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GTA 5 recently received an update that introduces ray-traced reflections to the PS5 and Xbox Series X versions of the game, and Digital Foundry saw fit to create a new video analysis focusing on this particular feature.
Available from December 14th, GTA 5’s update further enriches Precision Mode by adding precisely ray-traced reflections and replacing cubemaps that were previously used to simulate this type of effect.
As you can see in the video, the result is really interesting: the water and all the shiny surfaces reflect the objects and characters that surround them, and this improves the rendering of the vehicle bodies in particular.
Clearly, there are limitations: the reflected area is quite small, so more distant objects interfere with cubemaps again, and the same trick is mostly used when playing in first person.
What trade-off in terms of resolution is required to keep reflective raytracing active? It seems that a dynamic scaler comes into play, but in reality it is difficult to notice big differences compared to the 2160p usually used in this mode.
