Spider-Man 2 includes ray tracing no matter your graphical setting
Spin it to win it.
No matter which graphical performance setting Spider-Man 2 players decide to opt for, ray tracing will be included as standard.
In an interview with IGN, Insomniac's director of core technology Mike Fitzgerald and project director Jeannette Lee shared more about the studio's upcoming PlayStation 5 exclusive.
The developers said the game was the "culmination of everything [Insomniac has] learned" about developing for PlayStation 5.
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"We've really gotten to leverage everything we've seen in developing those games," Fitzgerald said when looking back on the studio's previous PS5 exclusives such as Spider-Man Remastered, Miles Morales, and Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart.
"Our performance mode for this title has ray tracing on by default," the developer explained. "We've really expanded ray traced reflections throughout the game. It's on the water and the oceans and really gives a more realistic picture everywhere."
Meanwhile, Fitzgerald said the SSD and storage solution on PS5 has allowed for "faster traversal" through Spider-Man 2's New York. In fact, players can expect to go about "three times as fast" when launching themselves from one of the sequel's slingshots than in the first Spider-Man game.
"And our fast travel and character switching... It just really opens up that space and lets you do more. I mean on top of that we have characters that are more detailed and lifelike that help us tell better, more nuanced stories," he said.
Additionally, the developers stated ray tracing will be available across the board, not just with that aforementioned performance mode, when Spider-Man 2 releases next month.
"For this game we're really able to deliver [ray tracing] as a baseline performance mode," Fitzgerald said. "There's no mode of this game that has the ray tracing turned off, no need for it. We've really figured out how to deliver what we feel like is the right Spider-Man visuals and we want to make sure every player is seeing that."
For more on Spider-Man 2, our Aoife went hands on with the upcoming release last week. You can read her thoughts so far on Insomniac's sequel here.
You can also watch it in video form via the embed above.