For most of us, video games have been part of our lives since childhood. While the joy we derive from buying the best GPUs or immersing ourselves in virtual worlds has stayed the same, the underlying tech powering these experiences has drastically evolved. Only a few years ago, we probably wouldn't have imagined the technologies that are now commonplace in video games. In the last five years or so, there have been a few gaming innovations that have allowed developers and gamers to inhabit worlds with unprecedented visual fidelity and intelligence.
1 Real-time ray tracing: Next-gen graphics
Betting big on RTX
Thanks to Nvidia's relentless marketing around the tech they helped popularize, ray tracing is now well known in gaming circles. But, back in 2018, before Battlefield V became the first game to feature ray tracing effects, it was still a nascent technology, meant to power the games of the far future. Despite Nvidia's RTX 2000-series graphics cards receiving a mixed reception for the ray tracing price premium they released with, they were instrumental in bringing real-time ray tracing to gamers.
Prior to that, ray tracing was not really used in games to render reflections, shadows, and the like — outside of a few experimental tech demos. In an industry dominated by rasterization, Nvidia bet big on a superior but performance-intensive feature to help further its domination in the GPU market. Many criticized the company's obsession with ray tracing, and didn't feel the focus around it or the cost of RTX GPUs was justified. Some even believed that ray tracing wouldn't become popular anytime soon.
But, as it turned out, the industry quickly adopted the new tech, and with titles like Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Control, Metro Exodus, and Watch Dogs: Legion featuring advanced ray tracing effects, the shiny new graphical innovation had fully arrived on the scene. Today, Nvidia proudly markets Cyberpunk 2077 to show off the power of its RTX 4000-series cards, with the topmost cards in that lineup being the only GPUs you should buy for Cyberpunk 2077's latest path tracing mode.
Ray tracing is still not accessible to those with mid-range or low-end graphics cards. But, with time, it's expected that Nvidia, AMD, and even Intel will produce hardware powerful and affordable enough to help trickle down the benefits of this tech to the masses.
2 Adaptive sync: FreeSync goes mainstream
Screen tearing becomes obsolete
Monitors with variable refresh rates and adaptive sync were gamechangers for a smooth, tear-free gaming experience. Although Nvidia's G-Sync technology has existed since 2013, it was limited to a select few gaming monitors outfitted with a G-Sync module. Naturally, these monitors cost a lot more than other models, and additionally, until 2019, gamers didn't even have the option of using their GeForce graphics card with FreeSync, which was AMD's implementation of VESA's open-source adaptive sync standard.
Post 2019, this walled garden became a thing of the past as Nvidia gave into the pressure from the community and allowed GeForce cards to be used with FreeSync monitors too. This played a huge role in bringing variable refresh rates to the majority of gamers, demonstrably enhancing the visual experience by syncing their monitor's refresh rates to their GPU's FPS. Starting with the Xbox Series X and S, consoles also received VRR support for refresh rates between 30Hz and 120Hz, with the PS5 getting VRR support in 2022.
3 Advanced motion capture: Real-time becomes real
Markerless mocap has arrived
Motion capture is not new to video games, relatively speaking. After all, games have used various motion capture (mocap) techniques since the '90s, but in the past few years, the technology has evolved so much that you'll be surprised by what's possible now. What was only possible at billion-dollar AAA studios, can now be done by even indie studios with access to Unreal Engine 5. Ninja Theory, the studio behind the Hellblade games, recently demoed Unreal Engine 5's MetaHuman Animator tech that has essentially made real-time facial capture possible.
You would have seen behind-the-scenes videos of actors wearing mocap suits riddled with multiple "markers" tracking their every movement. Thanks to advances from companies like Nvidia, Vicon, and Epic Games, the future of motion capture is likely going to become fully markerless. In fact, Vicon and Nvidia already have fully functional markerless mocap solutions, ready to streamline a huge portion of game development.
4 500Hz+ gaming monitors: More fluid than ever
The 500Hz barrier was finally broken
For decades, gamers were restricted to 60Hz displays, many of them being the humble CRTs of the past. The 2010s brought 120Hz and then, 144Hz monitors to the market, and it took a few years, but 144Hz soon became the sweet spot for the best gaming monitors. But, soon after, manufacturers started chasing higher and higher refresh rates, with 240Hz and 360Hz monitors being targeted at esports gamers.
When the community finally started to believe that 360Hz would be the limit for the near future, companies like Alienware and Asus brought 500Hz gaming monitors to the market, completely rewriting the rules of the game. It would have been impossible to imagine such ridiculous numbers only a few years ago, but after two eventful decades of rapid innovation, I guess we should never say never.
5 Sophisticated NPCs: Life-like worlds
AI will change the game
NPCs or non-playable characters saw varying degrees of intelligence over the years, with developers giving them elaborate day-night schedules or simply coding thousands of lines of code for each one. But, some games that stood out for their truly lifelike NPCs were Red Dead Redemption 2, Watch Dogs: Legion, and The Elder Scrolls series. RDR 2, besides having some of the most fleshed-out NPCs ever, even had wild animals that reacted to player actions.
You probably wouldn't have expected developers to invest so much effort and time into crafting hyper-intelligent NPCs. But these efforts make a game world that much more enjoyable and worth exploring. Now, with AI set to transform game development, NPCs might never be static again. Characters having the ability to process player actions and dialogue, and respond intelligently, with on-the-fly adjustments, might soon be a reality.
Gaming innovations for the win
Owing to some recent not-so-ideal trends, PC gaming might have changed forever, but fundamental innovations in the industry still provide some hope for the future. Some of these technologies have contributed to making PC gaming a little more niche than it was before, but things rarely stay the same in the PC industry. As graphical hardware and software technologies continue to evolve, and advanced game development becomes more popular, we might see a shift in the next few years, where PC gaming becomes exciting once again.