wow New Graphic Options in Shadowlands

[Stan 5,240]

The WoW engine has been updated in Shadowlands to support Ray Tracing, Target FPS, and new Spell Density options.

Ray Tracing

Reddit user Lemonking discovered that Shadowlands supports ray tracing and variable rate shading.

To give you an idea about how ray tracing could look in World of Warcraft, check out the video below.

If you can't watch the video, here's a side-by-side comparison taken from the video with ray tracind disabled (on the left) and enabled (on the right).

Target FPS

In Shadowlands, you will be able to set your desired target FPS, meaning if your framerate goes below that number, the game will dynamically reduce graphics quality to attempt to reach the set framerate.

The current definition of Target FPS in the game:

Framerate you ideally want to play at. If your framerate is below this number, dynamic systems will reduce graphics quality to attempt to hit this framerate.

Spell Density Updates

The highest FPS drops occur in WoW during raids when there's too much stuff going on and there are multiple options to select from when it comes to Spell Density in the new expansion to help you reach your desired framerate by reducing the visibility of non-essential spells. You can set Spell Density to:

• Essential - Only shows essential spells. Your own spells are always always shown.
• Some - Reduces non-essential spells shown by around 75%.
• Half - Reduces non-essential spells by around 50%.
• Most - Reduces non-essential spells by around 25%.
• Dynamic -Reduces non-essential spells shown based on framerate. If you are above your desired framerate, everything will be shown.
• Everything - Always show all spells.

The best thing is to have it set on Dynamic and you won't have to worry about anything.

Latest Shadowlands News

Classes	Leveling
All Covenant Class Abilities Covenant Signature and Class Ability Upgrades Shadowlands Class Changes AOE Ability Changes in Shadowlands Frost Mage Winter's Chill Changes: April 10th Druid Class Changes Clarifications: April 13th Hunter Stable Size Increased in Shadowlands Class Buffs Nerfed in Shadowlands	Allied Races No Longer Require Grinding Reputation to Exalted Death Knights and Demon Hunters Start at Level 8 in Shadowlands Exile's Reach Starting Zone (Official Preview) First Level 50 in 12 Hrs 16 Minutes on Shadowlands Alpha Flying Available at Level 25 in Shadowlands Legion Legendaries Disabled in Shadowlands Level Requirements for Unlocking Talents in Shadowlands Quest Interface Improvements Coming in Shadowlands
Datamining	Misc
Shadowlands 9.0.1 Build 33978 Shadowlands 9.0.1 Build 33978 Creature Models Shadowlands 9.0.1 Build 33978 Mounts: Part 1 Shadowlands 9.0.1 Build 33978 Mounts: Part 2 Shadowlands 9.0.1 Build 33978 Mounts: Part 3 Potential Allied Races Coming in Shadowlands Optional Crafting Reagents in Shadowlands Runeforging Updates: New Death Knight Runes Ardenweald Faun NPC Customization Options Bastion Kyrian NPC Customization Options	Dying in the Shadowlands Controller Support Coming in Shadowlands Icecrown Skybox Updated for Shadowlands Item Level Squish in Shadowlands Unread Mail Indicator on Character Selection Screen
Development Updates	PvP
Initial Shadowlands Developer Update Shadowlands Development Update Notes: April 9th	PvP Vendors Return in Shadowlands
Interviews	Zone Previews
No War/Titanforging or Corrupted Items in Shadowlands: Ion Hazzikostas Interview Lore Interview with Lead Narrative Designer Steve Danuser	Bastion & Kyrian Covenant (Official Preview) Bastion Zone Screenshots The Necrotic Wake Dungeon Torghast, Tower of the Damned Preview

[Cammykins 6]

The Ray Tracing looks beautiful, though I don't know how much of an effect it'll have on the fps.

[Lithari 194]

41 minutes ago, Cammykins said:

The Ray Tracing looks beautiful, though I don't know how much of an effect it'll have on the fps.

It would depend on the card, if its a 20 series, then a 2080 will be better than a 2070. but if its a non-20 series card, then it will be done by the CPU, if i recall correctly, if you do not have a 20 series card, i would recommend you keep it off.

[Yridaa 490]

What I don't understand is that in this example he'd only get floor reflections with RT on. Yet this has been readily available well, well before RT was even a thing in the late 90's(!). Look at the floor tiles in the first few seconds for example. All rendered on a 3dfx card or any that allowed d3d/glide. Even Pentium 1's could run games like these because of that "revolutionary" 3d card ?

 

[ignringerfinger 11]

For WoW, I would gladly take the plunge... new video card incoming.........

 

Dynamic option sounds awesome.

Edited April 17, 2020 by ignringerfinger

[RIell 0]

I just hope that the dynamic option won't disable the rtracing in mid fight, however looks gorgious. 

The immersion is total !

[Fre3k 0]

The raytracing part with the video is misleading, the raytracing shading in the video is injected with a thirdparty tool (gshade) by the author and is not at all what it'll look like in Shadowlands. The blizzard version will probably look a lot more polished and subtle. I wouldn't be surprised if they used it only for raytraced shadows and maybe ao, but highly unlikely for materials/surface shading because it would depart to much from traditional WoW art, and maybe require a full content pipeline overhaul to something more akin to PBR workflows.

[dartbodman 64]

I'm a bit confused by the current "raytracing" buzz. Like I downloaded a minecraft demo that said it included raytracing but it only works for specific nvidia cards. is that the case here?

[Fruitella 0]

That video is a ReShade demo, over 9 months old:

 

https://reshade.me/forum/troubleshooting/5628-reshade-in-world-of-warcraft