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I think those early reports came from the Xbox store since it listed the game as having RT. Remedy later published a FAQ page detailing a lot about the game, including the resolution the game ran on with each console and it not having ray tracing.
Does Alan Wake Remastered support ray tracing / HDR?
No.
As this is a remaster built on the existing Alan Wake engine and technology, adding in ray tracing / HDR support was deemed too time-consuming. This would have taken resources away from other critical areas.
We are confident the game looks great even without ray tracing / HDR support.
IIRC the bulk of the data was video files where the actual game took up far less space, at least on the 360. I wonder if they just kept all the textures and video file resolutions the same on all platforms since they can all output at 4K.
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Isnāt the point of Smart Delivery that you effectively have one game and a different config file for each system? It can also mean some parts of the game arenāt downloaded for certain systems (higher res textures, more detailed geometry etc) but it doesnāt have to.
Thatās how I understood it worked anyway. Itās why so many PS4/XBO games get a better version on Xbox Series as compared to PS5 ā the dev just has to add a config file for those versions with different settings rather than create a native port.
Ah that awesome camera is replay only?
Shame 
Right, which means they arenāt actually using Smart Delivery as advertised.
The point of it is that there is a single sku in the marketplace and you download only the files for the version you need when you get the license for the game sku. It then detects which machine you are downloading it on and nabs the appropriate version of the sku.
It should be downloading a bespoke X1S version with lower res texture assets for that version (and presumably 1080p vids for anything pre-rendered). Same for XSX for 4k. The fact it is isnāt, means functionally it isnāt actually even using Smart Delivery. It is a single sku, so they still get to pretend it is, but the ādeliveryā part is not smart at all as it pushes the exact same files regardless of what machine/generation you are on, which entirely defeats the purpose of Smart Delivery. 
Yes otherwise it will be a jarring experience to play.
Thatās not what that necessarily means. They could be using smart delivery but didnāt see a need to have different quality assets/video file configurations. Smart delivery doesnāt require you to use different asset settings, itās just an option of the feature.
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It depends on the game, from what I understand. I stand open to be corrected. Iāve read several times though that the reason various cross gen games have had better modes on Series X than PS5 is that Smart Delivery allows them to just add a config file with settings pushed up for the Series version.
If they had to actually make a different version for Series X, then why wouldnāt they do the same for PS5?
We keep hearing the same story over and over again ā with Smart Delivery, they donāt have to make a new version, they can change all sorts of settings without touching the code. With PS5 all they can do without actually making a native port is unlock the frame rate.
EDIT: that can mean adding new assets that the Series version can use, but it doesnāt need to.
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Smart Delivery is premised on having a single sku in the marketplace to grant licenses for where the marketplace ādeliversā only the files for the version that fits the machineās capabilities that you are installing it on. Yes, the requirement is the single sku, but the actual implementation is supposed to include the delivery being āsmartā, i.e. where there are distinctions between what machine it is installing on and what files you download.
I think you are misunderstanding me. There are different versions made for all platforms. With Smart Delivery though, it is a single sku that the customer gets a license to and the sky includes all versions of the game for the Xbox platforms.
For instance, if I buy AW:R it gives me a license for the X1S/X1X/XSS/XSX versions (all of them are tied to the same license). This lets me install the game on any of those machines. I would not need to buy an X1S version and then buy it again for XSX if I wanted to play it on both, for instance.
The single license covers me for all Xbox versions across the board. The utility of this is to allow the marketplace to see the machine I am installing the game on and then only download the files for that version to avoid wasting drive space. XSX and X1X versions typically have 4k-quality assets that are much higher res than X1S or XSS versions do.
And yeah, since it is the same sku the devs can likely just update the one sku with config file changes like ya said. That makes sense. On other platforms the bespoke versions are all different skus, so devs would have to change those skus on the marketplace individually. You guys are kinda hung up on the requirement aspect (the single marketplace sku), not the functionality itself (the intelligent delivery of files based on the device).
I get all that, we arenāt disagreeing there.
I am saying it does other stuff as well.
We have seen Smart Delivery be given as a reason as to why a lot of games that donāt have next-gen versions end up having enhanced resolutions, framerates up to 120fps, and other settings changes in the Xbox Series X and Series S versions, while all PS5 gets is a framerate unlock to allow 60fps.
Every time these things happens, the devs say its to do with how Smart Delivery works.
And itās also true that while some games with āOptimised for X/Sā badges appear to be native versions (i.e. they need to be installed on the SSD) others with that badge can be stored on external USB drives. Again, the inference is that this is Smart Delivery magic.
If you look at the āOptimised for Series X/Sā games that do need to be installed on the SSD, its clear that there is content in them not in the One X version. In Forza Horizon 4 they up to PC ultra settings and use some assets not found in the console version. Same goes with Gears 5. With Sea of Thieves however, the āOptimised for Series X/Sā āāāāupgradeāāāā the changes are to resolution and framerate. Sea of Thieves, despite being an āOptimised for Series X/Sā game, can still be installed on an external USB device.
The implication: Smart Delivery is being used to give the Xbox One X version of the game different settings values. Itās still the Xbox One X version of the game.
To be clear and not to over-claim ā this is at least 50% guesswork/inference from what I have read, but this is what I understood was going on from things that have been said and things I have observed. Could be wrong.
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Yeah but if they donāt need to lower video or texture resolution on the lower end consoles, why do it? No matter what, there will be a trade off in this respect. Lower quality video files is worse than a larger overall file size IMO.
I donāt think Smart Delivery is related to what you are describing. There are just ways that Xbox handles BC much better than PS5 does, even setting Smart Delivery aside. I do see ppl mistakenly attribute that to Smart Delivery often though, which I suspect is what you are seeing online, but there are games not using Smart Delivery that also demonstrated that kinda result iirc. Not sure I have any devs saying their games work best on Xbox do to that.
āOptimized for X|Sā is just a tag that shows the game has a BC-enhanced mode of some sort. That is not the same as Smart Delivery though.
ORā¦just use higher detail assets on the machines that can handle it. Ya know, since it is a remaster and all. Deploying the X1S versionās assets across the entire Xbox family of devices is not a result anyone should be cool with, especially when marketing the game as utilizing an intelligent asset delivery scheme like Smart Delivery.
How can anyone see these videos and think the game looks bad?
Thereās a case of āgood enoughā though, especially depending on the gameās budget. The gameās textures look great, even at 4K, so there isnāt anything to complain about there IMO. All youāre doing is highlighting why people should not be paying so much attention to marketing.
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I just wanna know how they got out of the map. Hax. Good showcase for evaluating questions about lighting too maybe?
If publishers were honest about their use of these features the marketing would actually have material meaning. We are seeing this kinda crap happen with resolutions and RT too (Returnal, GT7, etc). Fast and loose use of tech terms for misleading marketing applications should be called out, regardless of budget.
Iām gonna just spam the thread with Two Minute Papers vids until everyone gets the message and subs to them. 
This is really neat!
I can see that, but it would be nice to have the option if only for some vomit inducing sessions XD
This is awesome. Sounds similar to what NT showed for project Mara
But budget should be considered because that can effect the asset quality or how each version differs. I agree with you on GT7 and Returnal though because they are 1st party titles and wouldnāt have the same limitations as D3T on Alan Wake.