Advanced Raytracing Shown Running on Sega Saturn

Raytracing is a method in which shadows and lighting affect the environment that we see when playing games. During the 32-Bit era, that of the Sega Saturn, Sony PlayStation, etc., raytracing was still quite new and still a learning process for developers. While it was much easier to implement on the Sony PlayStation, the Sega Saturn was in the dust so to speak. Sure, Lobotomy Software were able to make raytracing work in their releases on Sega Saturn, it was not a widely known/used concept. Now, a fan is working on making raytracing work on Sega Saturn.

Just a Tech Demo At the Moment

I want to get this out of the way immediately; this is a tech demo now. There is no game using raytracing that I know of, as of this writing. The developer behind this raytracing demo is XL2 who,

has worked on other tech demos, including the among others.

XL2 is known for great technical feats and demos. The closest they have done to a full game is

that looks a lot like Quake and Unreal.

Raytacing on a Console That Doesn’t Support It

Out of the box, the Sega Saturn doesn’t support raytracing without using tricks to get it running. This could be because, honestly, 3D was tacked onto the Saturn hardware which was originally developed as a 2D powerhouse console in response to the direction Sony was going with the original PlayStation.

The raytacing shown in the video above is impressive. XL2 goes through many variations of the graphical effect showing different effects. I could only imagine how much cooler survival horror games could be with raytracing. Imagine knocking over a lantern or television and it changes the lighting and shadows in the room based on where it fell. It would be atmospheric as all get out.