Alan Wake 2 PC Path Tracing: The Next Level In Visual Fidelity?

We’ve established that Alan Wake is a stunning game both on consoles and on mainstream PCs, but what if you want to push up to the next level and tax your GPU with high-end path tracing features? In this extended video, Alex goes in-depth on each and every RT feature in the game, checks out DLSS ray reconstruction and discovers Remedy’s chosen fusion of RT and non-RT lighting. Rounding off, there’s some optimised settings if you’re looking to get some semblance of ’bang for the buck’ from the menu of ray tracing options. Optimised RT settings, chosen for RTX 3080 and RTX 4070: Direct Lighting: On Ray Reconstruction: On Indirect Lighting: Low (4070) or Off (3080) Transparency: Low (4070) or Off (3080) For general optimised settings (in addition to the above or without RT altogether): Post-Processing: Low Texture Resolution: Medium or Higher Texture Filtering: High Volumetric Lighting: Low Volumetric Spotlight Quality: Low Global Illumination Quality: Medium Shadow Resolution: Low (or High if you can afford it) Shadow Filtering: Medium SSAO: On Global Reflections: Low (or High if you can afford it) Screen-Space Reflections: Low (or High if you can afford it) Fog Quality: Medium Terrain Quality: Medium Far Object Detail (LOD): Medium Scattered Object Density: Medium Subscribe for more Digital Foundry: Join the DF Patreon to support the team more directly and to get access to everything we do via pristine quality downloads: Want some DF-branded tee-shirts, mugs, hoodies or pullovers? Check out our store: For commercial enquiries, please contact business@ 00:00:00 Introduction 00:01:06 Ray Traced Direct Lighting 00:05:44 Path Traced Reflections 00:11:49 Path Traced Global Illumination 00:19:16 Path Tracing Idiosyncrasies 00:23:03 Ray Tracing Optimised Settings 00:27:57 DLSS Ray Reconstruction 00:30:08 Conclusion