Cyberpunk 2077 will be designed for mature and demanding players who expect to be treated seriously, and the game will be richly detailed, non-linear, and with a complex and gripping story.

The creators promise that “Cyberpunk 2077” will be true to the essence of the cyberpunk genre. Players will be thrown into the dark future of the year 2077 and into a world where advanced technologies have become both the salvation and the curse of humanity. A multi-thread, nonlinear story designed for mature players will take place in the sprawling metropolis of Night City and its surroundings. Players will have a chance to freely roam the open-world environment and visit places well known from the pen-and-paper RPG “Cyberpunk 2020”, including a combat zone completely taken over by gangs, the legendary Afterlife joint and the nostalgic Forlorn Hope.

In Cyberpunk 2077, the player will be thrown into a dark future. The metropolis of Night City is a stage set to tell the tale of one individual, raised on the streets, who tries to lift himself up from the gutter and find a way to survive amongst booster gangs and mega corporations in a city of filth and sin. Drugs, violence, poverty and exclusion haven’t disappeared by 2077, as people stayed as they were for centuries – greedy, closed-minded and weak. But not only ghosts of the past trouble mankind, but new issues have appeared. Psychos go on rampages and the streets are filled with junkies addicted to a new form of entertainment – the braindance, a cheap way to experience the emotions and stimuli of someone else, someone living a more exciting life.

With a compelling storyline, expansive open-world gameplay and jaw dropping graphics, Cyberpunk 2077 has all the pieces in place to be a gaming blockbuster.  Today, it was revealed that Cyberpunk 2077 will support  performance-enhancing NVIDIA DLSS 2.0, along with new details about how the game will use ray tracing.

Gamers can expect to experience the following ray-traced features in Cyberpunk 2077 at launch:

• Ray-traced ambient occlusion - Ambient occlusion is a shading and rendering technique used to calculate how exposed each point in a scene is to ambient lighting. The result is a diffuse shading effect that darkens enclosed and sheltered areas and enhances the rendered image's overall tone. In Cyberpunk 2077, ray-traced ambient occlusion additionally can be used with local lights to approximate local shadowing effects where shadows are missing.
• Ray-traced diffuse illumination - This technique is used to capture sky radiance as well as emissive lighting from various surfaces, which is difficult to achieve with traditional rendering techniques. 
• Ray-traced reflections - In Cyberpunk 2077, ray-traced reflections are used on all surfaces and can trace ranges for up to several kilometers. They are present on both opaque and transparent objects to simulate the way light reflects from glossy and metal surfaces by tracing a single bounce of reflection rays against the scene. This includes smooth natural mirrors like window glass, but also rougher surfaces like brushed metal. Unlike screen space techniques which can only reflect what’s on screen, ray-traced reflections incorporate the entire scene around the character, and can accurately represent objects outside the camera view or facing away from the camera.
• Ray-traced shadows - Cyberpunk 2077 preview supports directional shadows from the sun and the moon. These shadows aim to be physically accurate and even account for light scattering from clouds. Shadows may be enhanced in the final release to support other types of light sources where it is needed.

Ray tracing and NVIDIA DLSS 2.0, are expected to be available at launch on November 19, 2020.

“Cyberpunk 2077 is one of the most anticipated games of all-time,” said Jason Paul, vice president of GeForce platform marketing at NVIDIA. “Combined with CD PROJEKT RED’s incredible story-telling and stunning artistry, RTX-powered ray tracing and NVIDIA DLSS 2.0 help to make Cyberpunk 2077 a ‘must-play’ game of 2020.”

When Cyberpunk 2077 launches later this year, it will be available on GeForce NOW, with support for ray-tracing effects and DLSS 2.0. So even if you’re playing on an old PC, a Mac, or an Android device, you can experience Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p 60 FPS.

About DXR Ray Tracing

Ray tracing is a lighting technique that brings a realistic look to 3D objects. Ray tracing attempts to show light in the same way as the real world by tracing the path of light from the camera to a light source and simulating the effects of its encounters with virtual objects. The dramatic increase in image quality resulting from ray tracing greatly increases the sense of immersion, particularly for a game with tons of geometry and complex dynamic lighting such as Cyberpunk 2077.

To achieve ray tracing, Cyberpunk 2077 takes advantage of the industry-standard DirectX 12 Ultimate API, which is supported by all NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPUs. NVIDIA pioneered the features of DirectX 12 Ultimate with its Turing GPU architecture, launched in 2018. 

About NVIDIA DLSS 2.0 

DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) is an NVIDIA RTX technology that uses AI to boost frame rates while generating beautiful, crisp game images. In Cyberpunk 2077, DLSS 2.0 gives gamers the performance headroom to increase graphics settings and increase output resolutions. 

DLSS works by training a deep neural network on tens of thousands of high-resolution beautiful images, rendered offline in a supercomputer at very low frame rates and 64 samples per pixel. Based on knowledge from countless hours of training, the network can then take lower-resolution images as input and construct high-resolution, beautiful images.

Turing’s Tensor Cores, with up to 110 teraflops of dedicated AI horsepower, make it possible for the first time to run this deep learning network on games in real time. The result is a big performance gain and sharp video quality, while minimizing ringing and temporal artifacts like sparkling.

Braindances are digital recordings of a person’s experience. The viewer can stream a braindance directly into his neural system via special brain augmentations, called a BD player. Braindances allow the viewer to experience all brain processes registered, including emotions, muscle movements and all stimuli perceived by the recording person.

The range of themes of these recordings varies from simple braindances made by megacorporations, which e.g. allow the viewer to feel the full experience of an explorer with all its thrills, sweats, smells, views, sounds and the real feeling of curiosity that pushes men to go beyond the horizon against fear and physical weakness. But there are also more controversial sides of braindance, because some recordings are created illegally in the underground. Entering the mind of a serial killer means not only seeing the monstrosity he performs, but also living his lust to kill and fulfillment.

You haven’t experienced the latest New Hollywood recording? You’re nobody! The streets live with braindances, everyone just got crazy and wants to be a part of this new entertainment fad. Some people push it even too far and they cannot stop living other people’s lives.  If you’re not linked to a braindance right now, you are probably discussing what happened to you during your last session. Of course, just like every great new cultural movement, BDs have people who criticize them. Just watch these two guys arguing about this phenomena.

This is the world of 2077. The gap between high and low is bigger than ever. Drugs, violence, braindance, psychos on the loose… Will you be able to function in this defunct society or end up a BD-junky with nothing left, set aside like garbage - still living someone’s else life – not aware of what’s going on around you?  Whether you like it or not - this is the age of braindance decadence; this is Cyberpunk 2077.

Cyberpunk 2077 is in development for PS4, Xbox One and PC, scheduled for Nov. 19, 2020. The Google Stadia version will launch the same year — additional details will be made available at a later date. The game will also be playable on Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 consoles when available.