CD Projekt RED has just released a new set of beautiful screenshots for Cyberpunk 2077. In addition, NVIDIA shared two more screenshots that showcase the game’s real-time ray tracing effects. And since we know that a lot of our readers are interested in this game, we strongly suggest viewing them.
Cyberpunk 2077 will be using the next iteration of the RED Engine, REDengine 4. As such, these latest screenshots show the visuals that players should expect from it. Furthermore, the ray traced images show the RTX effects in action.
CD Projekt RED and NVIDIA have stated that RTX will improve ambient occlusion and diffused illumination. Thus, in these latest screenshots, we can clearly notice the enhanced lighting and Global Illumination solutions.
Cyberpunk 2077 will release on April 16th, 2020. CD Projekt RED has promised to release a new gameplay demo walkthrough during PAX West 2019.
Enjoy (the ray tracing screenshots are the two last ones)!
Google's Stadia Connect livestream for Gamescom can give you a bigger idea of what to expect from its upcoming video game streaming platform -- and you can watch all the most important tidbits right here. Stadia's Ray Bautista started off with a reminder to pre-order the Stadia Founder's Edition, which will serve as your entry to the service as one of its first players. As a nice perk, it will also come with the full Destiny 2 experience.
The tech giant has also revealed some of the games coming to the platform, including Cyberpunk 2077, CD Projekt Red's upcoming dystopian RPG that stars Keanu Reeves as a supporting character. Mortal Kombat 11 will also be available on Stadia, along with The Elder Scrolls Online, Borderlands 3 and Superhot, among other titles. They're joining previously announced games like Watch Dogs: Legion and NBA 2K.
Catch up on all the latest news from Gamescom 2019 here!
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Minecraft is getting a free update that brings much-improved lighting and color to the game’s blocky graphics using real-time ray tracing running on Nvidia GeForce RTX graphics hardware. The new look is a dramatic change in the atmospherics of the game, and manages to be eerily realistic while retaining Minecraft’s pixelated charm.
The ray tracing tech will be available via a free update to the game on Windows 10 PCs, but it’ll only be accessible to players using an Nvidia GeForce RTX GPU, since that’s the only graphics hardware on the market that currently supports playing games with real-time ray tracing active.
It sounds like it’ll be an excellent addition to the experience for players who are equipped with the right hardware, however – including lighting effects not only from the sun, but also from in-game materials like glowstone and lava; both hard and soft shadows depending on transparency of material and angle of light refraction; and accurate reflections in surfaces that are supposed to be reflective (ie. gold blocks, for instance).
This is welcome news after Minecraft developer Mojang announced last week that it cancelled plans to release its Super Duper Graphics Pack, which was going to add a bunch of improved visuals to the game, because it wouldn’t work well across platforms. At the time, Mojang said it would be sharing news about graphics optimization for some platforms “very soon,” and it looks like this is what they had in mind.
Nvidia meanwhile is showing off a range of 2019 games with real-time ray tracing enabled at Gamescom 2019 in Cologne, Germany, including Dying Light 2, Cyperpunk 2077, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Watch Dogs: Legion.
This caption mostly consists of comparison shots, with Nvidia's RTX ray tracing system enabled or disabled. Click back and forth to see the difference. This one has RTX enabled.
RTX disabled.
RTX enabled. The rainbow-colored floor does a lot to sell how ambient light can bounce onto other nearby surfaces.
RTX disabled.
RTX enabled.
RTX disabled.
RTX enabled.
Mojang / Nvidia
RTX disabled.
RTX enabled. The bouncing of light from exposed lava is something else.
RTX disabled.
RTX enabled. Switching back and forth with this one is a bit trickier...
...because this comparison doesn't show the glistening of the gold blocks' materials.
But, hey, mobs cast reflections as appropriate!
On Monday, Mojang and Nvidia kicked off this week's Gamescom gaming conference with a substantial unveil for the blocky, mega-popular game Minecraft: a visual upgrade patch coming exclusively to owners of Nvidia RTX graphics cards for the game's Windows 10 version. This comes seven days after another, similar patch, which would have been free for all Xbox and Windows players, was canceled after two years of delays.
And while that canceled "Super Duper" patch looked impressive, this one takes the intentionally chunky, lo-fi Minecraft to an entirely new level, thanks to a handsome emphasis on ray tracing. All of Nvidia's RTX graphics cards include a dedicated core designed to efficiently map out massive amounts of light bounces in 3D imagery. This core's effects on Minecraft might be the most impressive yet for an RTX-compatible game.
The upgrade's reveal trailer shows exactly how this "path tracing" patch will look in action, and it revolves largely around more realistic looking models for light bouncing and reflection. The game's pixelated "gold" blocks now glisten like gold. Reflective materials now mirror whatever mobs walk near them. Light cast upon different kinds of materials will naturally glow, and underground caverns will now smolder in impressive red glows from nearby lava flows.
In addition to upgrades to ambient occlusion and shadow resolution, the trailer also shows a pretty dazzling overhaul to the game's water rendering system. Though the game still renders chunky "bubble" blocks in the water, it otherwise reflects and refracts whatever light is visible both above and below the water.
No release date was given beyond "2020," and Mojang hasn't announced whether this RTX-exclusive patch will cost extra for the game's existing owners.
A huge question lingers ahead of the feature's live previews at this week's Gamescom: how demanding will this patch be? Even higher-end GeForce RTX graphics cards, like the RTX 2080 Super and RTX 2080 Ti, have struggled to efficiently render some games' RTX-exclusive patches. Fans who play Minecraft's Java version on PC may already know this, thanks to a mod project enabling similar lighting and reflection tweaks (though this mod is in alpha and arguably not as pretty as today's official RTX patch reveal). We look forward to seeing direct-feed capture of the patch from Gamescom attendees, and to learn how beefy a PC is being used in these demos.
We're also wondering whether the Super Duper Graphics Pack, slated to launch on all Xbox and Windows versions of Minecraft, was canceled in favor of this. While neither Mojang nor Nvidia mentioned the canceled pack, Monday's reveal video includes a telling quote: "It's allowed the team here to just focus on Minecraft the game and Nvidia to focus on underlying technologies."
Minecraft and Nvidia RTX reveal trailer
Nvidia used Gamescom as an opportunity to reveal other RTX-exclusive patches coming to PC games in the next year, but these weren't nearly as revealing. The most dramatic one, for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, didn't have much in the way of A/B testing, and other new trailers were even more scant on visual details.
And what about those who own Minecraft on platforms other than the combination of Windows 10 and Nvidia RTX? They may too see visual upgrades in the near future, though these may be subtler. Mojang issued its own announcement on Monday about the game's upcoming shift to an entirely new rendering pipeline in its "Bedrock" edition, the one that is most widely ported and updated. The game's new engine is called "Render Dragon."
The blog post vaguely sums up Render Dragon's updates as "improved emissivity, directional lighting, edge highlighting, and new lighting techniques." Unlike the RTX patch's reveal, Mojang wasn't ready to show how intense those Render Dragon updates may look, or whether they'll come anywhere near the handsome Super Duper Graphics Pack reveal in 2017.
"Not all devices will support ray tracing, but we will have some graphics enhancements on most devices," the official Mojang blog post says.
With Dave Chappelle coming back to Netflix for the one, two, three, four, fif time later this month, we're taking a look at all of this week's headlines that will make you want to plead against self-incrimination.
How many fingers do we have on each hand? Five, that's right. And how many people have had their biometric data exposed because security company Suprema couldn't bother to properly secure its database? One milion, right again.
At least three white nationalists have posted their screeds on 8Chan just before shooting large numbers of people so, understandably, Congress has a few questions. The legislative body has requested the site's owner to appear before it -- on September 5th, natch.
The FCC, notorious for its sense of humor and easy going demeanor, handed the popular late night talk show a six figure fine this week over what ABC describes as a "misunderstanding" regarding how and when emergency alert tones can be broadcast (hint: it's never when there's not an emergency).
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You might not want to buy a first-generation Switch with the assumption Nintendo will replace it with a new model. A Nintendo spokesperson has flatly denied that swaps are available, telling The Verge that "we do not have a Nintendo Switch exchange program." It's not clear why customer service representatives are saying otherwise. We've asked for comment, but it could be a matter of PR and service reps receiving conflicting information.
The reported program lets anyone who bought an old Switch after July 17th (when the more efficient model was announced) send in their old console for a replacement as long as they're willing to cover the shipping and insurance costs. The revised Switch is virtually identical to the old model outside of a processor built on a newer manufacturing process that saves energy. For some, though, that makes all the difference. The nine hours of peak battery life could mean the difference between playing games on an entire long-haul flight or having to stop mid-session.
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Earlier this week, a number of reports pointed to an exchange program for Nintendo Switch owners looking to upgrade from the original model. According to these reports, Nintendo would offer a free upgrade for those who purchased their Switch after July 17th, when the new model with improved battery life was announced. However, today the company says that these reports are untrue. In a statement to The Verge, a Nintendo spokesperson explained:
We do not have a Nintendo Switch exchange program. We always want players to enjoy their Nintendo Switch systems, and if anything ever gets in the way of that, we encourage them to visit http://support.nintendo.com for support, or to contact our consumer support team.
While the new model and the original look identical, there’s one major difference: battery life. According to multiple teardowns, the new model features between 4.5 and 9 hours of battery life, up from the 2.5 to 6.5 range of the original. Otherwise, the two devices appear the same. If you’re looking to pick up the new Switch, be sure to follow this guide.
