Support is thin on the ground - but there is promise for the future.
The Xbox Series S is, on paper, every bit as feature-rich as the Series X. you could absolutely get RT acceleration on the system, just like any other RDNA 2-based hardware platform.
In practice, it’s a bit more complicated.
Metro ExodusEnhanced Edition is the standout example.
Dynamic objects like characters particularly impress, with rich and grounded lighting.
Stacked up against its last-gen predecessor, the improvements are hugely obvious.
The RTGI train continues rolling withFortnite.
In practice, it looks quite convincing.
Every area is smoothly and richly lit, which stands out in crevices and interior spaces in particular.
The primary compromise inherent to Series S again comes down to resolution.
It’s a bit subtler than something like Fortnite, but it’s still very effective.
The reflections are more visibly downgraded.
It only really stands out on close inspection though, and only when screen-space information is absent.
All pack very similar ray tracing tech courtesy of the aptly named RE Engine.
Reflection quality varies quite a bit depending on the circumstance.
But indoor spaces often look reasonably good.
The GI produces more subtle but appreciated improvements to lighting accuracy.
My third grouping consists of Unreal Engine 4 titles.
Ray-traced reflections here do look quite detailed and present clean edges free of screen-space artifacts.
This means that the screen-space reflections look significantly more accurate a lot of the time.
Deliver Us The Moon also suffers from an unsatisfying RT implementation in my view.
Little Nightmares 2 has a nice bit of ray tracing, although it’s fairly subtle.
Across both visual modes RT reflections do seem to be enabled.
This particular game uses reflections sparingly however and features relatively few glossy surfaces.
And the camera has a semi-fixed perspective, which would minimize typical SSR issues.
The final grouping consists of unique titles that have odd or novel RT implementations.
Both RT range and coverage are pretty limited, but the results are surprisingly strong for software-based ray tracing.
The two most recent Formula 1 racing games - F1 2021 and 2022 - also have ray-tracing features.
During gameplay, there’s zero RT whatsoever.
Forza Horizon 5, in a similar vein, has ray tracing features in select moments.
Finally we have Watch Dogs Legion, which features an option for RT reflections.
Plus, the RT falls back to a cubemap-based solution for distant detail.
So we’ve proven that RT can work on Xbox Series S - and it can be transformative.
And the games that do use RT are often best enjoyed without it.
The Resident Evil titles suffer particularly from this issue, with a wobbly 30-40fps frame-rate in their ray-tracing modes.
Perhaps this will change in the future.
So where are left at the end of this comprehensive rundown?
