Hello, I have an idea but I don’t know if it is possible, I would like to make a multiplayer game with path tracing, the game would be slow paced (a simulator), the problem I have is the limitation of the GPUs. . . that players have, but an idea occurred to me, it would be possible to send the map geometry to a dedicated server that performs the calculations and returns it to the client, then the client application would only have to apply lighting to the geometry. Do you think it could be achieved, and if so do you have any tips or sources I can look at? Just a clarification, I am a systems analyst and I am entering the world of the unreal, so I am a little lost.
It might be technically “possible” but I don’t think it is feasible. A modern consumer GPU can barely render a single viewport fully path traced, I don’t think you’re going to find anything capable of path tracing multiple viewports at the same time.
Probably the closest thing to what you’re looking for is pixel streaming - which unreal does support. This is how the metahuman creator has Raytraced graphics on any machine.
I don’t even want to imagine what it would cost to pixel stream path traced gameplay for every player in a game. Unless you’re Nvidia or Epic you can forget about it.
if you do a low poly and low res game you could maybe render a couple of viewports on a 4090, but for full scale say 1080p this is not gonna work. you would have to dedicate multiple gpus to 1 client to even get close to 30 fps realtime performance and that’s a hypothetical assumption.
i myself need 3 seconds a frame in blender cycles on a 3060 (theoretical 1/7th of a 4090). and that is a simple scene and quite optmized render setup, with lowest amount of bounces and samples required. basicly everything that produces noise gotta be lit analytical. so… basicly barely gi and partially faked for the render performance. i dunno the numbers on ue5’s pathtracer. i have not benched it, yet. i’d have to port a scene to get a comparison.
with megalights™ you have the opportunity to fake most of the gi and can have stable performance, so this fake/artistic route is more compelling, than going full on path tracing. lumen will assist and make the reflections look good aka very much usable. this could maybe work in this pixel streaming scenario.