What is ray tracing and what will it do in Shadowlands?

If you’re wondering what ray tracing is and why it’s a big deal that it’s being added to World of Warcraft, with it currently being tested in the Shadowlands beta, it’s actually a simple idea — as part of the beta, a change to lighting in WoW is being tested that allows the game to render multiple light sources and multiple shadows in one area. Up until now, when the game renders shadows, it can only do so from one light source, usually one in the skybox (the sun, for example) or one that isn’t actually observable in order to keep areas lit and fully visible to players even when they wouldn’t really be — even within the darkest subterranean area or dungeon there’s usually a light source, so that players can actually move around and see what they’re doing.

Now, with the new ray tracing functionality, not only can the game render multiple light sources in one area — let’s say a campfire, several torches, and the moon above — but it can draw multiple shadows from each of these light sources as they would be cast. One example Blizzard mentioned in their post on the matter was rendering shadows cast by the face on the neck, something that the game can’t currently do. Another is having multiple shadows cast from these different light sources rather than having any shadows come from a single fixed point.

This also means that the shadows cast in game will not just come from multiple sources, but they won’t be as hard-edged as they are now. With ray tracing enabled, multiple light sources will help create shadows with softer edges or more variation, so that in a place with light from torches along the wall and a full moon above, your character might have a hazy, indistinct shadow from the torches and also cast another, sharper shadow from the moonlight above, and might also be standing in the shadow of a distant tree or building as well. Each of these shadows will interact. You can see this in the header image, which shows a shadow being cast by a campfire instead of a fixed point above the Tauren’s head.

However, this is something that has to be supported by your graphics card, and it has to be enabled. You have to have the most recent version of Windows 10, and DXR (DirectX Raytracing) 1.1 in order to use this feature. You can have a pretty up to date system and one that meets Shadowlands specs and not have that — check your graphics card, the drivers you have installed, and if you have the proper DXR before you attempt to use this feature. Otherwise, it simply won’t work and you won’t be able to enable it. Still, if you can turn it on, you’ll get a lot more dynamic shadows in your Shadowlands.