Yes, it costs frames. Yes, it requires tweaking. But the moment you see a sunset in The Witcher 3 actually turning the interior of a wooden cabin a dusty orange through the windows, you realize the cost was worth it. You aren't just playing the game anymore; you are seeing the light the developers intended, but could never afford to render.
Acquire the RTGI.fx and associated files (usually .fxh and shaders/textures folder) from the Patreon Patreon Discord.
Determines how far a light ray travels. Higher values create broader light spreads; lower values focus on tight contact shadows.
Copy the corresponding texture files into reshade-shaders/Textures . Step 3: Configure the Depth Buffer Launch the game and press Home to open the ReShade overlay. Navigate to the tab. reshade rtgi 0361
📂 Copy the downloaded RTGI folders (typically containing .fx shader files and .png texture files) into your game’s reshade-shaders folder. Ensure both the Shaders and Textures subdirectories are properly populated.
Version 0.361 is often cited as a "gold standard" or a highly stable milestone in the shader's development lifecycle, balancing accuracy with performance before later, more experimental iterations.
Adds indirect light bounces (Global Illumination) and high-quality AO High-performance GPU; access to the game's Depth Buffer Distribution Primarily via Pascal Gilcher's Patreon (Marty's Mods) Reshade RTGI vs 'real' Ray-Traced GI Yes, it costs frames
The shader, developed by Pascal Gilcher (known as Marty McFly ), represents a pivotal moment in post-processing technology, effectively "democratizing" ray tracing for thousands of legacy and modern games that lack native support. By injecting code that accesses a game’s depth buffer, this version of the Ray Traced Global Illumination (RTGI) shader simulates realistic light behavior—such as light bouncing and color bleeding—to transform flat, rasterized scenes into immersive, photorealistic environments. The Core Technology: Screen Space Ray Tracing
Enhanced algorithms in 0.36.x allow light to propagate more realistically across surfaces, reducing the "flatness" seen in raw SSRTGI implementations.
While you can inject RTGI into almost any game, it shines brightest in specific genres: You aren't just playing the game anymore; you
If you’ve ever looked at a classic game and wished it had the moody, dynamic lighting of a modern blockbuster, is the bridge you’ve been looking for. Created by Pascal Gilcher (popularly known as Marty McFly ), this Ray Traced Global Illumination (RTGI) shader allows almost any PC game to simulate sophisticated lighting effects that were once the exclusive domain of high-end, native ray-tracing titles.
While true multi-bounce ray tracing is too heavy for real-time post-processing, RTGI 0.36.1 uses clever mathematical approximations to simulate the soft, ambient scattering of secondary light.
Unlike native ray tracing, which calculates light bouncing off an entire 3D world map (even objects behind the player), RTGI relies on data. It utilizes the game’s depth buffer—a grayscale map that tells the computer how far away objects are from the camera—to calculate how light should bounce, cast shadows, and bleed colors.
While 0.36.1 is fantastic, newer releases (such as 0.40+ / iMMERSE Pro) offer higher performance-to-quality ratios, featuring better optimizations for near-field lighting. However, 0.36.1 remains a highly reliable choice for many games, especially those that benefit from a broad, more traditional ray-tracing approach rather than the more specialized, spectral-focused later versions. If you'd like, I can:
It built upon the massive architectural changes seen in the early 0.x series, offering more accurate light propagation.
