Reshade Rtgi — 0.36.1

As of writing, Pascal Gilcher has moved on to "RTGI Reborn" and a proprietary denoiser available on his Patreon. Version 0.36.1 is considered abandonware—it will never receive updates.

Use 0.36.1 if:

Upgrade to the paid version if:

ReShade RTGI 0.36.1 is not the most accurate, nor the fastest, nor the prettiest ray tracing solution available today. Yet, it is arguably the most important. It proved that global illumination did not need dedicated RT cores. It gave new life to the GTX 1080 Ti, once a flagship now considered obsolete by Nvidia’s marketing.

For the tinkerer, the modder, and the PC gamer on a budget, injecting RTGI 0.36.1 into Fallout: New Vegas or Half-Life 2 feels like magic. You are watching light behave as it does in reality, rendered on silicon originally not designed for the task. Reshade Rtgi 0.36.1

Pro Tip: After installing, bind "Toggle RTGI" to a key (e.g., F9). Turn it on and off while standing inside a dim room near a doorway. Watch the sunlight bounce onto the ceiling behind you. That moment—that subtle, free upgrade—is why 0.36.1 remains a legend.

Crucial Disclaimer: RTGI 0.36.1 does not require an RTX card. It runs via compute shaders on any GPU that supports DirectX 11 or Vulkan.

Installing RTGI 0.36.1 is more involved than a modern ReShade preset. You need the specific shader files, which are often hosted on the ReShade forum or the author’s Patreon (the free version is usually available after a delay).

Reshade RTGI is a real-time global illumination shader/effect for ReShade that simulates indirect lighting, soft shadows, and ambient light bounce inside games and real-time renderers without native ray tracing. Version 0.36.1 is a minor update in the 0.36.x series focused on stability, quality tweaks, and performance refinements. As of writing, Pascal Gilcher has moved on

1. "No depth buffer detected"

2. Flickering or boiling shadows

3. Ghosting trails behind moving objects

4. Performance is terrible (30+ FPS drop) Upgrade to the paid version if: ReShade RTGI 0

While RTGI 0.36.1 is impressive, it is bound by the constraints of Screen-Space effects:

| Setting | What it does | Recommended start | |--------|--------------|------------------| | Quality | Ray sample count (Low = noisy, High = slower) | Medium or High | | Radius | How far light bounces (small = local, large = room-scale) | 0.4 – 0.8 | | Bounce Intensity | Brightness of indirect light | 0.6 – 1.2 | | Bounce Saturation | Color bleed strength (red brick reflecting red onto wall) | 0.3 – 0.6 | | Ambient Occlusion Mix | Blends SSAO-style darkening with GI | 0.4 – 0.7 | | Temporal Amount | Reduces flicker using previous frames | 0.65 – 0.85 (higher = less noise, more ghosting) |

Avoid overdoing Bounce Intensity above 1.5 – it crushes shadows and washes out contrast.