Ray tracing is all the craze, but Cyberpunk 2077 could make path tracing a viable gaming PC feature. While you’ll have among the best graphics card options to get probably the most out of the rendering technique, CD Projekt Red says it’s working with Nvidia to make this method mainstream.
To learn more about Tracing the trail of Cyberpunk 2077PCGamesN spoke at GDC 2023 with Jakub “Kuba” Knapik, CDPR’s global art director and vice chairman of art. Outlining the publisher’s ambitions, Kuba revealed that the technology might be used to boost releases equivalent to the Phantom Liberty expansion, but is not going to rejuvenate past catalog favorites equivalent to The Witcher 3.
At this stage, you would possibly ask, “what’s path tracing?” Well, Kuba refers to it as “movie rendering” since it has been utilized in theatrical production for over a decade. If you have ever been mesmerized by the 3D graphics of a recent Pixar movie, it is best to probably thank path-tracing, because it provides an immersive sense of depth that helps Disney’s studio animations stand out.
Of course, Kuba says that this feature currently requires “very powerful” PC hardware, so you’ll have a GPU just like the one tested in our Nvidia RTX 4090 review to enjoy track-tracing in 2023. Even when you’re rocking the most effective gaming PC, the art director says AI tools like Nvidia’s DLSS 3 and Frame Generation will provide you with the “extra headroom” needed to spice up frame rates and performance.
In a way, CDPR would be the pioneer of path tracing, helping to bring the rendering technique to regular platforms. While the feature is technically compatible with all graphics cards, the developer is working with Nvidia to assist it grow to be an inexpensive successor to ray tracing. The GPU giant has already teased tech with its Portal RTX revamp, but its inclusion within the upcoming Phantom Liberty expansion is probably going an enormous step that can show what the PC gaming scene has to supply.
We’ll should wait until Cyberpunk 2077 RT: Overdrive’s recent Overdrive setting comes out, but Kuba says the Phantom Liberty looks amazing with track tracking. We’ll likely see it improve the visuals of other CDPR releases in the longer term, however the developer continues to be working on adding it to Unreal Engine 5 projects.
Cyberpunk 2077’s path tracking will debut on April 11 with patch 1.62, so stay tuned for our impressions and benchmarks. Just bear in mind that this might be a technical preview, so there could also be some unexpected bugs that can cause confusion.
