Unity Engine now has support for real-time ray tracing tech

Unity Technologies has just released its new Unity 2019.3 which includes real-time ray tracing goodness, and is now available to download from the Unity Store.

Unity 2019.3 is a 'Tech Stream' release which is aimed at creators who want the latest engine tech from Unity, but there will also be a new 'Long-Term Support' version of Unity with Unity 2019.4 coming in the Spring that will be a more stable build. As for Unity 2019.3, Brett Bibby, Vice President of Engineering at Unity Technologies explains: "With the release of Unity 2019.3, we are continuing our focus of giving all creators the power they need to have a more optimized, stable, and pleasant, creative experience".

Bibby continues: "Unity 2019.3 includes more than 260 improvements and new features focused on giving you the confidence that what you're making right now will look and perform beautifully - whether you're targeting the technologies of today or the platforms of tomorrow".

Unity 2019.3 includes production-ready High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP) as well as delicious new real-time ray tracing preview. Unity worked closely with NVIDIA on adding RTX technologies into the Unity Engine, something that is paying off with the new Unity 2019.3 release.

• HDRP Now Production Ready - The power of control that developers need to unleash beautiful high fidelity graphics on high-end consoles and PCs is now available for all. Also available today is the full-length version of The Heretic, which is created using HDRP and off-the-shelf Unity technology. This real-time feature includes CG humans and demonstrates what's possible right now on Unity
• Universal Render Pipeline Production Ready Since Unity 2019.1- Formerly known as the Lightweight Render Pipeline, the Universal Render Pipeline delivers beautiful graphics, scalability, and performance for the broadest array of platforms, including 2D, 3D, and AR/VR projects. New integrated Post Processing brings improved performance, and the increased light limit gives creators the power to exercise more creative freedom
• Massive Evolution in 2D - A new suite of 2D tools, a dedicated 2D renderer, and features makes high-end creation more accessible by bringing new and improved production-ready workflows to teams of all sizes. A new sample project that showcases this evolution, Lost Crypt, is now available to download
• Visual Effect Graph Now Production Ready - Create stunning, reusable, high-fidelity visual effects; now integrated with Shader Graph for faster creation of custom looks
• Real-Time Ray Tracing Enters Preview - Built on top of HDRP, Unity's real-time ray tracing realistically simulates how light behaves and interacts with physical materials, bringing global illumination and other effects to all types of projects, from photo-realistic to stylized