Cyberpunk 2077 to get Path-tracing with Overdrive Mode next month

Nvidia is in the race to make games look more shiny and reflective. And that’s exactly what the chip maker has yet again confirmed with its new ‘Path-tracing’ technology that will arrive next month for the Cyberpunk 2077 game. Also Read: Cyberpunk 2077 Update 2.3 Brings New Cars, AutoDrive Feature, And Self-Driving Cabs

At the game developers’ conference, CD Projekt Red announced that it’s bringing another update to the popular Cyberpunk 2077 game. Ray-tracing will now be old, it’s supposedly getting succeeded by Path-tracing. Also Read: Cyberpunk 2077, Abiotic Factor, And More Join PlayStation Plus Game Catalog In July

“This (Path-tracing) not only gives better visuals to the players but also has the promise to revolutionize the entire pipeline of how games are being created,” said Pawel Kozlowski, a senior technology developer engineer at NVIDIA. Also Read: Best Nintendo Switch 2 Games to Play Right Now: Here’s the Best Gaming Library for the Hyped Handheld

Cyberpunk 2077 players will get an Overdrive Mode in April that will bring Path-tracing. As you’d guess by the name, Path-tracing is the next step toward making games more realistic (hopefully).

As opposed to Ray-tracing, which follows a single beam of light in different scenes, Path-tracing will follow light throughout the environment. Basically, as it is in real life, the light will bounce from one object to another in the whole environment.

This is said to offer softer shadows and a more realistic picture. Such a tech was being used in movies for a long time, however, it was expensive and required powerful hardware. Now, with RTX cards being more powerful, real-time Path-tracing will come to games — with the first game being Cyberpunk 2077.

“Path tracing has been one of the main lighting algorithms used in offline rendering farms and computer graphics in films for years. 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,” noted the blog post on the Nvidia website.

In order to achieve Path-tracing visuals, an RTX 40 series card will be required. The hardware with the help of Nvidia’s DLSS 3 is said to offer ‘crips, high-quality images that rival native resolution’.