

Simply put, DXR will make games much more believable." "Games that fully cross the uncanny valley will give gamers total immersion in their virtual environments and interactions with in-game characters. "Because true-to-life lighting is a natural consequence of raytracing, DirectX Raytracing will allow games to get much closer to crossing the uncanny valley, allowing developers to blur the line between the real and the fake," Microsoft wrote.

The new tech might even be enough to finally get us to the other side of the Uncanny Valley. But the bottom line for gamers is that it promises to deliver a significant improvement in visual fidelity and realism, without requiring a massive investment in new GPU technology that most of us won't be able to afford until mid-2020 anyway. The update touches on how DXR is "well-aligned with the future evolution of GPUs," and how it will make life easier for developers, who won't have to sink as much time into generating custom lightmaps, shadow maps, and ambient occlusion maps as they do now.
