A new screenshot acquired by Entertainment Weekly appears to show ray-traced puddles, hinting that Insomniac has successfully implemented this next-gen feature into the upcoming Spider-Man: Miles Morales.
Ray-tracing is a more advanced rendering technique that allows developers to better portray lighting and shadows during gameplay. Given the power needed for this rendering technology, ray-tracing has previously only existed in PC gaming, but is now making its way to console gaming via the PS5.
Of course, you may wonder why a nice-looking puddle matters so much in Spider-Man: Miles Morales. Here's why.
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Ray-tracing shown off in Spider-Man: Miles Morales
When Insomniac first revealed Miles Morales in the PS5 State of Play event, confusion swept the internet over whether this was a sequel to Spider-Man PS4, a separate game entirely, or an expansion. After some mixed messages from Sony execs, Insomniac confirmed Miles Morales is a standalone game.
However, the developer still faced questions as to whether Miles Morales is just a re-skinned version of their original Spider-Man game. The reveal of ray-tracing working in-game should hopefully quash these rumours, with Spider-Man: Miles Morales lining up to be one of the first next-gen games to make use of the PS5's impressive specs.
There's one other reason this puddle has started to garner attention online over the past few days.
Prior to Spider-Man PS4's release in September 2018, the internet was swept up in what has now been named 'Puddlegate'.
Fans accused Insomniac of downgrading Spider-Man's PS4 graphics from the E3 2017 demo. Despite developers explaining the difference between these screenshots was a creative one, in that they just moved the puddles around, it became a mantra chanted by a vocal minority of PC and Xbox players.
While I might be reading too much into this screenshot, I'd like to think it's a nod to this 'controversy' that also shows off the next-gen Spider-Mangame.