The engine has received support for global illumination with ray tracing. Thus, Anvil has formally moved to a new level of graphics, which Ubisoft talks about in recent videos.
However, the technology has a price. Increased load on the "hardware" is only part of the problem. Ray tracing gives a strong image noise. To remove it, developers use aggressive noise reduction algorithms, which often reduces the sharpness of the image compared to solutions without ray tracing.
Individual elements in Assassin's Creed Shadows look good, especially dense vegetation with realistic animation in the wind. However, the lighting remains unstable: in the shadows, the picture often looks mediocre.
Ubisoft does not plan to abandon ray tracing in Anvil. In the video, the company states that this technology has become the basis for future Assassin's Creed games.