for example… and this started for consoles and PCs in 2024).
 
RDNA 2 ray tracing is very poor, the Switch 2 will have better relative performance than on current consoles in that sense.

RDNA 4 is up to par, so PS6 will be much more capable and will leave Switch 2 behind.

Not that any of this matters, any developer looking to put rt on a Switch 2 port is mad. These handhelds are about optimising performance by turning off unnecessary features. Ray tracing is top of that list.
 
And what's stopping Switch2 from using its RT, Tensor Cores ?
RT effects are scalable. Check the options in HL2 RTX mod.
 
Nintendo should thank Xbox for Series S

it will keep down overly amibitions console ports for a LONG time all by itself

the little box that keeps on giving eh
 
We're a long way from RT being a base game design feature.

We're going to have multiple years with cross gen with base PS5 as well.

We're probably a decade away from RT being a standard.
 
These games will not release on Switch 2. Ray tracing on a mobile chip, even an Nvidia one, could be too much.

The lighting g-buffer alone from deferred rendering from more complex games could cost 30 frames in handheld mode, at 480p no less.

Remember that handheld mode is essentially Nintendo's "Series S"
 
We'll see if Hogwarts Legacy has RT on Switch 2, and how it runs, as an indication. It's a launch title right? Wait 2 months.
 
Last edited:
Considering Indiana jones ran with RTGI on Series S and Switch 2 has better RT blocks than it, I think it'll be fine. Also software RT like Lumen is basically your future proofing 101, and Fortnite switch 2 showcases it.
 
Buggy Loop said:
Considering Indiana jones ran with RTGI on Series S and Switch 2 has better RT blocks than it, I think it'll be fine. Also software RT like Lumen is basically your future proofing 101, and Fortnite switch 2 showcases it.
Click to expand...

There was no evidence of Lumen being used in Fortnite on Switch 2. It looks to be the standard PS4/Xbox One lighting at 1080p
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

  • Poll
how much % aaa third party support for switch 2??
Poll Business Analysis 
6
225
Robb replied
switch 2 power excites third party studios
Rumor 
45
3K
GigaBowser replied
Third-party developers say Switch 2’s horsepower makes them ‘extremely happy’
19
1K
bender replied
  • Poll
Switch 2 - does Series S existence guarantee huge third party parity for the next 6 years?
2
88
2K
lestar replied
  • Poll
Are Nintendo preventing third parties from announcing Switch 2 games?
2 3
102
4K
RetroGamingUK replied
Top Bottom