This past week saw the release of the much-anticipated Hitman 3 - the final chapter in the current trilogy - and according to developer IO Interactive, the game's launch simply marks "the beginning of a journey".
In an Xbox Wire interview, the studio explained that it sees Hitman 3 as a "live game", and the addition of ray-tracing for Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S is seemingly one of the new features the team has planned for the future.
"We see Hitman as a ‘live game’ and our launch date on January 20 is just the beginning of a journey, in which we’re going to keep working on the game and adding new features.
It’s great that the GPU in the Series X|S has hardware support for Ray-Tracing. We’ve already started working on RT technology for the renderer in our Glacier engine, and once that’s deemed ready for prime time, we’ll definitely bring it to the Series X|S hardware."
IO Interactive also noted during the interview that developing for the Xbox Series X and S was "a further improvement compared to the previous generation," and that it's "confident that the Xbox Series X|S consoles will really enable a new generation of cinematic experiences in which gameplay and storytelling blend seamlessly, with loading screens and waiting time finally relegated to bed-time stories to scare our kids."
Looking forward to the addition of ray-tracing for Hitman 3? Let us know in the comments.
Comments 20
Seeing some of the reflections and lighting, particularly in Dubai, I thought Hitman 3 already had ray tracing. It's going to look damn impressive when it actually gets implemented.
That Dubai level would be crazy with RT reflections!
Can’t we just have games released nowadays that have all the implemented items accordingly to what console it is in.
Not really enjoying the way it’s all going, especially since this new generation released.
@VenomousAlbino I know what you mean... I just presumed that was ray tracing. 🤷♂️
Goes to show with some of the comments on here, about thought it had RT.
The new consoles are definitely going through the early diminishing returns phase.
@blinx01 I know, right?! The reflections in Hitman 3 look WAY better than those in Watch Dogs Legion (which does have ray-tracing), so I fully expect my eyes to melt in reflection-y ecstasy when it does arrive in Hitman 3.
@Dezzy70 have you seen the reflections / lighting effects in Hitman 3 though? They are pretty much as good as I have seen in any game with or without RT. I would definitely be interested in seeing how different it looks once implemented though. Although I wouldn’t be surprised if the difference is massive.
@cbodz
Have not seen them as not my type of game, glad you enjoying though.
Goes to shown then, RT will probably only bring a slight improvement to this particular game.
Bringing diminishing returns. Which I think this new generation will bring for a long time.
@Dezzy70 This is certainly a case of : Here is the boiled pasta, the sauce will come later.
While this game is looking much better than something like Cyberpunk. Constantly hearing that the best parts will come later is disappointing.
@BrilliantBill
Seems we have just entered the era of here is
Some of the game at 85% sparkle the over 15% sparkle will come later.
It’s getting a bit to common and not a great next generation start.
Sony and Microsoft should have waited until November 2021 with some AAA first party titles just for next generation. Also by then 3rd parties might have caught up.
To say next generation is a bit limp, would be very true.
@VenomousAlbino that was my first thought. I watched some vids and wondered if it had RT included. Will be mind blowing if it does get it.
@Dezzy70 it’s just gaming in general not necessarily this gen, perhaps more noticeable though. Even when I had a PS3 briefly(much preferred 360 obviously!)I was irritated by the number and size of patches. I didn’t really jump in to the last gen(apart from Switch) and it seems the norm now for games to favour deadlines over completeness.
Can't wait for this to come to Steam, definitely tempted to bite the Xbone version but I know I want that VR with Hitman 2 levels. Gotta shoot those tires in VR.
@Dezzy70 I was all PC from the mid 90s through 2008 or so. I was used to "here's the $50 pre alpha, well release the real game next year"back then, unfortunately.
But it's getting annoying. Was going to buy this now. But after hearing the game won't be 100% until I'm done playing it makes me wonder if I should just hold off longer.
@BrilliantBill @Dezzy70 Just another reason, in a long line, not to buy most games at launch anymore. Highest price for incomplete product is now mostly the norm.
That’s not to say something like Hitman 3 is a bad game at launch, far from it, but it’s frustrating that the launch version is still a compromise.
It was similar with Miles Morales, another really good game at launch, but you had to choose between 60fps OR ray traced reflections. Yet after a month or so you don’t have to choose as they’ve optimised it to have both at once.
Personally I’m happy to wait for the best version of the game the developer can make. But with the sharp drop off in game pricing often as soon as a few months after launch what does this do to the industry if more and more follow this path and don’t buy games at launch. I’d prefer to have the definitive version at launch.
@Dezzy70
It's almost as if development of these games started before there were any "next gen" consoles out. But that's just my stupid brain, I guess ...
Since 49% of hitmas 3 sales were on ps5 and 25% on ps4 (74% total sales on playstation systems) shouldn't they also bring Ray tracing to the ps5 version as that's where the main player base is at
Also when are xbox updating their cloud servers to series X? Will the cloud serverd include Ray tracing aswell in series X games?
I'm playing some old games until more modern games get the next gen features
@lokozar While what you say is fair, the consoles were in the rumours a full two years before their release. Meaning that around that same time developers had their devkits and knew the specs/features. While we can cut some slack for the pandemic and all that. Devs still need to do better.
@BrilliantBill
In the case of the Xbox Series that's not true. Aside from that, specs can and most likely will change over the course of the initial phase. It's more like they get a PC with roughly the specs console companies aim for, and with software that is not final at all. It misses feature sets and easy to use methods for implementation.
Come on, guys, this is nothing new, really. Every console generation had this phase where the first games do not fully support the new possibilities and just compromise - because development started earlier than the new console's release. Only difference now is, that game developers actually deliver these new features afterwards. So, we have a better situation than ever before. Problem here is, people are not happy, if they cannot complain about ... well, something, I guess ...
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