CD Projekt Red (CDPR) has rolled out new high end ray-tracing features for the PC version of Cyberpunk 2077, courtesy of the newly released Ray Tracing: Overdrive mode introduced in Patch 1.62.
The new PC exclusive features are geared towards high-end rigs, and will bring a “fully ray-traced, aka path-traced, rendering mode to the game”, according to a new post on the Cyberpunk 2077 website.
The developer states that the technology is capable of accurately simulating light throughout any given scene, taking into account the characteristics of emissions from an unlimited number of sources to create faithful shadows, reflections, and global illuminations.
As a result, the full set of new features are extremely GPU-intensive, and will only be available on a limited number of NVIDIA cards.
At launch, Cyberpunk 2077’s Ray-Tracing Overdrive mode is available for PC players sporting the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 Series (4070 Ti and up), and can also be run at 30 fps at a resolution of 1080p on NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 3090. PC players who have other ray-tracing capable cards will be able to render fully path-traced screenshots via the game’s photo mode.
Patch 1.62 also saw the implementation of NVIDIA’s artificial intelligence-based DLAA anti-aliasing mode, along with support for the Intel Xe Super Sampling 1.1 performance improving upscaling technology. Check out the official Cyberpunk 2077 blog for a full list of the updates and relevant PC specifications.
CDPR has branded the release of the new features as a “Technology Preview”, to reflect the fact that the developer is expecting the resource intensive graphics features to have significant “issues” at launch.
“It pushes the boundaries of what’s possible in technology,” read the update blog. “However, because it is so new and fundamentally different from what we’ve been using so far, we know it’s not going to be perfect from the start and players might experience some issues – that’s why we’ve decided to call it a ‘Technology Preview’”.
The new graphics options are switched off by default. However, players with the requisite hardware will be able to switch to the Ray-Tracing: Overdrive preset – or enable the Path Tracing feature alone – via the graphics menu. CDPR has also stated that it is committed to improving the feature moving forward.
Anthony is a freelance contributor covering science and video gaming news for IGN. He has over eight years experience of covering breaking developments in multiple scientific fields and absolutely no time for your shenanigans. Follow him on Twitter @BeardConGamer
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