In an effort to update Resident Evil 2 and 3, Capcom may have cut the wrong wire and sent the whole operation into disarray.
What was meant to be a generic, run-of-the-mill update turned into a mercy dash to revitalize Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3’s ray tracing capabilities. Not long after players updated their games, some began to realize that ray tracing and 3D audio support were non-existent.
Capcom addressed the issues in a tweet, reassuring fans that the issue will be “addressed in a future update”. While it did apologize for the inconvenience, we are still yet to know when said update will take place, so for now; fans will just have to make do.
Time and time again
This isn’t the first time the Resident Evil remakes have come into some ray tracing trouble. Not long ago, in 2022, both remakes and Resident Evil 7 were all forcibly updated on PC to include the graphics-enhancing feature.
Unfortunately, while Capcom hoped to supply fans of the titles with some quality upgrades, the inclusion of ray tracing ended up causing the opposite. Long-time players were concerned about how this would affect the required specs for the titles. Many of them had already purchased the games, which would now no longer run as well on their PCs.
In the end, Capcom compromised on the upgrades and instead opted to reactivate the previous versions, which didn’t include ray-tracing or 3D audio. This meant that fans who didn’t have the specs to keep up with the updates could still play the remakes with little to no worries.
What does Ray bring to the table?
Ray tracing and its worth is a somewhat debated subject. I, for one, will always prioritize performance over sparkly features built to make a game prettier to look at. In fact, more often than not, I almost immediately turn ray tracing off as a feature in a game.
I’ve found that this feature can often add little to the experience. For example, while it was an option in Resident Evil Village, it was almost unnoticeable in most sections that did not include the Castle Dimitrecu. Also, when I’m getting pummeled by a bunch of molded monsters, pretty lighting and reflections are the last thing I’m looking for.
While the Resident Evil 4 remake gave me a great reason to enable ray tracing, I think leaving the option up to the player is the best choice Capcom can make. Not everyone has the capability to use this hardware-intensive feature, and some (like me) don’t even want it.
