CD Projekt Red has confirmed Cyberpunk 2077 is set to receive a significant upgrade for PC players next month, with an exclusive "Overdrive Mode" that will bring "full ray tracing" to the game. The initiative was announced earlier this week at the Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco, with Nvidia partnering with CD Projekt for the project. The update will utilize "path tracing," a technology used by visual effects artists in film and TV to overhaul lighting in-game.

Nvidia is touting the new mode as "indistinguishable" from real life, which will give players better visuals and revolutionize the entire pipeline of how games are being created. However, the company's senior technology developer engineer, Pawel Kozlowski, says this is only the first step in a significant new path-tracing phase and that Overdrive Mode offers a sneak peek into the future of complete ray tracing.

It should be noted that path tracing was not available in real-time for games until the GeForce RTX 40 series and DLSS 3, which means players will require the latest powerful hardware to run the new mode. The promise of moving lighting sources closer to that of TV and films is undoubtedly an exciting prospect, but it remains to be seen just how well it will run in Cyberpunk 2077, a game that's no stranger to technical mishaps.

Overall, introducing "full ray tracing" in Cyberpunk 2077's "Overdrive Mode" is a significant development for the video game industry. With Nvidia's plans for bigger things, this could mark a new era in gaming graphics and design. Players can look forward to experiencing the enhanced visuals and immersion that path tracing can bring to the game when the update arrives next month.