Does Unreal Engine Use Ray Tracing?

Ray tracing is one of the biggest leaps in visual fidelity we’ve had in years. But here’s the real question you came for: Does Unreal Engine use ray tracing?

Short answer: Yes, absolutely; and Unreal Engine doesn’t just “use” ray tracing; it embraces it, powers it, upgrades it, and pushes it to the limit.

In this article, we’ll walk you through everything you should know: what ray tracing really is, how Unreal Engine uses it, which features rely on it, how to enable it, the hardware you need, the pros, the trade-offs, and how ray tracing shapes the future of real-time rendering.

We’re keeping it casual, friendly, and packed with examples so you can understand the whole picture without getting buried in tech jargon.

Let’s dive in!

Does Unreal Engine Use Ray Tracing?

Yep. Unreal Engine has fully supported ray tracing since Unreal Engine 4.22, and the feature set has only gotten better in Unreal Engine 5 and beyond.

UE5 uses ray tracing for:

• Lumen (partly, more on this soon!)
• Reflections
• Shadows
• Global illumination
• Ambient occlusion
• Skylight and directional lighting
• Translucency
• Path tracing (super high-end, cinema-quality rendering)

Basically, if you want it, Unreal Engine probably has it.

Unreal doesn’t just “support” ray tracing as an optional add-on; it’s heavily integrated in the entire rendering pipeline. UE5 features like Nanite, Lumen, and Virtual Shadow Maps all work hand-in-hand with ray tracing, depending on the settings you choose.

Let’s break down the most important ways UE5 uses ray tracing. These are the features most people think about when they ask the question “Does Unreal Engine use ray tracing?”

Ray-Traced Reflections

This is probably the most popular use case. With ray-traced reflections, you can:

• reflect entire environments
• reflect moving characters
• reflect lights
• reflect high-detail materials like metals and water

If you’re tired of SSR (screen space reflections) giving you weird glitches or disappearing objects, ray-traced reflections fix all of that.

>>> Read more: Real-Time Ray Tracing: How It’s Changing the Way We See Games and CGI

Ray-Traced Global Illumination

This is a big one. Ray-traced GI gives you natural, smooth, and accurate lighting behavior.

You know how a red wall should bounce a bit of red light onto the floor? Or how light should bleed softly into corners?

Yep, ray tracing handles that beautifully.

Ray-Traced Shadows

Ray tracing gives you:

• softer shadows
• contact shadows
• detailed shadows that don’t pixelate
• shadows that react to small light movements

If you’re working on films, commercials, or archviz, ray-traced shadows make a huge difference.

>>> Read more: Top 6 Rendering Techniques You Need To Know & Helpful Tips

Ray-Traced Ambient Occlusion

Ambient occlusion is what adds depth between surfaces that touch or come close. Ray tracing calculates this way more accurately than the old SSAO.

Translucency & Refraction

If you work with glass, crystals, water, ice, or anything transparent, ray tracing makes it look chef’s kiss.

>>> Read more: Texturing and Shading: Techniques for Realistic 3D Modeling

Ray Tracing vs Lumen: What’s the Difference?

A lot of people get confused here, so let’s clear it up in simple terms: Lumen is Unreal Engine’s real-time global illumination system.

It can use ray tracing, but it doesn’t have to.

Lumen has two modes:

• Software Lumen: runs without ray tracing.
• Hardware Lumen (Ray Traced Lumen): uses hardware-accelerated ray tracing on supported GPUs.

When hardware ray tracing is enabled, Lumen gets:

• better reflections
• better GI
• more accuracy
• improved lighting quality

So yes, Unreal uses ray tracing, but you get to choose whether Lumen uses it or not.

This is actually one of UE5’s biggest strengths. You get full flexibility:

• Want top-tier photorealism? Turn on ray tracing.
• Need performance for mid-range gaming PCs? Use Software Lumen.

Does Unreal Engine Use Path Tracing?

Yep, path tracing is included in Unreal Engine, and it’s incredible for high-end offline rendering.

Path tracing is:

• more accurate than ray tracing
• more realistic
• slower
• meant for film-quality frames, not gameplay

If you want final renders that look like Pixar, Unreal’s path tracer absolutely delivers. It’s used a lot in:

• archviz
• product commercials
• VFX
• cinematic sequences

But it’s too heavy for real-time games.

Pros and Cons of Using Ray Tracing in Unreal Engine

How to Turn On Ray Tracing in Unreal Engine 5

If you’re wondering how to actually enable ray tracing, don’t worry — we’ve got you.

Step 1: Enable Ray Tracing in Project Settings

Go to: Edit → Project Settings → Engine → Rendering

Enable:

• Ray Tracing
• Support Hardware Ray Tracing
• Generate Mesh Distance Fields (required for some features)

Restart your project.

Step 2: Turn on Lumen Hardware Ray Tracing (Optional)

In the same section:

• Search “Lumen”
• Turn on “Hardware Ray Tracing”

Step 3: Activate Ray-Traced Features in Your Lights

Step 4: Set Reflections to Ray Tracing

Under Post Process Volume:

• Reflections → Ray Tracing
• Global Illumination → Ray Tracing (optional)

Done!

Hardware Requirements: What You Need for Ray Tracing

If you’re going to ask Unreal to fire millions of light rays around your scene every second, you’ll need some horsepower.

Minimum GPU Requirements

Any GPU with hardware ray tracing support:

• NVIDIA RTX 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000 series
• AMD Radeon RX 6000, 7000 series

Recommended GPU for Serious Work

• NVIDIA RTX 3080 or 4080
• AMD 6800 XT or 7900 XT

For Cinematic Path Tracing

• RTX 4090
• Or multi-GPU workstation (if you’re insane)

You also want:

• At least 32GB RAM
• A strong CPU for scene management
• Fast NVMe storage

Ray tracing is gorgeous… but it’s not light.

So… Final Answer: Does Unreal Engine Use Ray Tracing?

Yes, deeply, extensively, and across multiple systems.

Unreal Engine uses ray tracing for:

• Reflections
• Shadows
• Global illumination
• Ambient occlusion
• Translucency
• Lumen lighting
• Path tracing
• Virtual production workflows
• Cinematics and rendering
• High-end game visuals

If you want photoreal lighting, Unreal gives you one of the most advanced real-time ray tracing pipelines in the world.

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Animost – Vietnam 3D Animation Studio

https://animost.com

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