: Adjusts how the shader treats thin objects like grass or fences to prevent light leaking through solid geometry. Performance Impact and Hardware Recommendations
While enhanced later in 2022, 2021 versions laid the groundwork for using motion data to make the tracing more accurate and efficient during camera movement.
Released in 2021, the 0.33 beta update introduced a highly sophisticated spatial-temporal denoiser. Ray tracing is inherently noisy; it produces a grain effect because tracing infinite rays is impossible in real-time. Version 0.33 solved this by blending lighting data across multiple frames (temporal) and surrounding pixels (spatial), delivering smooth, flicker-free lighting with a fraction of the performance cost of earlier versions. Hardware Requirements and Compatibility
RTGI stands for Ray Traced Global Illumination. It is a post-processing shader created for the ReShade framework. Unlike native hardware ray tracing built into game engines, RTGI works externally. It utilizes the game’s depth buffer to calculate how light bounces off objects within the player's field of view. The 2021 Breakthrough: Version 0.33 reshade ray tracing shader rtgi 033 2021
| Aspect | Native RT (NVIDIA RTX / AMD RDNA2+) | ReShade RTGI | |--------|--------------------------------------|---------------| | | Traces against full 3D geometry (triangles). | Screen‑space rays, limited by what the camera sees. | | Accuracy | Physically accurate (global illumination, shadows, reflections). | Approximated GI – no light from off‑screen sources, no true mirror reflections. | | Performance | Very heavy, but uses RT cores to accelerate. | Surprisingly light if settings are kept modest (e.g. 4 rays, 16 steps). | | Compatibility | Requires a modern GPU with ray‑tracing hardware. | Works on any GPU that can run ReShade (even Intel integrated). | | Cost | Free part of game engine. | Patreon‑based access for beta builds (v0.33 required subscription). |
Why does the modding community still reference it in 2024 and 2025?
This particular release marked a maturity point for screen-space path tracing. It allowed users to bring modern lighting techniques—like realistic bounce light, ambient occlusion, and specular reflections—into older titles that never supported them. Let’s explore the significance, functionality, and impact of the RTGI 0.3.3 shader in 2021. What is ReShade RTGI 0.3.3? : Adjusts how the shader treats thin objects
No shader is perfect, and v0.33 had known issues that users learned to live with:
With the release of their shader in 2021, RTGI_033's hard work paid off. The graphics community was abuzz with excitement as users began to share their experiences with the ReShade RTGI shader. Suddenly, games and applications that previously lacked luster were transformed, boasting more realistic lighting, reflections, and shadows.
The shader casts virtual rays across this depth map to calculate how light bounces off surfaces. Ray tracing is inherently noisy; it produces a
If you want to breathe new life into older games, Pascal Gilcher’s Ray Traced Global Illumination (RTGI) shader for ReShade is the gold standard. Version 0.33, released in 2021, remains a milestone for its balance of performance and visual fidelity.
Before 2021, most "fake ray tracing" shaders were simply screen-space reflections. changed the game by implementing a hybrid approach: screen-space ray marching combined with depth buffer information to create plausible light bounces.
The shader, specifically version 0.33 , was a significant update released in late 2021/early 2022 that introduced motion vectors to improve temporal stability and reduce ghosting.
Installing and using the shader required a few crucial steps, particularly ensuring the shader could "see" the 3D world.