Nvidia continues with DLSS 3.5, new game support and…Half-Life?!
Nvidia has announced a new version of its powerful game upscaling technology DLSS – although it’s not a full-fledged DLSS 4. The new version, inventively named DLSS 3.5, is specifically aimed at ray-tracing in games, using a feature called Ray Reconstruction to improve image quality.
It’s not a huge upgrade, but it does serve as an important stepping stone to true next-gen DLSS (something we probably won’t see until Nvidia releases its new version). RTX 5000 GPUs). The Ray Reconstruction feature replaces hand-tuned denoisers with AI-powered pixel generation, creating better image sharpness and detail when using ray-traced graphics.
Since ray tracing is probably still in its infancy, this is a valuable feature; Since its introduction with the RTX 2000 generation, ray tracing has always made a trade-off between frame rate and the enhanced visual effects it offers – even on some of the best graphics cards outside.
While DLSS helped immensely (creating graphics presets like Cyberpunk 2077‘s infamous ‘Psycho RT’ mode actually playable), gamers often find themselves having to lower graphics fidelity in order to use ray-traced graphics. While DLSS 3.5 doesn’t add a new boost to frame rates, the improved image quality makes using RT graphic presets more appealing. DLSS 3.5 will initially be available in Alan Wake2, Cyberpunk 2077And Portal with RTXwith Nvidia promising support for more games soon.
Forget DLSS for a second – let’s talk about Half-Life
Now that I’ve got the technical stuff out of the way, let’s talk about why you probably clicked on this headline in the first place. That’s right – we’re getting a new one Half-life game! Kind of. No, that’s not it Half-Life 3.
As you might have guessed, it will be a remaster of the beloved half-life 2 using Nvidia’s RTX Remix software, announced last year alongside the RTX4090. At the time, I was quite disappointed with Remix, although even I had to admit it The older scrolls: Morrowind reimagined in loving next generation graphics felt good.
The project, Half-Life 2 RTX: An RTX Remix Project, may have a terrible name, but it seems to breathe some new life into a now almost 20 year old game that I personally think every PC gamer should play at some point. The Remix version is being developed by the Half-Life community, unlike the official version Portal with RTX free upgrade, which was created internally by Nvidia’s Lightspeed Studios.
While no release date has been announced yet, Half Life 2 RTX has a slick trailer on YouTube And an official page on Nvidia’s blog, so hopefully this isn’t a case of development progress tapering off after a few months – something that happens with a lot of community-created content. Needless to say, I’ll probably be restarting the game as soon as it arrives!