Capcom has released the newest update for Dragon's Dogma 2 on PC and PlayStation 5, while Xbox will get it in next few days. On the PC, the update improves quality when DLSS Super Resolution is enabled, and fixes various bugs. Earlier, Dragon's Dogma 2 Devs have already announced an investigation for PC performance and stability issues, specifically frame rate and various crashes, bugs and the option to start a new game, which has been addressed with this update.

According to the release notes release by Capcom, PC specific updates include improved quality when NVIDIA DLSS Super Resolution is enabled and a fix for an issue related to the display of models under some specific settings. On both PlayStation 5 and the PC, the update adds the option to start a new game when save game data already exists, changes the number of "Art of Metamorphosis" items available in Pawn Shops to 99, makes the "dwelling quest" available earlier in the game, as well as fixes various bugs and text display issues. On the PlayStation 5, the update also adds the option to switch on/off the Motion Blur and Ray Tracing, as well as to set the maximum frame rate to 30 FPS. Capcom also notes that motion blur and ray tracing options should not affect frame rate significantly, and that improvements to frame rate are planned for future updates. The release notes also say that updates to Xbox Series X/S version of the game are planned in the next few days.

Over 500 games and applications feature RTX technologies, and barely a week goes by without new blockbuster games and incredible indie releases integrating NVIDIA DLSS, NVIDIA Reflex, and advanced ray-traced effects to deliver the definitive PC experience for GeForce RTX gamers.

This week, we're highlighting the release of DLSS 3-accelerated release of Outpost: Infinity Siege, and the launch of Alone In The Dark and Lightyear Frontier, which both feature DLSS 2. This batch of great new RTX releases follows the release of Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition, which boasted day-one support for NVIDIA DLSS 3, NVIDIA DLAA, and NVIDIA Reflex. Additionally, Diablo IV's ray tracing update is out now—learn more about each new announcement below.

Microsoft has filed for a new and even potentially groundbreaking patent that could transform the way ray tracing graphics are processed, especially when video memory (VRAM) is scarce. The patent proposes a technique to minimize the memory footprint of ray tracing graphics, tackling the escalating concerns about the growing memory demands for ray tracing and path tracing. The innovation outlined in Microsoft's patent employs a dynamic level of detail (LOD) approach to adaptively modify the quality of ray tracing effects based on accessible resources. The patent portrays the ray tracing pipeline as an acceleration structure that can be streamlined using this LOD system. The cornerstone of this optimization is a residency map that aligns with a bounding volume hierarchy of objects. The graphics processing system can then utilize this map to ascertain the suitable quality level for objects at any given moment. This methodology enables a more reasonable allocation of resources, guaranteeing that the most crucial objects receive the highest quality rendering. At the same time, less important elements can be rendered at lower quality to conserve memory.

Microsoft's patent could have far-reaching ramifications for the design and performance of upcoming GPUs. By implementing this novel LOD system, GPUs with more modest VRAM capacities, such as those with 8 GB, could provide ray tracing performance on par with higher-end models boasting larger memory buffers, given enough compute capacity. This advancement could pave the way for more budget-friendly GPUs that still deliver adequate ray tracing capabilities, making the technology more accessible. Moreover, the adaptive nature of the LOD system could contribute to a more reliable performance across diverse scenarios, as the GPU would be capable of adjusting to the available resources in real time. Microsoft's patent could emerge as a game-changer in the realm of GPU design and performance, and we are now waiting to see if any real-world implementations appear.

Konstantin Seurer, a Mesa developer, has spent the past couple of months working on CPU-based Vulkan ray tracing—naturally, some folks will express scepticism about this project's practicality. Seurer has already set expectations with a brief message: "don't ask about performance." His GitLab merge request page attracted Michael Larabel's attention—the Phoronix founder and principal author was suitably impressed with Seurer's coding wizardry. He: "managed to implement support for VK_KHR_acceleration_structure, VK_KHR_deferred_host_operations, and VK_KHR_ray_query for Lavapipe. This Lavapipe Vulkan ray tracing support is based in part on porting code from the emulated ray tracing worked on for RADV with older Radeon GPUs." A lone screenshot provided evidence of Quake II running at 1 FPS with Vulkan ray tracing enabled—this "atrocious" performance was achieved thanks to a Mesa Lavapipe driver "implementing the Vulkan API for CPU-based execution."

VideoCardz has highlighted an older example of CPU-based rendering techniques: "this is not the first time we heard about ray tracing on the CPU in Quake. In 2008, Intel demonstrated Enemy Territory: Quake Wars running at 720p resolution at 14 to 29 FPS on 16 core and 20-35 FPS at 24 core CPUs (quad-socket). The basic implementation of ray tracing in 2008 is not comparable to complex ray tracing techniques designed for GPUs, thus the performance on modern system is actually much lower. Beyond that, that game was specifically designed for the Intel architecture and used a specific API to achieve that. Sadly, the original ET demo is no longer available, it would be interesting to see how it performs today." CPU-based Vulkan ray tracing is expected to hit public distribution channels with the rollout of Mesa 24.1. Several members of the Phoronix community reckon that modern AMD Threadripper PRO processors have the potential to post double-digit in-game frame rates.

Patch 2.11 for Cyberpunk 2077 and Phantom Liberty is being rolled out on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. In this update we focused on fixing the most common issues encountered by players, including Finisher animations, and added a little something for Rayfield enthusiasts! PC-specific changes include the addition of a Hybrid CPU Utilization setting, which can be found under Gameplay → Performance. It can be set either to "Auto" (lets the operating system automatically decide how to distribute threads among the cores) or "Prioritize P-Cores" (prioritizes performance cores). It is set to "Auto" by default. We have also implemented a fix that improves graphics performance, especially on AMD Radeon RX Vega GPUs.

Visual Changes
Patch 2.11 adds Neon-lit rims for the Yaiba Kusanagi CT-3X—these parts will now light up properly. We also fixed shadows appearing on V's torso when wearing tank tops, as well as dark shadows appearing on V's hands when holding some weapons with Ray Tracing enabled. The Devil and Judgment tarot cards will now be properly displayed on the end-game reward screen. For complete patch details, check out the full list of changes below.

Gearbox Publishing and Blackbird Interactive have officially unveiled the system requirements for Homeworld 3, the highly anticipated next installment in the GOTY-winning sci-fi RTS series, launching in 2024. Blackbird Interactive continues its work to optimize the game to ensure the fidelity, scale and immersiveness of Homeworld 3's gameplay can be experienced across a wide array of PCs.

Players with the latest graphics cards and processors can enjoy the game in 4K with all of the settings turned up while players with older components can still experience Homeworld 3's hallmark 3D strategy experience with dynamic space battles and incredible visuals.

Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS), an Amazon.com, Inc. company (NASDAQ: AMZN), and NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) today announced an expansion of their strategic collaboration to deliver the most-advanced infrastructure, software and services to power customers' generative artificial intelligence (AI) innovations. The companies will bring together the best of NVIDIA and AWS technologies—from NVIDIA's newest multi-node systems featuring next-generation GPUs, CPUs and AI software, to AWS Nitro System advanced virtualization and security, Elastic Fabric Adapter (EFA) interconnect, and UltraCluster scalability—that are ideal for training foundation models and building generative AI applications.

The expanded collaboration builds on a longstanding relationship that has fueled the generative AI era by offering early machine learning (ML) pioneers the compute performance required to advance the state-of-the-art in these technologies.

In Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition, immerse yourself in every story the world of the dark future has to offer, featuring every gameplay update and all previously released content in one package - including the acclaimed spy-thriller expansion Phantom Liberty. Get the ultimate Cyberpunk experience with full ray tracing, NVIDIA DLSS 3.5 with Ray Reconstruction, and NVIDIA Reflex, powered by GeForce RTX 40 Series GPUs and laptops. Become an urban outlaw equipped with cybernetic enhancements and build your legend on the streets of Night City. Go on daring adventures and build relationships with unforgettable characters whose fates are shaped by the choices you make, and decide how V's story ends. Your choices in the base game and Phantom Liberty create interweaving webs of consequences, ones that shape the fate of the characters around you - and your own.

Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition is the complete package, including every update, add-on and in-game item CD PROJEKT RED has released. For PC gamers with GeForce RTX graphics cards, you can experience all of Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition's content with the incredible technical and graphical enhancements NVIDIA and CD PROJEKT RED have partnered on pre and post release.

This week, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, Jusant, RIPOUT, RoboCop: Rogue City, and The Talos Principle 2 all launch with day-one support for DLSS 3, giving GeForce RTX 40 Series gamers the fastest frame rates possible at the highest settings and resolutions.

Additionally, RIPOUT just entered Early Access with DLSS 3, Desynced is adding support for DLSS 3 in the near future, EA SPORTS WRC launches this week with DLSS 2, and NVIDIA Omniverse has just added support for DLSS 3.5 and Ray Reconstruction. This bumper selection of anticipated releases follow last week's launch of Alan Wake 2, featuring full ray tracing, DLSS 3.5, Ray Reconstruction, and NVIDIA Reflex.

The highly anticipated NVIDIA DLSS 3.5 update, including Ray Reconstruction for NVIDIA Omniverse - a platform for connecting and building custom 3D tools and apps - is now available. RTX Video Super Resolution (VSR) will be available with tomorrow's NVIDIA Studio Driver release - which also supports the DLSS 3.5 update in Omniverse and is free for RTX GPU owners. The version 1.5 update delivers greater overall graphical fidelity, upscaling for native videos and support for GeForce RTX 20 Series GPUs. NVIDIA Creative Director and visual effects producer Sabour Amirazodi returns In the NVIDIA Studio to share his Halloween-themed project: a full projection mapping show on his house, featuring haunting songs, frightful animation, spooky props and more.

Creators can join the #SeasonalArtChallenge by submitting harvest- and fall-themed pieces through November The latest Halloween-themed Studio Standouts video features ghouls, creepy monsters, haunted hospitals, dimly lit homes and is not for the faint-of-heart.

This week, Alan Wake 2 launches with incredible fully ray-traced graphics, accelerated and enhanced by NVIDIA DLSS 3.5's complete suite of AI-powered technologies. GeForce RTX 40 Series gamers will receive the definitive day-one experience: frame rates are multiplied by an average of 4.5X at 4K, ray tracing is even more immersive thanks to Ray Reconstruction, and Reflex makes gameplay even more responsive. Additionally, gamers can soon enable DLSS in Ikonei Island: An Earthlock Adventure, and Shadows of Doubt, two highly rated indie games.

These new DLSS integrations follow last week's DLSS launches, which saw NARAKA: BLADEPOINT, Slender: The Arrival, and Warhammer: Vermintide 2 introduce support for DLSS 3, and HOT WHEELS UNLEASHED 2 - Turbocharged and AirportSim release with DLSS 2.

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty is now available on PC with full ray tracing, DLSS 3.5, and Ray Reconstruction. Phantom Liberty is a new spy-thriller adventure for Cyberpunk 2077. When the orbital shuttle of the President of the New United States of America is shot down over the deadliest district of Night City, there's only one person who can save her - you. Become V, a cyberpunk for hire, and dive deep into a tangled web of espionage and political intrigue, unraveling a story that connects the highest echelons of power with the brutal world of black-market mercenaries. If you don't own the expansion, return to the neon lights of Night City in Cyberpunk 2077's 2.0 update, available now, featuring support for NVIDIA DLSS 3.5 and its new Ray Reconstruction technology, enhancing the quality of full ray tracing in Cyberpunk 2077's Ray Tracing: Overdrive Mode.

Crank Ray Tracing Up To Overdrive
Both Cyberpunk 2077 and Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty feature full ray tracing in the technology preview for the Ray Tracing: Overdrive Mode. Full ray tracing, also known as path tracing, accurately simulates light throughout an entire scene. It is used by visual effects artists to create film and TV graphics that are indistinguishable from reality, but until the arrival of GeForce RTX GPUs with RT Cores, and the AI-powered acceleration of NVIDIA DLSS, real-time video game full ray tracing was impossible because it is extremely GPU intensive.

Hot on the heels of news that DLSS 3.5 Ray Reconstruction can be made to work with DLAA (DLSS at native resolution) using a DLSS-modding utility, we're coming across yet another hack. This one gets you to use DLSS 3.5 Ray Reconstruction on Cyberpunk Phantom Liberty without the need for Path Tracing, and using the game's regular ray tracing technology. Path tracing is very hardware intensive feature, and in our testing, we've only been able to get playable frame-rates at 4K Ultra HD using the two fastest GPUs in the market, the RTX 4090 and RTX 4080. A user on Reddit discovered how to get Phantom Liberty to use regular ray tracing with Ray Reconstruction. We don't know who the original author of this hack is, but it was re-posted to Reddit by Daemoni73. Here are the steps:

• Launch Cyberpunk 2077, enable Ray Tracing and DLSS Super Resolution (in other words apply your preferable settings).
• Exit the game and go to your %LOCALAPPDATA%\CD Projekt Red\Cyberpunk 2077 and open the UserSettings.json file.
• Search for "DLSS_D", set the "value" and "default_value" from "false" to "true".
• Save the config file and set it as "read only".
• Launch the game and play with Ray Tracing and DLSS Ray Reconstruction.

On September 21st, NVIDIA DLSS 3.5 debuts in Cyberpunk 2077 and Chaos Vantage. NVIDIA DLSS 3.5 makes your games even more beautiful, immersive and realistic with the introduction of Ray Reconstruction, a new AI-powered technique that further enhances the quality of ray tracing. And in apps, ray-traced previews and viewports are greatly improved, enabling creators to better visualize the final result before time-consuming renders. DLSS 3.5 is available for all GeForce RTX and NVIDIA RTX users; for the complete breakdown on this new technology, head to our NVIDIA DLSS 3.5 announcement article.

In other DLSS news, Lies of P, Party Animals, Warhaven and Witchfire are all launching this week with day-one DLSS support, and gamers can check out an open beta for The First Descendant, an upcoming DLSS 3-accelerated game. In each game, GeForce RTX users will receive the definitive experience - read on for all the details.

On September 26th, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty launches with full ray tracing, DLSS 3.5, and Ray Reconstruction. Phantom Liberty is a new spy-thriller adventure for Cyberpunk 2077. When the orbital shuttle of the President of the New United States of America is shot down over the deadliest district of Night City, there's only one person who can save her—you. Become V, a cyberpunk for hire, and dive deep into a tangled web of espionage and political intrigue, unraveling a story that connects the highest echelons of power with the brutal world of black-market mercenaries.

"Thanks to DLSS 3.5's smart technology, fuelled by AI rendering power, you can experience Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty's newest location Dogtown at its very best—with sharper images, more accurate lighting, and the highest frame rates possible." said Jakub Knapik, VP of Art, Global Art Director, CD Projekt RED. On September 21st, return to the neon lights of Night City when Cyberpunk 2077's 2.0 update launches, featuring support for NVIDIA DLSS 3.5 and its new Ray Reconstruction technology, enhancing the quality of full ray tracing in Cyberpunk 2077's Ray Tracing: Overdrive Mode.

Developers at Insomniac Games have confirmed that Spider-Man 2's ray tracing feature will be running as standard/by default within the PlayStation 5 version—a player's adjustments of graphical performance settings will have no bearing on this being turned on or off. Mike Fitzgerald, Insomniac's director of core technology, shared technical information in an interview with IGN, although he stopped short of making any promises for an inevitable PC conversion—gamers on that platform will likely be waiting another 18 months post-October 20. It is possible that Nixxes Software has been contracted to work on a port, given their recent-ish track record. The Insomniac dev cites advanced experience gained by working on past titles—notably Spider-Man Remastered, Miles Morales, and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart—as the main factor behind the confident push into implementing an "always-on" ray tracing graphical feature. Fitzgerald stated: "We've really gotten to leverage everything we've seen in developing those games."

He continued: "Our performance mode for this title has ray tracing on by default. We've really expanded ray traced reflections throughout the game. It's on the water and the oceans and really gives a more realistic picture everywhere...For this game we're really able to deliver (ray tracing) as a baseline performance mode. There's no mode of this game that has the ray tracing turned off, no need for it. We've really figured out how to deliver what we feel like is the right Spider-Man visuals and we want to make sure every player is seeing that." Fitzgerald also praises PlayStation 5's storage solution—SSDs allow for "faster traversal" across the New York City environment. Players can look forward to traversing the urban landscape at about "three times as fast" as the pace experienced in Spider-Man 1.

A new version of Minecraft for Xbox Series X and S consoles has been registered with ratings boards around the world—as reported by Eurogamer, the first appearance arrived back in August through Germany's USK system, and more recently with the ESRB (USA). This lead to speculation that Mojang Studios was prepping a visually-upgraded variant of the game for current generation consoles. Microsoft and Xbox teased a significant ray tracing graphical option back in 2020, prior to Series X launching, but we have not heard much since then. Bedrock Edition, utilizing the RenderDragon engine, is set to improve graphics across most platforms, yet only PC gamers get to enjoy ray tracing features on capable/compatible hardware.

Microsoft has seemingly become fed up with the latest batch of news reports, and reached out to media outlets in order to shutdown further conjecture on the topic.
A company spokesperson informed Eurogamer and other sites about the situation: "Given the number of platforms and geographies in which Minecraft is available, we periodically go through rating reviews and updates with different regional boards. This recent rating is not indicative of any new versions or platform support for Minecraft in the near future." A 2022 test build inadvertently included "prototype code for ray tracing support on Xbox consoles," but was swiftly eliminated from public view soon after release. A spokesperson stated back then: "this early prototype code has been removed from Preview and doesn't signal near future plans to bring ray tracing support to consoles."

We're excited to announce that Unreal Engine 5.3 is now available. This release brings numerous wide-ranging improvements as we continue to expand UE5's functionality and potential for game developers and creators across industries. As well as enhancements to core rendering, developer iteration, and virtual production toolsets, we're introducing Experimental new rendering, animation, and simulation features to give you the opportunity to test extended creative workflows inside UE5—reducing the need to round-trip with external applications.

Refinements to core UE5 rendering features
With this release, we've continued to refine all core UE5 rendering features to address our ongoing goal of making it easier for developers to leverage them at higher quality in games running at 60 FPS on next-gen consoles; the improvements also offer higher-quality results and enhanced performance for linear content creators. Specifically, Nanite has faster performance for masked materials, including foliage, and can represent a greater range of surfaces due to the new Explicit Tangents option, while Lumen with Hardware Ray Tracing has expanded capabilities that include multiple reflection bounces, and delivers faster performance on consoles. Other areas with notable advancements include Virtual Shadow Maps (VSM)—which is now Production-Ready—Temporal Super Resolution (TSR), Hair Grooms, Path Tracing, and Substrate.

AMD and Ubisoft have officially announced the PC features players will be able to enjoy in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. A trailer that debuted at Gamescom showed off exactly what you can expect; check out the details below.

Ray Tracing and Extended Graphic Settings
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora will include ray traced reflections and shadows for more immersive environmental exploration, and extended graphic settings that allow for granular tweaks to a multitude of visuals such as environment reflection quality, and distant shadows.

We're excited to announce the launch of 3DMark Solar Bay, a new cross-platform benchmark for testing ray traced graphics performance on Windows PCs and high-end Android devices. This benchmark measures games-related graphics performance by rendering a demanding, ray-traced scene in real time. Solar Bay is available now for Android on the Google Play Store and for Windows on Steam, Epic Games or directly from UL Solutions.

Compare ray tracing performance across platforms
Ray tracing is the showcase technology for Solar Bay, simulating real-time reflections. Compared to traditional rasterization, ray-traced scenes produce far more realistic lighting. While dedicated desktop and laptop graphics processing units (GPUs) have supported ray tracing for several years, it's only recently that integrated GPUs and Android devices have been capable of running real-time ray-traced games at frame rates acceptable to gamers.

The latest patch of "Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart" released on Wednesday, finally adds real time ray tracing support for AMD Radeon GPUs. Patch version v1.808.0.0 went live on Wednesday, which calls upon AMD Radeon users to have at least the one-off 23.10.23.03 drivers that AMD released specifically for the game. The company latest main-trunk driver remains the Adrenalin 23.7.2 WHQL, so you'll need the off-trunk driver to use ray tracing for now. "Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart" on PC leverages ray tracing for reflections, shadows, and ambient-occlusion. These toggles in the game's external setup program were grayed out on older AMD drivers.

Every week, we bring you news of the latest DLSS and ray tracing integrations in games and apps. Last week, we celebrated the launch of Portal: Prelude RTX, a path-traced remaster of a classic mod, made in NVIDIA RTX Remix and enhanced with full ray tracing, NVIDIA DLSS 3, NVIDIA Reflex, and our new, game-changing NVIDIA RTX IO GPU-accelerated storage technology. The good times keep rolling this week with the arrival of Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart on PC on July 26th, featuring NVIDIA DLSS 3, NVIDIA DLAA, NVIDIA Reflex, ray tracing, and NVIDIA RTX IO, giving GeForce RTX gamers the definitive PC experience, with the fastest possible PC frame rates, the most responsive gameplay, and the highest levels of detail.

And DLSS is also coming to more of your favorite games. Today, the eagerly anticipated Remnant II launches with DLSS 2. Additionally, the action game SYNCED is launching this Summer with DLSS 3, and Wuthering Waves announced that it will launch with DLSS 3, too. Finally, the ever-popular DLSS 2-enhanced NARAKA: BLADEPOINT celebrates its second anniversary with a special event and by transitioning to a free-to-play model, enabling even more people to play.

Intel's software engineers are working on path-traced light simulation and conducting neural graphics research, as documented in a recent company news article, with an ambition to create a more efficient solution for integrated graphics cards. The company's Graphics Research Organization is set to present their path-traced optimizations at SIGGRAPH 2023. Their papers have been showcased at recent EGSR and HPG events. The team is aiming to get iGPUs running path-tracing in real time, by reducing the number of calculations required to simulate light bounces.

The article covers three different techniques, all designed to improve GPU performance: "Across the process of path tracing, the research presented in these papers demonstrates improvements in efficiency in path tracing's main building blocks, namely ray tracing, shading, and sampling. These are important components to make photorealistic rendering with path tracing available on more affordable GPUs, such as Intel Arc GPUs, and a step toward real-time performance on integrated GPUs." Although there is an emphasis on in-house products in the article, Intel's "open source-first mindset" hints that their R&D could be shared with others—NVIDIA and AMD are likely still struggling to make ray tracing practical on their modest graphics card models.

See the features bringing F1 23 to life on PC - ray tracing, custom graphics, control support, exclusive VR, and more bring the sport to life on PC. Be the last to brake in EA SPORTS F1 23, the official videogame of the 2023 FIA Formula One World Championship and discover the features bringing the pinnacle of motorsport to life on PC.

RAY TRACING
Ray tracing accurately simulates the behavior of light to closely resemble real-world physics, creating lifelike reflections, refractions, and shadows in real time. In F1 2023, further advancements have been made where certain scenes now include more complex ray tracing in the form of Dynamic Diffuse Global Illumination, which simulates the way light bounces off objects in the environment, creating more complex indirect lighting effects in real time.

Each week, we're bringing you news about the latest DLSS and ray tracing integrations in games and apps. Last week, D5 Render got a DLSS 3-powered upgrade, DLSS 2 boarded Bus Simulator 21, and The Outlast Trials launched into Early Access with day-1 DLSS 2 support.

This week, The Lord of the Rings: Gollum launches with support for DLSS 3 and many other NVIDIA technologies, and two new DLSS 2 titles are available now - Firmament and Togges.