Ray tracing can either elevate your game or trigger a performance disaster, depending on how disciplined your setup is. If you enable everything globally, your frame-time cliff arrives fast.
This module shows you how to run Unity 6 HDRP ray tracing as a controlled system: hybrid modes, volume zoning, sample budgets, denoise strategy, and selective feature enablement for reflections, shadows, AO, and GI.
The evidence frame is actionable: AO sample count guidance for gameplay, mixed tracing for reflections, bounce-count cost that grows brutally, and update modes like OnEnable or OnDemand when EveryFrame is wasteful. You also work from benchmark-driven comparisons showing that effects like SSGI can be visually huge but cost-heavy, so quality tiers and local volumes become non-negotiable.
Your next step is clear: profile one representative scene, set a global performance volume baseline, then add one local cinematic volume and measure frame-time impact per effect before scaling up.
CEO/Producer translation: you buy visual wow where players notice it while protecting frame budget where retention actually lives.
Unlock this module to deploy ray tracing as a precision tool, not a blanket setting that tanks performance.
In this module:
- 1. What is RayTracing and why bother using it?
- 2. How to Optimize Ray Tracing
- 3. APIs, Summary and Best Practices
- Audio Discussion
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