Update 4/20/23: Capcom has announced that the ray tracing options for Resident Evil 2 and 3, as well as the 3D audio that was missing as well, have been added to the games; I just played RE2 to double check, and lo and behold, the ray tracing has been restored. It is still unclear what mistake caused it to temporarily disappear, but all's well that ends well, and Raccoon City is back to looking shiny and next-generation.

Original Story Last week, the legions of "Resident Evil 2" and "Resident Evil 3" fans who terrorized Raccoon City, including myself for spending too much money on graphics cards, discovered that the game's ray-tracing technology had suddenly been removed (opens in new tab) The sudden and quiet withdrawal of the RT option seemed to be related to the April 14 patches for both games, and it was not clear if the lighting technology would be reinstated.

However, the deletion appears to have been a mistake, as Capcom has finally taken to Twitter to calm our nerves. The official Resident Evil Twitter account said it was "aware of an ongoing issue with the ray tracing options not showing up in the graphics menu and presets," and promised to "address this in a future update."

Capcom did not actually elaborate on what led to the disappearance of the ray tracing options in RE2 and 3, nor did they offer a timeline for when they would be restored.

We have contacted Capcom to ask when ray tracing will be restored and what caused it to be removed, and will update this article if we hear back.

Raytracing was not the only technology to fall victim to its sudden disappearance; the 3D audio options in RE2 and 3 also seem to have mysteriously disappeared. I admit that I did not notice the loss of the option, as my own audio setup is a crumbling set of aging Sennheisers and not much else. However, those of you with more elaborate speakers than mine should look forward to the return of 3-D audio. Raccoon City will soon be as ray-traced and echoed as ever.