Black Myth: Wukong - Ray-Traced Ambient Occlusion snipe mod - Enhanced Visuals 4K RTX 4060

It looks like this snippet successfully forced ray-traced ambient occlusion to Black Myth: Wukong without any noticeable ghosting or artifacts. However, it's definitely demanding on the GPU.
This game uses screen-space ambient occlusion (SSAO). Here I actvated RTAO, which is far more realistic.
"Value driven by postprocess volume (default)" "
In this game, RTAO is tied to the post-processing volume, meaning it may only activates in certain scenes, not all of them. SSAO, which is much lighter on the GPU, is the main solution in most cases. The lines below force RTAO, boosting realism but also increasing GPU load.
It is not just in this game:
/ pc_ray_tracing_perform...
Snipe code:
[SystemSettings]
r.RayTracing.AmbientOcclusion=1
r.RayTracing.AmbientOcclusion.SamplesPerPixel=4
r.AmbientOcclusion.Denoiser=1
r.RayTracing.AmbientOcclusion.EnableTwoSidedGeometry=0 (this is the game's default, I am working in a way to make it enabled without pitch areas artifacts)
r.RayTracing.AmbientOcclusion.UseBiasForSkipWPOEval=1
r.RayTracing.AmbientOcclusion.MaxBiasForInexactGeometry=1
r.RayTracing.AmbientOcclusion.Denoiser.TemporalAccumulation=1
r.RayTracing.AmbientOcclusion.Denoiser.SmoothBias=0.5
r.RayTracing.AmbientOcclusion.Denoiser.Spatial=1
r.RayTracing.DebugVisualizationMode=AmbientOcclusion
In sum, at very high full ray tracing we have:
Ray traced shadows.
Ray traced reflections (Full-res+Particles): Surfaces like water and metal reflect their surroundings using ray tracing for more realistic reflections, though screen-space reflections (SSR) might still be partially used. Value driven by postprocess volume (default). (I will try to force it later)
Global illumination reSTIR GI (Full-res): This calculates indirect lighting in the scene, simulating how light bounces off surfaces. Value driven by postprocess volume (default). (I will try to force it later)
Ray traced Caustics.
Ray-traced Ambient Occlusion (RTAO): This enhances shading in crevices and around objects, though it might not be fully enabled without manual tweaks (this mod forces it).
Credits:
github.com/Lya... for CVarDump.txt
I'm trying to enhance the realism of my scene by disabling reflections, global illumination, and shadows that aren't ray-traced (Lumen). Setting these options to 'low' creates a more realistic look, but it also affects the foliage wind movement and some shadows, like point lights disapear, sugesting this game rely on effects rasterized version basic parameters, it also mixes raster and ray tracing techniches making it appear less cinematic. Additionally, shadows near torches seem to disappear when these settings are adjusted. Are these shadows ray-traced? Is there a way to make them ray-traced by modifying the Engine.ini file? Not all them are set as ray traced I've found.
I’ve been experimenting with the shadow settings in the game, specifically related to the r.Shadow.CSM.MaxCascades console variable. Interestingly, when I set it to 0 (r.Shadow.CSM.MaxCascades=0), treetop shadow details seem to disappear. However, when I set it to 1 (r.Shadow.CSM.MaxCascades=1), those shadow details reappear.
I’ve noticed this behavior in scenes where ray-traced shadows are also in play. Another example that this game relys on non raster version of many effects.

[@Rafael-dm9mm]

My next video a pure ray traced snipe 😊