Below is a draft for a blog post tailored for a gaming or modding community.
Replaces flat, generic contact shadows with micro-shadowing based on screen-space depth geometry.
RTGI 0.17.0.2 is likely the last major version in the "screen-space" paradigm. Martino has hinted at a branch that will leverage neural radiance caching (similar to Nvidia's ReSTIR).
Nvidia GTX 1070 / AMD RX 580 or higher (RTX/RX Ray-Tracing hardware is not required, but a modern GPU handles the compute load much better).
Note: RTGI 0.17.0.2 still relies on , not RT cores. Therefore, Nvidia GTX cards and AMD RX 5000 series run it comparably to low-end RTX cards. rtgi 0.17.0.2
The 0.17.x branch of RTGI is highly regarded in the modding community for stabilizing performance while significantly reducing the "ghosting" effects prevalent in earlier releases.
Exploring RTGI 0.17.0.2: Marty McFly’s Ray Traced Global Illumination
More samples create less noisy shadows but require more GPU power. Depth Cutoff:
The ReShade RTGI shader is a post-processing script that hooks into a game’s engine data via ReShade. Unlike native ray tracing built directly into modern game engines (such as Unreal Engine 5 or Cyberpunk 2077’s Overdrive mode), RTGI operates strictly in . It reads the game's Z-buffer (depth buffer) and color data to cast virtual rays across the visible pixels on your screen. Below is a draft for a blog post
If a bright light hits a red brick wall next to a white marble floor, the white floor will naturally absorb a soft red hue. RTGI calculates this bounce color accurately, seamlessly blending objects into their environments. 2. Micro-Shadowing (Physical AO)
If not already available, sample the roughness from a specular map or derive from screen space normals variance.
While this specific beta was part of a rapid development cycle, its core focus remained on stability and lighting accuracy:
⚠️ Do use with older ReShade 4.x – missing math functions. Martino has hinted at a branch that will
RTGI 0.17.0.2 is – expect 20–40% FPS drop at 1080p with bounce count=2.
And for the first time since 1997, the light felt like memory instead of math.
Help you (like the depth buffer not working).