Nvidia unveils enhancements to RTX neural rendering ahead of GDC 2025
Strategic partnership with Microsoft
For the highly anticipated Game Developers Conference (GDC), March 17-22, 2025, Nvidia has revealed several groundbreaking advancements to its RTX neural rendering technologies, set to revolutionise the gaming industry.
To expand the capabilities of its AI-powered graphics systems, Nvidia has announced a strategic partnership with Microsoft to introduce neural shading support to the Microsoft DirectX preview, which will launch in April. This collaboration will give developers access to AI Tensor Cores within Nvidia GeForce RTX GPUs, allowing for enhanced neural network acceleration directly within a game’s graphics pipeline.
Neural shading represents a revolutionary development in graphics programming. It blends artificial intelligence with traditional rendering techniques, significantly improving frame rates, image quality, and system resource efficiency. With neural shading, developers can optimise performance and create visually more prosperous and immersive gaming experiences.
Shawn Hargreaves, Microsoft’s Direct3D development manager, highlighted the potential of this collaboration: “Microsoft is adding cooperative vector support to DirectX and HLSL, starting with a preview this April. This will advance the future of graphics programming by enabling neural rendering across the gaming industry. Unlocking Tensor Cores on Nvidia RTX will allow developers to fully leverage RTX Neural Shaders for richer, more immersive experiences on Windows.”
Enhanced RTX Kit
In addition to this partnership, Nvidia is enhancing its RTX Kit, a suite of neural rendering technologies designed specifically for game developers. The updated kit now supports Unreal Engine 5, unlocking powerful new features such as RTX Mega Geometry and RTX Hair. These technologies are expected to transform game development, particularly in creating highly detailed open worlds and lifelike character models.
One of the key advancements introduced is RTX Mega Geometry, which addresses the growing challenge of handling the enormous number of triangles required for modern game scenes. As the geometric complexity of ray-traced game environments increases, the computational cost of rendering these scenes in real-time grows exponentially.
RTX Mega Geometry accelerates the ray tracing of these complex environments. It enables developers to incorporate up to 100 times more triangles than current standards allow, making it possible to create vastly more detailed game worlds.
Furthermore, Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs are introducing RTX Hair, a new method for tracing hair and fur. By replacing traditional triangle primitives with a linear swept sphere primitive, RTX Hair offers a more accurate representation of individual strands of hair, improving the performance and image quality when rendering realistic digital humans.
At CES, Nvidia showcased its neural rendering capabilities by demoing “Zorah” technology. At GDC, an updated version of this demo, built on Unreal Engine 5, will highlight the latest advancements in neural rendering, including RTX Mega Geometry, RTX Hair, ReSTIR Path Tracing, and ReSTIR Direct Illumination.
Another major highlight from Nvidia is the official release of RTX Remix, an open-source platform that allows modders to create stunning remasters of classic games using the latest RTX technologies. RTX Remix has been in beta for a year, and during that time, over 30,000 modders have used the platform to mod hundreds of classic titles. Over 1 million gamers have experienced RTX Remix mods, including those created by Nvidia Lightspeed Studios, such as Portal with RTX, and the modder-created Portal: Prelude RTX.
Playable demo
On March 18, gamers can experience the latest RTX Remix advancements with the release of a playable demo of Half-Life 2 RTX. Developed by four of Half-Life 2’s top modding teams under the banner of Orbifold Studios, this remaster features complete ray tracing, remastered assets, DLSS 4, Nvidia Reflex, RTX Neural Radiance Cache, RTX Skin, and RTX Volumetrics, offering a truly immersive experience.
In addition to these innovations, Nvidia is celebrating a significant milestone: over 100 games and applications now support DLSS 4, which was introduced alongside the GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs. DLSS 4 has been adopted incredibly quickly, becoming the most rapidly adopted Nvidia game technology.
This version of DLSS includes Multi Frame Generation, which uses AI to generate up to three additional frames per traditionally rendered frame, providing a massive performance boost. As a result, gamers with GeForce RTX 50 Series graphics cards and laptops can now enjoy higher resolutions and smoother frame rates than ever before.
Upcoming games, including Lost Soul Aside, Mecha BREAK, Phantom Blade Zero, Stellar Blade, Tides of Annihilation, and Wild Assault, will all launch with DLSS 4 support, offering GeForce RTX gamers the definitive PC gaming experience.
Image: Neural shading represents a revolutionary development in graphics programming. Credit: Nvidia
