Cyberpunk 2077 Will Add Path-Tracing Support with Overdrive Mode in April

The technical state that Cyberpunk 2077 launched in may not have been anything to write home about, but with consistent updates over the last couple of years, CD Projekt RED has managed to bring the game up to a point where its impressive visuals are finally able to shine through. In April, the game will be receiving another update that will look to take that one step further.

At GDC, Nvidia and CD Projekt RED announced that on April 11, Cyberpunk 2077 will add the new Overdrive Mode, which will enable path-tracing on PC, powered by DLSS 3, support for which was added to the game earlier this year. And what specifically is path-tracing? In a nutshell, it’s a much more improved version of ray-tracing (also referred to as full ray-tracing), which enables all light sources to cast physically correct soft shadows, in turn creating more realistic indirect lighting and occlusion.

“This 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 Nvidia’s senior technology developer engineer Pawel Kozlowski in a recently published blog post.

Nvidia also says Cyberpunk 2077 will make use of Shader Execution Reordering to “optimize GPU workloads” and enable “more efficient path-traced lighting”.

Cyberpunk 2077 is available on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, and Xbox One. Its first and only expansion, Phantom Liberty, is set to launch sometime this year for PC and current-gen consoles.