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Reshade Ray Tracing Shader Rtgi 033 2021 ((top)) ›

The RTGI (Ray Traced Global Illumination) shader v0.33, created by Marty McFly (Pascal Gilcher), is a post-processing effect that simulates how light bounces off surfaces in real-time. Version 0.33 was a significant 2022 update that added motion vectors to improve temporal stability. 🛠️ Installation Guide

To use RTGI, you must have the base ReShade tool installed first.

Download RTGI: Access the shader through Marty McFly's Patreon (typically the $5 tier).

Locate Game Folder: Open the directory where your game’s .exe is located. Place Files: Open the reshade-shaders folder in your game directory.

Drag the contents of the RTGI Shaders folder into the game's Shaders folder.

Drag the contents of the RTGI Textures folder into the game's Textures folder.

Launch Game: Press the Home key to open the ReShade menu in-game. 🔍 Critical Step: Depth Buffer Setup

RTGI requires access to the game’s "depth" (the distance of objects from the camera) to calculate where light hits. reshade ray tracing shader rtgi 033 2021

Disable In-game Effects: Turn off Anti-Aliasing (MSAA) and Motion Blur in the game's settings, as these often break the depth buffer.

Verify Depth: Enable the DisplayDepth shader in ReShade. You should see a clear grayscale image (left) and a "normal map" (right).

Fixing Issues: If the screen is blank, go to the Add-ons (or DX11/DX12) tab in ReShade and try checking different depth buffers until the image appears. ⚙️ Best Settings for v0.33

Once depth is working, find RTGI in the shader list and adjust these key parameters for the best balance: Recommendation Ray Amount 3 (Performance) to 5 (Quality) Higher = less noise but lower FPS Ray Step Amount Higher = more accurate and defined light bounces GI Resolution 0.5 (Half) or 1.0 (Full) Use 0.5 if your frame rate is struggling Spatial Filter Essential for denoising and smoothing the lighting

💡 Pro Tip: Enable Performance Mode at the bottom right of the ReShade menu after you finish tweaking settings to save a few frames. ReShade 5.3 and RTGI 0.33 Update | August 2022

ReShade Ray Tracing: Unlocking Next-Gen Visuals with RTGI 0.33 (2021)

The year 2021 was a transformative era for PC gaming graphics, largely due to the widespread adoption of the ReShade Ray Traced Global Illumination (RTGI) shader. Developed by Pascal Gilcher (also known as Marty McFly), the RTGI shader version 0.33 represented a pinnacle of post-processing technology, allowing gamers to inject sophisticated lighting effects into almost any title—even those released long before the hardware ray tracing era. What is the RTGI Shader? The RTGI (Ray Traced Global Illumination) shader v0

The ReShade RTGI shader is a post-processing effect that simulates Ray Traced Global Illumination. Unlike traditional baked lighting, RTGI facilitates real-time interactive "bounce lighting," where light reflects off surfaces to illuminate areas not directly hit by a primary light source. Key benefits of the 0.33 version include:

Dynamic Lighting: Adds realistic shadow casting and material interaction that adapts to the in-game environment.

Hardware Independence: Unlike native RTX implementations, RTGI operates solely on depth data, making it compatible with non-RTX video cards.

Temporal Stability: Minimized flickering and lag, providing a smoother visual experience compared to earlier versions.

Motion Vectors: One of the most significant updates in the 0.33 release was the addition of motion vectors, which drastically improved the accuracy of lighting during fast movement. Key Features of Version 0.33 (2021)

The 2021 release of RTGI 0.33 brought several refinements that bridged the gap between offline rendered images and real-time gaming.

Enhanced Denoising: Improved algorithms to reduce the "noise" often associated with ray tracing, leading to a cleaner image. Report Title: Technical Evaluation of ReShade RTGI Shader

Immersive Launchpad Integration: Best used with the "Launchpad" pre-pass shader, which provides motion estimation using optical flow for more precise lighting updates.

Specular Global Illumination: Accurate modeling of both diffuse and specular light, ensuring that shiny surfaces reflect the environment correctly. How to Install and Optimize RTGI 0.33

Using RTGI requires a standard ReShade installation and access to Pascal Gilcher's shader files.

Report Title: Technical Evaluation of ReShade RTGI Shader (v0.33) – 2021 Implementation Date: [Current Date] Subject: Analysis of screen-space ray traced global illumination shader for legacy game compatibility.

Key Features of the 0.33 Build

  • Multi-Bounce Lighting: Light can bounce off surfaces two or three times, filling in dark shadows.
  • Perceptual Aperture: Controls how physically accurate the light dispersion is.
  • Ray Length & Contrast: Allows you to tweak how far light travels (prevents the dreaded "black crush").
  • Performance Mode: A toggle that reduced sample counts for 60fps gameplay on GTX 1060/1070 cards.

Limitations of v0.33 (as of 2021)

  • No specular reflections – RTGI focused on diffuse GI only. Reflections required a separate shader (e.g., ReShade’s MXAO).
  • Temporal lag – Moving the camera quickly caused ghosting or delayed light response.
  • Setup complexity – Users had to manually install ReShade, enable depth buffer access, and tweak per-game settings to avoid UI/menu artifacts.
  • No multiplayer support – Could trigger anti-cheat software (Easy Anti-Cheat, BattlEye).

Performance

The performance impact of the ReShade Ray Tracing Shader RTGI 0.3.3 varies significantly depending on the game, system specifications, and chosen settings. For less powerful hardware, enabling ray tracing can result in a considerable frame rate drop. However, for systems equipped with capable GPUs that support ray tracing (such as NVIDIA RTX series or AMD Radeon RX 6000 series and later), the performance hit can be managed with the right settings.

1. What is it?

RTGI (Ray Traced Global Illumination) is a ReShade shader that approximates the visual effects of hardware-accelerated Ray Tracing (like DLSS or DXR) on almost any game, even those that don't natively support it.

  • The Tech: It uses screen-space ray tracing (SSRT) combined with temporal accumulation. It casts rays from every pixel on the screen to calculate how light bounces off surfaces and colors the surrounding environment.
  • The Effect: It creates realistic indirect lighting. Instead of shadows being pitch black, they take on the color of nearby objects (color bleeding). It adds volumetric lighting to particles/fog and makes lighting look significantly less "flat."
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