DXR Pathtracing Backrooms Prototype (DEMO)

An interactive prototype of my pathtracing backrooms renderer setup, utilizing the analog aesthetic to get away with more performance.


After seeing a lot of interest growing in some clips I shared of my recent backrooms-esque prototype utilizing DXR (DirectX Raytracing) in Unity for pathtracing at a low resolution w/ NTSC artifacts for that analog flare, I thought I'd release a small tech-demo to allow people to try it out for themselves (and more importantly, see just how poorly it all performs).

There isn't really anything to find or do, just the demo scene tied with some debug controls for changing the lighting scenarios, adjusting ray projection features, and adjusting the reprojection system used to accumulate pixels & provide a cleaner view.

I do want to flesh things out into a full project, but for now I figured this should suffice. The current raytracing setup is honestly a first pass & is quite naive, and I would like to restart it if I ever find the time before turning it into a real thing. The environment was not made by myself, but is instead from this very handy asset pack by loafbrr, however I do plan on producing original environments & assets in the future, as I have for projects before & would like this project to be heavily focused on architectural exploration & designing spaces.

Requirements:

• an operating system with DirectX 12 (Windows 10+)
• DXR-compatible GPU

Controls:

• MOVEMENT: WASD + mouselook
• DEBUG MENU: Toggle w/ Tab or (`), WASD/arrows to select & change options, R/(space) to reset a value to default

Be sure to try changing the number of rays per pixel to improve the image & to obtain results similar to those in the test videos I've posted elsewhere!

There are definitely things I can do to improve performance, though a good amount will revolve around rewriting the raytracing setup, as, again, this is only a first pass. That being said, feel free to let me know how performance is on your end!

I want this project to be a technical showcase of producing compelling pathtraced visuals at small resolutions, as there isn't really too much that explores that or how combining it with the radio NTSC look can recontextualize montecarlo-style noise into something that seems more intentional. Denoising is still a necessary step to get something worth looking at, but the aesthetic definitely helps reduce how much we need to clean the image.

I hope y'all find this little experiment interesting! It's been a lot of fun to do some stuff with raytracing again, even if it's a bit messier than I'd like. Be sure to let me know how well it runs, but also be aware that it might be pretty slow since it's a seriously naive setup still that could be optimized in so many ways. If you'd like to see me prioritize a project similar to this, feel free to leave a comment encouraging so!

NOTE FOR THOSE EAGERLY AWAITING JPGPU FOR OBS:

Thank you for being so patient with me! I promise it's coming very soon. I'm still having some issues with the scaling functions breaking if the source isn't cropped by at least a single pixel, but if it continues to elude me any longer I'll release a version as is very soon & note that in bugs, & will continue to work on it. I really want to fix it & make it perfect, but even moreso, I want people to go nuts with it, and I'm already months late at getting it out.

EDIT: Due to popular demand, I've also added the JPGPU+datamoshing test build which has been a large point of interest since posting as a separate download option (DXRBackroomsPrototype (JPGPU).zip).

Additional controls include:

• Hold right click: gradually increase dependency on reprojected blocks (gradual datamoshing)
• Hold middle click: instantly increase dependency on reprojected blocks (sudden datamoshing)