Ray tracing isn’t going to be a feature in Battlefield 6 — neither at launch nor anytime after — and this decision is, admittedly, very perplexing, since Battlefield V actually supported ray tracing first. As someone pointed out in a recent tweet, times have most definitely changed.
A developer known as Buhl shared the information, along with the infamous developer silence: “No, we’re not doing it.” The reason for this, apparently, is performance. Instead of its fancy light effects costing fps, they want to keep the game smooth. And to be honest, this is perfectly logical. How many people scrutinize puddle reflections during an explosion and a fight for survival?
The reaction has … well, it’s really been positive. Everyone seems to be saying to themselves, “Good, who needs it?” “‘Ray tracing is garb and gives you, like, a 30fps loss for, like, 1% better graphics,’” ‘someone told me I should play Battlefield.’ Again, with reasonably quick-paced shooters like Battlefield, those frames are really needed. I doubt you lose to someone shooting you from the other side of the map because you stopped to admire realistic shadows.
A couple of users have also expressed some confusion in the replies. One user asked why they supported its use in BF5 and BF2042, only to drop it later. Another user cleared the confusion, saying that BF5 only had ray traced shadows and not ray traced reflections, so it was never “fully” implemented.
The rest of the discussion concerning ray tracing is quite fascinating. Some people claim that it is overrated and is a consequence of developers being lazy with lighting. Instead of actually crafting great lighting, they turn on ray tracing and call it a day. Others claim that without ray tracing, they have to make an effort to look good, which, if done well, can look just as good without being expensive on your PC.
And then there are the console gamers. One of the users pointed out that ray tracing is particularly demanding for consoles, and even the PS5 Pro struggles with it. So with ray tracing being taken away, it’s likely that Battlefield 6 will perform better on consoles. Which is a good thing because not every gamer is in the position to shell out $2,000 for a gaming rig.
Still, there are some detractors. There’s always a person who complains, “But muh immersion,” as if it’s a crime to say that explosions reflecting off glass or foes gliding in puddles is neat. But seriously, are you telling me that you’ll notice that in a firefight? The bulk of players are trying to “skill” and complete “objectives” and worrying less about the scenery.
The consensus seems to infer that instead of Battlefield focusing on multiplayer, weapons balancing, and other aspects of the game, the developer focuses on the raid graphics rather than fps and multiplayer optimization. As a result, a multiplayer shooter looks like the only genre where ray tracing is in fact misplaced, and due to Battlefield being a multiplayer game, it is even more misplaced.
Given the game as it is, I think saying the game looks good without ray tracing might be an understatement. That’s a statement I make given the trailers. It is a choice in not sacrificing visual quality; the developers seem to be sacrificing other, lower-impact performance graphics elements.
Battlefield 6 is an example where developers are choosing visuals over performance. Smooth gameplay is something the majority of their player base is surely looking for. As a player, one would prefer a well-running fun game over a tech chocolate box demo, as gorgeous as it is, that is broken. It’s an optimal choice, and it does show that the developers understand the needs of a community and care.
Maybe this will lead to better performance and less ray tracing in competitive multiplayer titles. God knows we’ve seen no ray tracing in competitive multiplayer titles, and they perform better. And no matter how incredible a game looks, it’s most certainly not fun to play hide and seek.
With Battlefield 6, we don’t see the ray tracing aids for a reason; they’re extraneous. Admittedly, the reason is a bit blurry with the diagnostics that we see while playing the game, but here’s hoping the rest of the game turns out well enough with the performance to make playing the game worth our while.
