Samsung’s experts recently discussed the Ray Tracing technology in its most recent flagship smartphone series, the Galaxy S23, saying it brings true-to-life graphics to mobile gaming.
According to Samsung Principal Engineer Jungwoo Kim, the brand’s Ray Tracing technology is “the ultimate graphic rendering method.”
“Ray Tracing is a complex simulation that traces how the optic nerve of an eye receives a ray of light after being reflected, refracted or diffracted by an object,” Kim said. “It’s very similar to how light is actually processed.”
The Galaxy S23’s GPU is equipped with special-purpose hardware to accelerate these ray-tracing simulations to display realistic shadows and light reflections in mobile games, similar to a desktop GPU.
Samsung’s new flagship phone’s GPU also enhances its performance by 41 percent compared to its previous version, making it a significant advancement in smartphone gaming graphics.
Joonyong Park, the lead of GPU-DevTech at GPU/System R&D, explained that the previous rasterization technique was limited and resulted in “awkward and inaccurate expressions.” On the other hand, Ray Tracing provides a more accurate representation of how shadows are formed, resulting in more natural-looking graphics.
Bridging gap between desktop, mobile gaming
Samsung has been working to bridge the gap between desktop and mobile graphics since 2010, partnering with major industry players to standardize its latest technology as the common API.
Since 2015, the South Korean giant has been working on GPU development in partnership with companies like Epic Games and Unity to enhance the overall gaming performance on Android. In 2016, Samsung successfully implemented the next-generation graphics API, Vulkan, developed by the Khronos Group, in the Galaxy S7.
With the recent rise in cross-platform games, Samsung has rapidly applied desktop GPU technology to their mobile GPU. Park said that the increase in consumer demand for graphic quality on mobile devices to match that of consoles had driven Samsung’s proactive effort to lead this mobile innovation.
The developers are excited about the new technology and the possibilities it will offer for immersive mobile gaming experiences. “You can certainly expect an eye-catching gaming experience,” said Samsung.
Looking ahead, the developers are anticipating changes in the creation and consumption of graphic content that will align with its Ray Tracing technology. To achieve this, the team has managed to efficiently render high-quality graphics by reducing the computations required, marking a significant achievement in improving graphics and enhancing mobile gaming experiences.
In the long run, the developers want to offer even more immersive mobile gaming experiences with realistic graphics. As for now, they are working to apply their Ray Tracing technology to more mobile games.
“Ray Tracing technology is now only starting to go mobile. Since Samsung has been researching and preparing this technology for a long time, our company will lead the industry and quickly expand this technology,” said Kim.
“Our next goal is to find the optimal method to apply Ray Tracing in many mobile devices and provide a great gaming experience to the users.”
Despite the limited number of mobile games supporting ray tracing simulations, another phone manufacturer shares a similar vision with Samsung.
In February, OnePlus revealed its collaboration with Perfect World Games to develop its own ray tracing technology. The two companies are working together to incorporate this technology into the gameplay of Tower of Fantasy on the OnePlus 11 5G phone.
With similar goals to Samsung’s, OnePlus and Perfect World Games engineers worked together to develop the Real-time Inline Ray Tracing Pipeline and a new Fast Temporal Convergence Algorithm for Ambient Occlusion.