After the inclusion of DLSS 3 and Reflex support in January, CD Projekt RED and Nvidia have announced that Cyberpunk 2077‘s upcoming update 1.62 will bring path tracing (full ray tracing) to the game’s PC version on April 11. Termed “Overdrive Mode,” the path tracing feature brings ultra-realistic lighting physics to the game, and will apparently be exclusive to Nvidia’s RTX 40 series of GPUs.
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Path tracing, also known as full ray tracing, “accurately simulates light throughout an entire scene.” Previously limited to usage in film because of its sheer draw on computing resources, path tracing has become possible in real-time video game rendering due to Nvidia’s work on its RTX GPUs and its DLSS technology. While it brought ray tracing to the mainstream in 2018, the company claims that “it wasn’t until GeForce RTX 40 series and DLSS 3 was available that it was possible to bring path tracing to real-time graphics,” implying that the feature will only be available for rigs equipped with RTX 40 series GPUs.
Nvidia has shared a visual comparison of rasterized, ray-traced, and path-traced lighting below:
Cyberpunk 2077 launched with ray tracing functionality on PC, and its next-gen PS5 and Xbox Series X|S versions also included the feature on release. It appears that only a subset of its playerbase (those who play on PC with RTX 40 series GPUs) will get to enjoy the path tracing technical preview when it shoots out in update 1.62 on April 11. Stay tuned here at MP1st for all upcoming Cyberpunk 2077 news and announcements.
Source: Nvidia