Highly anticipated: At its recent Ampere event, Nvidia revealed that Fortnite, one of the most popular games in the world, is receiving the full suite of ray tracing effects and DLSS 2.0 support. We now know when the graphical upgrade is arriving: tomorrow, September 17.
Nvidia pushed real-time ray tracing as one of the best reasons for upgrading to its Ampere/Turing graphics cards, and while the visual changes it brings can look great, the fact that few games support the technology has been frustrating. That's starting to change, though, with the battle royale behemoth Fortnite being upgraded via a patch tomorrow.
All the ray-traced effects are coming to Fortnite: reflections, which will appear in bodies of water and reflective surfaces such as windows, face shields, etc.; shadows, for more accurate softening and enhanced resolution; ambient occlusion, further improving shadows; and global illumination, adding additional bounced light that had previously been impossible to simulate.
Additionally, Fortnite is receiving support for DLSS 2.0---you can read our breakdown of the framerate-boosting Deep Learning Super Sampling tech here---and Nvidia Reflex Latency Analyzer, which can measure and reduce system latency and improve responsiveness.
To show off Fortnite's new ray-tracing perks, Nvidia partnered with top Fortnite creators to make the RTX Treasure Run, a new map accessible via Creative mode. After being dropped off at the entrance to a museum, players face a scavenger hunt that highlights the different ray-traced effects.
Fortnite's RTX patch lands tomorrow, September 17. Don't be surprised to see a new Nvidia Game Ready driver launch on the same day.