Frequently Asked Questions

If you haven't found the answer to your question in the list, feel free to contact us via Discord or any other communication channel.

Q: Do I have to own HTrace World Space Global Illumination to use it? A: No, Ambient Occlusion is a separate asset and can be used on its own.

Q: Can I use it with HTrace World Space Global Illumination? A: Yes. However, due to Unity's asset importer issues it's better to first unpack the asset to a separate project and then manually copy the folder with the asset to the project where HTrace WSGI is installed.

Q: Is this real ray-tracing ? A: Yes, RTAO mode utilizes hardware-accelerated real time ray-tracing.

Q: Do I need an RTX GPU to use it ? A: RTAO mode requires compatible hardware and API, refer to this section for more information. GTAO and SSAO modes do not require special hardware.

Q: Does ray-tracing works with all pipelines? A: Yes, RTAO mode works with HDRP, URP and BIRP with slight differences.

Q: Is this asset faster / better than HDRP's native SSAO ? A: Refer to this section for the comparison with HDRP's GTAO and to this section for the comparison with HDRP's RTAO

Q: Does it work with render feature X (e.g. fog, water, etc.) ? A: In HDRP and URP pipelines, HTrace is injected through native ambient occlusion systems (HDRP's SSAO override and URP's SSAO render feature) and has the same compatibility level as these native AO solutions. The BIRP pipeline utilizes a simpler approach where occlusion is added as a post-processing effect, providing a lower compatibility level.

Q: Is it fast ? A: HTrace Ambient Occlusion provides many performance controls that allow vast scalability, ranging from maximum performance to maximum visual fidelity. It's not possible to provide exact numbers as they depend heavily on hardware, scene complexity and frame resolution.

Q: Does it work with Unity 6 ? A: Yes, it does.

Q: Does it work with URP Render Graph? A: No. Render Graph support is in progress.

Q: Does it work on mobile devices? A: It's untested.

Q: Does it work with VR? A: Single pass VR is supported for HDRP. However, URP and BIRP do not support VR at the current moment.

Q: Does it work with Apple devices (Metal) ? A: GTAO and SSAO modes work on Metal API. RTAO mode doesn't as Unity doesn't support ray-tracing on Metal.

Q: Does it require motion vectors / a normal buffer? A: It depends on the occlusion mode, refer to this comparison section for more information.