Battlefield 6 drops ray tracing to boost performance for more players

Battlefield 6, one of the year’s most anticipated first-person shooters, will launch without ray tracing, and developer Ripple Effect has no plans to add it soon. The studio says the move is aimed at delivering smooth gameplay across PCs and consoles, including systems with modest hardware.

Studio Technical Director Christian Buhl explained that the decision was intentional to prioritise performance. “We wanted to focus on performance. All of our effort was focused on making the game as optimised as possible for the default settings and the default users,” he said. The choice reflects the studio’s commitment to broad accessibility rather than cutting-edge graphical effects that only benefit high-end GPU users.

Ray tracing simulates realistic lighting and reflections and has become a popular visual feature in recent titles. However, it is resource-intensive and can significantly reduce frame rates. By excluding ray tracing, Battlefield 6 aims to maintain smooth visuals, large-scale multiplayer action, and destructible environments without compromising performance.

The game’s core audience appears largely unaffected, as most players favour consistent gameplay over advanced visual effects. Feedback from beta testers highlighted that the game already delivers solid performance and impressive visuals, even without ray tracing.