AquaRay Raytracing Renderer for Unreal Engine 5.2.1 (WIP)

A Custom Realtime Raytracing Renderer for Unreal Engine 5.2.1 Built for my Upcoming Project(s)

Current state of the Project

• I am currently working on the next Phase of the Project
• When the next phase reaches a working state, a new repository will be created. EDIT: New repo is up (Account must be linked to Epic Games Organization, Login Required): https://github.com/Dechetmew/MGFX_UnrealEngine/tree/mgfx_ue5.2.1
• Therefore this repository will be abandoned/left here for public viewing and as access point to the new repo

Update 13.1

• (C++) Fixed Console Command Spam
  
• (C++) Fixed StaticFindObjectFast() crashes (I hope)
  
• Reduced Shadow Artifact Issues
  

Check changelog.txt for previous versions

Current Features

• Whitted Style Raytracing
  
• Direct Lighting With Point Light Support
  
• Simple One-Raypath Shadows
  
• Reflections & Translucency up to 10 steps
  
• Reflected Direct Lighting
  
• Simple Fog
  
• Water
  

Performance Target: 60fps at 1440x1080 Resolution on Nvidia RTX 3050 (at Native Resolution with No Temporal Accumulation, Upscaling or FrameGen)
Current Performance Result: 75-80fps in Medium Complexity scenes. Shaders are currently compiled without optimization so the Final result may run faster. Framerate Heavily depends on whats on the screen

GPU Requirements:

• DirectX 12 Support
  
• Hardware Raytracing Support
  

Going Forward

Phase 1:

• This is phase one of this project, here Im experimenting with Raytracing, Rendering tricks and Identifying the needs for a full pipeline
  
• One-Shader Implementation without Indirect Lighting
  

Phase 2:

• The following phase will be a full push towards a production ready Raytracing Renderer
  
• New Unreal Engine fork repo with Renderer already embeded
  
• Low Resolution Indirect Lighting pass
  
• Translucency Reflection/TIR Juniction
  
• Roughness Support
  
• Ray Magnets for Indirect Lighting
• Custom Post Process Passes for DoF, Tonemapping and Antialiasing
  
• Optional Checkerboard Rendering mode for GPUs below target spec
  
• Vulkan Support (if possible)

QA:
Why is this not a Plugin?: Overriding Vannila Unreal Rendering is Impossible using a Plugin. Any Renderer of this scale must be done via Modifying Unreal Source
Can you Update the Renderer to a Higher Unreal Version?: I dont have a reason yet, but I think this code can be ported easily with (maybe) minimal changes up to (as of writing) 5.8.0.

How to Install

EDIT: If your Github account is linked to Epic Games Organization, You can download Full 5.2.1 Source with AquaRay here (login required): https://github.com/Dechetmew/MGFX_UnrealEngine/tree/5.2.1-legacy-aquaray-v13.1
Otherwise Follow the wiki for Installation:
Install: Unreal Engine Source
Install: Fixing Existing Engine Issues
Install: Installing AquaRay

Credits

The Sample project uses:
-Skyboxes from PolyHaven
-Some Models by the Stanford University

Gallery