DirectX Raytracing

DirectX Raytracing (DXR) is a feature introduced in Microsoft's DirectX 12 application programming interface (API) that implements ray tracing, for video graphic rendering. DXR was released with the Windows 10 October update (version 1809) on October 10th, 2018. It requires an AMD Radeon RX 6000 series or Nvidia GeForce 10-, 20-, or 30-series video card, which is designed to handle the high computing load used for ray tracing.
Additions to DirectX 12.
With the introduction of DXR in October, four new features were added to the DirectX 12 API:
Technical details.
DXR starts by sending out a ray from each pixel on a given plane and calculates which objects on the plane are hit by the ray first. Next, the DXR algorithm estimates the amount of light where the ray intersects the object and attaches that calculation to the object. Objects can have different properties that will absorb or reflect light at different rates. To stop infinite bounces of a ray from happening, DXR will stop calculations after a certain amount of intersections. Rays that never interact with an object are tracked for how far they have gone. This is so the algorithm understands when rays have gone too far.
Gaming.
The current game engines that support DXR are:
Only 15 video games currently use DXR, which include:
Updates.
DXR was released to the public on October 10th, 2018 with the Windows 10 October update (version 1809).
The first major update was made to DXR on May 27th, 2020 with the Windows 10 May update (version 2004). The May update implemented DXR Tier 1.1, which allows game engines to make real time calculations which makes the raytracing graphics faster and more efficient.