It was recently revealed that Cyberpunk 2077 will be getting a free visual upgrade through Nvidia's RTX technology, with the new Overdrive mode being confirmed for release on April 11. The information was revealed at this year's GDC event. With CD Projekt Red now working on several projects, including a remake of the original The Witcher game, the Polish studio is evidently going to be busy over these next few years. Apparently, that includes continuing to provide updates to its dystopian RPG.
The Game Developers Conference is an annual event that focuses on developers and studios, as well as featuring award ceremonies. This year, GDC honored Doom co-creator John Romero with a Lifetime Achievement award. The 2023 event began on March 20 and CD Projekt Red took part, providing further details about the upcoming shinier version of Cyberpunk.
Cyberpunk 2077 will be getting a new mode called RTX Path Tracing Overdrive on April 11. The Nvidia-powered upgrade will give the game a visual kick, which includes Direct Illumination to make those neon signs really pop, ray tracing capabilities for more realistic reflections during those rainy days in Night City, and other tweaks to lighting and shadows. The new mode will support version 3 of Nvidia's DLSS, or Deep Learning Super Sampling, upscaling technology.
For a game that already looks stunning, this new Overdrive mode sounds like it's going to be a winner for those who really like their games to look their best. Considering that when it was released, Cyberpunk 2077 had a disastrous launch, it's a pleasant surprise to see CDPR's sci-fi title turn the tides. Thanks to the developer putting in the effort and releasing a series of significant patches, the game is in a much better state these days. CD Projekt Red's reputation may have been soured at the end of 2020, but it looks like things are back on track.
In fact, it was recently revealed that Cyberpunk 2077 was one of the most popular games on Valve's Steam Deck. With the release set to receive the RTX Path Tracing Overdrive update soon, things will continue to look up for the open-world sci-fi title, and hopefully the studio has learned a valuable lesson, especially as it marches forward with the next saga in the Witcher series.
Cyberpunk 2077 is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.