Optimization Masters. Assassin's Creed Shadows Almost Had Full Ray Tracing on Xbox Series S
Assassin's Creed Shadows could have had full ray tracing on Xbox Series S, but memory limitations prevented the developers. This was revealed by Digital Foundry in a large article dedicated to the creation of the game for Switch 2.
Since the Xbox Series S is closest in specifications to the Nintendo hybrid console, the article also touched on the version for the Microsoft system.
Speaking about RTGI (ray-traced global illumination) technology and its removal from versions for less powerful platforms, Ubisoft's technical rendering architect Nicolas Lopez noted that "it worked perfectly in the world" on Xbox Series S, but the team faced a severe memory shortage. As a result, when preparing the final build, the developers had to almost completely abandon the resource-intensive technology — RTGI was only retained in one area of the game, the refuge zone.
To be honest, it was a little annoying, but we had very little memory.
The authors of the material note that with more time for optimization, the Series S would probably have coped with this function. Ubisoft's decision seems logical: ray tracing puts a serious load on the system, and many games on the younger version of the current generation Xbox either abandon it completely or use simplified implementations.
At the same time, in a comparison of Assassin’s Creed Shadows on Xbox Series S and Switch 2, which Digital Foundry published a month ago, the Microsoft console was ahead in both visual quality and performance.
