Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty reaches new visual and technical standards with path tracing and DLSS 3.5

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty raises the base game to a new level in all areas, say the publisher and NVIDIA. However, this is not the usual review today, but a kind of leak from the bubbling rumor mill. Of course, it remains to be seen whether all of this is true. We’ll have our own special on Ray Reconstruction this afternoon, for example – quite officially for the launch of patch 2.0 and thus also DLSS 3.5. Nevertheless, there are always hasty colleagues who can’t wait. Cyberpunk 2077 was already a pioneer for ray tracing and de facto NVIDIA’s playground for innovations when it was released in December 2020.

WCCFTECH has picked various things from its own sources and has already written a kind of Voarb article or published a video about it. But what is it all about? Cyberpunk 2077 has constantly evolved technically over time thanks to the collaboration with NVIDIA. At the end of January 2023, the game received support for DLSS 3 (Frame Generation), which significantly increased frame rates for owners of GeForce RTX 40 GPUs. This paved the way for Path Tracing Preview, also known as RT Overdrive Mode. In April 2023, the Path Tracing Preview update was released.

Cyberpunk 2077 thus became the first modern triple-A game to leave rasterization behind in almost all respects. The game once again took the crown of best looking game (say some) while offering solid performance on RTX 40 GPUs. In an interview with CD PROJEKT RED’s Global Art Director Jakub Knapik, the writer at WCCFTECH was told that more improvements are planned, including support for the RTX 40’s Opacity Micromaps Ray tracing optimization feature.

CDPR did not clarify if these enhancements are already available in Phantom Liberty. However, the expansion pack (or rather the free 2.0 update that comes with it) introduces an important new feature: Support for NVIDIA’s DLSS 3.5. Once again, Cyberpunk 2077 is the first game to introduce the new feature. This is a win-win situation for both companies. To avoid the confusion, let’s leave NVIDIA’s confusing naming scheme for a moment. DLSS 3.5 is actually a special feature called Ray Reconstruction. This feature is available to all RTX owners (20 and 30 series included) as a separate setting in the game’s menu.

With Ray Reconstruction, NVIDIA uses the power of AI to improve the quality of ray tracing denoising when upscaling with DLSS. This is especially visible with reflections. The reflections remain incredibly sharp even when upscaling from 1080p to 4K (DLSS performance). The second image with Ray Reconstruction turned off is noticeably blurrier. The advantages of DLSS 3.5 (Ray Reconstruction) are best seen when comparing reflections. However, even the sharpest observers will notice that Path Tracing illumination with Ray Reconstruction is also much sharper. This provides a more detailed image. In this game, DLSS 3.5 also runs a bit faster because it replaces multiple denoisers with a single one. However, Ray Reconstruction generally doesn’t have much of an impact on performance anyway.

The Dogtown environment of Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty is said to be more demanding than that of the base game. This is evident by the updated system requirements and the limitation to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S|X consoles. The game’s performance varies depending on the area, number of light sources, reflections, NPCs, etc., so it’s difficult to determine an average frame rate. In some areas the game is smooth, in others there can be jerkiness. In our experience, the worst slowdowns occur at high speeds in densely populated urban areas, which is to be expected in an open-world game. Nevertheless, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty should run quite smoothly overall, considering the incredibly advanced technical features.

The performance of Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty is said to be significantly better compared to many other games with poorer graphics. The game is said to run smoothly and does not affect the gameplay with it. The graphics are breathtaking. Path tracing gives Night City a photorealistic look by ensuring that all lights properly affect all surrounding surfaces. With a matching OLED display, Night City’s thousand neon lights shine brighter than ever. While black levels are still elevated, this is negligible when enjoying the incomparable light.

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty is a worthy conclusion for the RED Engine. The question is whether CD Projekt RED can match that quality and performance with Unreal Engine 5, the engine of choice for the studio’s future projects. Unreal Engine 5 undoubtedly offers better-looking NPCs thanks to the MetaHuman tool. However, the path tracing feature is not yet meant for real-time, and the performance of the first UE5 games is not satisfactory. CD Projekt RED must work with Epic to optimize the engine so that their future games can continue to set technical standards.

Source: WccfTech YouTube