Far Cry 6 trades ray tracing for 60fps on PS5 and Xbox Series X

Ubisoft has confirmed that its upcoming open-world action game, Far Cry 6, will not feature ray tracing on consoles – with only PC players getting the graphics option.

In an interview with WCCFTech, Ubisoft 3D Team lead programmer, Stephanie Brenham, confirmed that the game wouldn’t feature ray-tracing on consoles, as the developer opted instead to prioritise 4K at 60fps on new consoles.

“Ray tracing is a PC only feature,” Brenham told the site. “On console, our objective has been to take advantage of new hardware capabilities, optimizing performance targeting 4K and achieving 60 FPS, for instance, all while ensuring new game features, like our dynamic weather system, are supported on all platforms.”

As well as ray tracing, AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution feature is exclusive to the PC version of Far Cry 6, too.

Over on TechRadar, Ubisoft clarified the statement, and noted that the decision was also made so that “the experience on the previous generation of console would remain consistent."

That said, the new-gen versions of the game will have better HD textures, higher levels of detail, and longer draw distances compared to the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 4 Pro, Xbox One, and Xbox One X versions of the game, per Brenham. So that's something for new console owners, at least.

The decision to keep ray tracing out of the console versions is an interesting choice, especially since we’ve seen other released and upcoming games feature ray tracing on PS5 and Xbox Series X to date; Dying Light 2, Metro Exodus, and Hitman 3 spring to mind immidiately.

Far Cry 6 arrives on October 7 for PlayStation, Xbox, PC, Stadia, and Amazon Luna. You can read James' huge preview of Far Cry 6 at the link.