SEUS PTGI E9 Dev News
🕑 Added 2019-07-16 18:10:51 +0000 UTC
Hey, all! Here's what's going on with the development of SEUS PTGI E9.
Something I've talked about for a long time is the issue of ray/path tracing against blocks that aren't shaped like a full cube. Lots of other issues have taken importance before this, but now it's finally time to address it!
I've been worried about implementing this since the beginning. Since ray tracing is an iterative process (checking each block along a ray to see what it is, then treating it accordingly), you need to be careful about how much work you do for each iteration step, or things can slow down quickly.
For blocks that aren't a full cube (fences, slabs, stairs, etc.), the situation arises where you need to not only determine whether the current block is air or solid, but you need to actually figure out how the ray travels through that block, and whether it hits a solid surface and should stop (like hitting a slab from the top or bottom), or whether the ray misses the solid surface (like passing horizontally above a slab) and should continue searching for a collision. This work needs to happen on every iteration, which is why I've been spooked every time I thought about implementing it.
I've done a lot of thinking for a while about the most simple/efficient way to do this, and as you can see, I've come up with something that works. Note that screen-space tracing is OFF in the above screenshot, those nice shadows from the fences are all properly ray traced against the fence geometry!
This system works by assigning an ID to any occupied block that contains special geometry (each unique geometric case has its own ID). Then based on that ID, hard-coded geometry represented by bounding boxes (nice that Minecraft is made of boxes for this!) is collided against within that block area. Information is gathered about where the ray hit, and if it hits a solid surface, we've found our collision point and we can stop iterating. With an ID system like this, we can skip doing extra work on full-cube blocks just by checking its ID and seeing that it doesn't contain any special geometry.

With this method, not only are all lighting artifacts fixed on things like slabs and stairs, but their geometry casts correct shadows and lighting without needing to do screen-space tracing.
The drawback of this approach is that block geometry cannot be dynamically determined, which means it needs to be hard-coded for known cases (for example, we know that slabs are a half-height box, so we can hard-code that in). Because of this, I want to expose this part of the code to anyone who might be willing to dive in and create their own hard-coded geometry (for resource packs that have custom block models). This code will be contained in its own separate file, with extensive documentation written inside to ease the learning curve. I will permit the modification and distribution of this one file in SEUS PTGI's license, that way people can share this file with their own model definitions. Then, to install this "mod", all you'll have to do is replace this file with the modified one.
Now, as more models are added, things will slow down. This is because GPUs are not perfect at determining what code to run or skip based on dynamic conditions. For now I've got all variants of slabs, stairs, and fences in (stairs and fences are probably the most complex blocks in the game, since they have a lot of potential states), and it's sitting at around a 12% overall reduction in performance. This is likely to get worse as I add more models (trap doors, doors, pressure plates, carpets, etc.). However, this is a first implementation of the system, and it may be optimized as I continue to work on it. Either way, I will provide an option for the user to enable or disable this feature according to their preference. Whether it's on or off by default will depend on how big of a performance impact it has.
So, this is the main focus of E9, and I wanted to share my progress with you. However difficult this feature is to optimize or finish will determine how many other new features will make it into E9.
Oh, and one more thing, the developer of OptiFine has made a change to how geometry shaders work, enabling compatibility on AMD graphics cards!!!!! I'll be ordering an AMD graphics card soon so I can get PTGI fully working. I have no idea how much work this will take, I'll keep you guys updated on this process!
Also, thank you for the positivity and kindness! It really helps me stay motivated and encouraged. You guys are the best!
Comments
i have the same grapichs card i will help you out and test this
Fadi Saikali
I have a GeForce GTX 1060 strix how many fps can i get?
Hunger_Legend
J'ai une rx 580 nitro+, mais je sais pas quelle abonnement prendre pour avoir SEUS PTGI !!??
How many FPS and chunks I would be able to use this shaders with a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070??
i bought it where do i go now?
lol yes much over 60 fps on max shader settings.. my girlfiend is playing with a gtx970 and it run on max shader settings up to 50 and more fps!!! i play on amd rx 570 and it is a bit slower.
texturepack
Kevin Nelson try using faithful isnt that a good txturepack ?
with the 4k graphics reflection on the floor with lighting and OMG ITS SO REALISTIC MINECRAFT 2 IS CONFIRMED
i have a gtx 1070 will i run it okay at 60fps ? or 30
Kevin Nelson
any texture pack recommendations to go with?
I have an RTX 2070 and works fine on my home pc but on my school mac, it doesn't work all it shows when you load into a game it shows all the textures of all the blocks, it also says a million errors across the screen don't try it :D
got a rtx 2070 im g
Just a question, does SEUS renewed work on iMac?
GabclarexxFR
with an GTX1060 there some bug but you can use this shader with 40 fps max but for the bug i don't know if it beacause the shader has an bug or if it's me
What is the lowest GPU to run PTGI Shaders?
mechaniking
bruh
so ive become a patron aaand now what..? how do I download the actual shader?
https://twitter.com/sonic_ether/status/1160753931636506624
why do i need to log in to access the website? I've been so excited to try new shaders instead of Sildur's:(
Hey Bro im not sure if this is the right place to post it but when i visit the http://sonicether.com website it askes for my username and paaword i have seen someojne with this problem on reddit here is there post Hi there, I’ve been trying to install SEUS for Minecraft 1.14.4, but when I go to Sonic Ether’s site to download it, I’m met with a sign-in popup. How do I access Sonic Ether’s site?
I don't know if this is the right forum to bring this up, but when I try to visit http://sonicether.com/ I get prompted for a username and password, it's very unusual. Anyway, thanks for the awesome shader, I'll definitely be using it more when I upgrade my rig cause my FX8350 and GTX 960 aren't cutting it, lmao
when i load e8 or e8 chroma it shows the blocks in pictures and its blocking my view, i dont know what to do pls help
Alex V
translucent blocks wont show up for me HELP
I was running it pretty well on a 1080ti with an i7-6700k myself, you're probably golden with that set up. (This is at 2560x1440)
u think im good to run seus ptgi i have a rtx 2080 and an i7-6700k
you can play on a vanilla minecraft server with vivecraft and this running at the same time
I'd saw rtx 2070 is recommended, for gtx i'd say 1080ti. And for cpu i'd say either r5 1500x or i5 4590
What are the recommended specs to run seus ptgi
Do any of the versions support VR yet???
Chahzou
(Edit: Normal maps are) already supported. I'm using Vanilla PBR. (Make sure to set the right resolution in the shader settings.)
wesley lim
Also screen space reflections of iron blocks on iron blocks appear totally black.
wesley lim
Just to note: I’m not sure if this is a lot of work, but the nether looks absolutely fantastic right now - except for the skybox. Right now the world fades to black outside the raytrace distance and although that’s not ideal, what I really find distracting is that the skybox is bright orange. If the sky was just turned black for now it’ll be a lot less distracting. Another feature I would really love is the ability to turn off the volumetric clouds effect and instead just use the Minecraft default blocky clouds - I understand this may be a big change but I hope it’s on the roadmap somewhere. I like the style of the original clouds and the fact that you can reach cloud height in the game. Another cool effect would be if the clouds casted really soft shadows on the ground so daylight isn’t 100% even and static across the whole map.
Ever going to add bumpmapping/parallax mapping?
David K
In terms of playing nicely with reflections and stuff, the Vanilla PBR texture pack is great. Doesn't do anything with rain but it sticks to the pure minecraft textures with added specular mapping and reflections and lighting for different materials that plays really well with E8
FlashTutorDE
its for the 1.14.3 version ptgi e9 be for 1.14.4
Jordan Thomas Dastrup
Getting random glowing areas with PTGI 8 and Minecraft 1.14.4
준원 강
amd? yes
Nothing I hate more than niggers
Chahzou
Just wanted to mention that in E8, reflections don't seem to be affected by atmospheric scattering, so they look too clear at a distance.
Yes he did in order to work on this version which is pretty great so far.
2 weeks is not a long time...
Matthew
E8 has 1.14 support
Did you stop developing SEUS renewed? It's pretty broken with 1.13 and above!
Ashton Erlandson
cause they won't all be perfect and also it is raytracing it is hard to fix
Hi. Love the previous alpha. You are making BIG BUCKS now for this, lets keep the releases flowing so you can keep getting paid. Please accept this comment as positive encouragement. Thank you. - A Patron.
Freud
Why do all of the shaders have lighting glitches?
Yi Han
So when it supported ATI, will it work on macOS system with Vega graphics?
Ricco
You can use this shader in 1.12.2. I used PTGI E8 with 1.13 and 1.14 for example. So I think it should work with 1.12.2 too.
FemboyIF
any chance you could add support for 1.12.2, or will there be no more support for this mods updates on that version?
Jordan Bennett
Sounds like you have a great plan! E8 is already so amazing and performance friendly. Subtle rain drops would be cool to have along with connected textures. Or does anyone have a texture pack and rain pack to recommend that works with this?
when will you release 1.14 versoin
Cool story bro
One thing I've noticed is that rain effects on water happen even when a block is directly overhead.
Yess AMD support if you pull this off I will be happy I bought my RX580 ARMOR OC8GB with GDDR5 and I was elated until I found out apart from sildurs none of the other decent shaders worked, chocapic looks closer to the quality of PTGI but laggs and for some reason edges are constantly blurry on POMS... so gl hope it works if it does i'm buying!
Damien Cherico
I also would like to know if 1.14.4 works or how to get it to work. I have two 2080 ti's working in sli but only getting 7fps sli and 24-30 with 1 card at 4k. I have an i9 9900k
Chris ziemski
Have you fixed the issue with lanterns not emitting any light at all?......never mind i see tht was adressed. Awesome
Does SEUS PTGI E8 Work With 1.14.4?
Hi
When it is complete do you plan on PTGI being free?
when ever i move there seems to be these flashes of light that pop out of thin air and then disappear...
you guys have no clue how happy i am for him to get amd support.
For some reason, My SEUS PTGI E8 shadow, composite and composite4 doesn't work I tried looking up answers but it doesn't have for SEUS PTGI E8 Can you reply if you can or someone can answer thanks. :D
Jo Bu
Reflections already work
Michele McLaren
can you make the reflections work please
Maurits Burgers
i get just round 60fps with an GTX 1080. so if you want to run at 30 to 40fps or really drop down other options then yes. This is with E8.
Hey man, will i be able to run this shader with my GTX 1070 8GB?
Erin Fernando
This is an unrelated issue from the SEUS and is a problem with Minecraft. I assume the Intel is your computer's onboard, yes? If so, there are steps you can take to force Minecraft to run with your GPU. It can be complicated, though. The issue is mostly caused on laptops and it's because Minecraft runs on Java.. Ez: update drivers, go into your AMD control panel and check if there are any settings to force it to run through your AMD gpu. Hard and not preferable solutions: check if there are settings in your BIOS to disable your onboard, edit your settings for how it loads javaw.exe, if there isn't a BIOS option try disabling it temporarily in your device manager (there is a chance it will turn off your display, at which point you would need to restart your computer). This is a very common issue with Intel integrated gpu. :/
Steve Slater
I love the direction this is going, and everything you're doing Sonic. Keep up the great work! :D
Hey sonic ether I just wanted to ask that. Minecraft is not using my amd Radeon 530 card. It's using an Intel uhd graphics 620 plz help me
Yassss. Finally
Finally AMD compatibility :D
BornkleChorf
I'm avging 50 fps with a core i7 7700k and an RTX 2070 overclocked.
Kevin McMahon
ptgi 8 is gorgeous - rocks fine got a 1060 wit 6 gb vram / fx8core
i got a gtx 1080 and i get 60
Will this run on my 1660 ti gpu? If so ill most likely purchase the gold access.
xbox360_minecraft
ptgi e6 was knocking my 1070 below 30 fps
Seus Ptgi E9 i'm use GTX 1070 can do fps?
Hana
Im pretty sure using the rtx cores would be impossible without a complete rewrite and direct help from nvidia.
Matthew
in the future do you plan to be able to utilise RTX cards?
KGB_Thanatos
How did you get E8 working on your system, mine just goes black?
Dargin
E8 is working somewhat on certain AMD cards already, my RX 580 gets ~20-30 fps but bear in mind opengl is not known for working well on AMD cards lmao
hey so ive been having this problem where there are these weird lights and black squares popping up. Dont know what it could be
Interested to see how performance fares on AMD cards vs Nvidia
Michele McLaren
Is there going to be a legasy version of this
HDN
is it possible to make a version that have a longer range of ray tracing calculation. PTGI is amazing inside of building but look very unnatural in the outside sense. I use it as shader for the replay mod so performance cost is not a huge problem
The Basskitty
You can use SEUS PTGI 7.1 for MC 1.12.2. It is Sonic Ether's previous update, it's just as amazing of a shader and only a few weeks older at this point.
Matthew
will this work for 1.12.2 for amd
Would that work fine on my PC medium~high settings when AMD GPUs are supported? I have i5 4590, 16 GB RAM, Radeon RX 570 8 GB.
I also want to know, since Vanilla normals renewed is not compatible with 1.13 or newer, still havent found any good textures for the reflection of blocks
Cody, you always deliver great updates! I'm really happy you are getting an AMD card for those users, and i don't even have an AMD card, lol. Btw i'm okay with a 12% performance hit for the more advanced block-shape lighting. Thanks for your awesome work, dude!
Panic
What's the best texture pack to mix this with?
when is this going to come out??
I think that glowstone should glow in item frames and that off redstone lamps shouldnt glow at all
No It doesn't use any of tensor ores and rt cores
Waving plants pls
Ashton Erlandson
does the sues ptgi shaders use the rtx compatible features?
good job
Robert Curtin
Do we have a version of optifine out for the current version of the game yet?
Sonic Ether
Expect performance to rise and fall as I add new features and work on optimization. E7 was focused on performance, E8 was adding new features, as will E9. E10 will probably be another low-level optimization pass.
I have a Vega 56. If Sonic want's to test code, he can just send it to me and ill try running it. No point in giving AMD money for Vega, it was a trash design, and you should only buy it if you can get it as cheap as i did.
Thank you for the hard work!
Walt McCaslin
I would have only taken a little reading to find out that E8 requires a feature not present in pre-1.13 Optifine. Next time you download, read the post.
ronaldo duran
Uhh for some reason E7.1 gives me 1-3 more fps than E8.... and def more fps than E6. Why is E8 giving me less fps?
The Basskitty
We love your work and appreciate everything you do. You make our fantasies come true on the regular and continually exceed my expectations. I know you'll continue to amaze and delight people with this project and I'm honestly proud to be a supporter 😁❤️
HardTop
awesome work Cody !
you make minecraft so good looking i cant thank you enough for making this look sooooo good
irritatingness
Awesome news all around. Looking forward to some fancy fly-throughs with a bit more interesting geometry. Huge amount of respect for opening this up to other creators with custom blocks, that could lead to some really interesting things.
Sonic Ether
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing! I think it'd definitely be good to be able to choose how much artifact reduction you want, with the lowest settings taking care of the worst cases.
Rubedo Alaberti
I recommend testing against the RX 5XX series as they're amongst the most widely used. The new 57XX series would also be a good hedge. Vega 56 too if you have free time.
wesley lim
Buddy. I love this. Good work man. Is it possible to make certain levels of implementation for this? Maybe like setting 0 is default, no special blocks, setting 1 will be all slabs and fences (the blocks that REALLY mess up lighting when placed), then 2 will include doors and trap doors (blocks that would make a big difference in lighting if compared a/b but otherwise don’t make incredibly obvious defects and finally 3 will also include carpets etc. (fully glitchless raytracjng) I think it would be great that way as I think slabs and fences are the most easy to see errors in, whereas the smaller items tend to be less noticeable in their bugs and can instead be screenspace solved for lower end computers.
looking dope, keep up the good work!
awesome, sounds great. Can't wait for the new version!
Nice
Valerie
I love reading these! Thanks for the update =]
Wergus Bergus
Nice