| Problem | Cause | The Fix |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| Grainy / Static Noise | Low temporal samples | Increase game TAA sharpness. Ensure you are running at a stable framerate (fluctuating FPS breaks the temporal accumulation). |
| Light "swimming" / Flickering | Aggressive motion | Lower the Radius. Large radii are unstable during camera movement. |
| Everything is dark | Exposure mismatch | Use GI Brightness or Post Bloom brightness. Avoid using Bounce Intensity to brighten the scene; it looks fake. |
| Washed out colors | Saturation too high | Lower GI Saturation. Real GI is subtle; it shouldn't look like a neon paint spill. |
If you’ve been anywhere near the PC gaming graphics scene in the last few years, you’ve heard the name Pascal Gilcher. His Ray Traced Global Illumination (RTGI) shader for ReShade has become legendary — not because it replaces native RTX, but because it doesn’t have to.
With the release of RTGI 0.33, we’re looking at what might be the most mature, stable, and impressive version of screen-space ray tracing available today. Let’s break down what’s new, how it looks, and whether you should finally install it.
Not every game benefits from screen space ray tracing. Flat, high-contrast games look terrible. Here are the proven winners: Reshade Ray Tracing shader RTGI 0.33
If you are playing a modern AAA game with native ray tracing, no—ignore this shader.
But. If you have a backlog of 50+ classic PC games, an aging GTX 1070 or RTX 2060, and you want to feel like you just installed a $700 graphics card upgrade for free, then Reshade Ray Tracing shader RTGI 0.33 is still the king.
It represents a unique moment in PC history: When a single hobbyist developer democratized ray tracing three years before NVIDIA’s marketing team claimed they invented it. It isn't perfect. It has noise, ghosting, and edge artifacts. But when you first walk into the Bannered Mare in Skyrim and see the firelight naturally wrap around a wooden beam, you will forget it's a "fake." | Problem | Cause | The Fix |
Install it. Tune it. Play your favorites like you’ve never seen them before.
Download this immediately if:
Stick to the basics if:
Let’s be real: RTGI costs FPS. On an RTX 3060 at 1440p:
But here’s the magic — because it’s screen-space, it scales with resolution and scene complexity, not polygon count. A game like Skyrim with heavy mods hits harder than Dishonored 2 with simple geometry.
Pro tip: Turn down ReShade’s “Effect Resolution” to 0.5x. You’ll barely see the difference in motion, but you’ll gain back 10–15% FPS. If you’ve been anywhere near the PC gaming
If you’ve used older RTGI builds (0.22 or 0.27), you’ll notice three big changes: