The recently released 1.61 update for Cyberpunk 2077 introduced AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 2.1 which has made a substantial impact on the game's visuals, particularly for consoles that rely on upscaling to achieve higher resolutions. Despite appearing as a minor bugfix patch at first glance, Cyberpunk 2077's recent update is another important step forward thanks to the new technology.
After years of Cyberpunk 2077 hype, acclaimed Witcher series developer CD Projekt Red caught a lot of flak when the game was finally released at the end of 2020. Excited players were left frustrated by a large number of bugs, missing features from earlier previews, and a lack of meaningful content to engage in. In response, CD Projekt Red has been hard at work since the game's release developing many significant updates that have fixed countless bugs along with improving the game's performance, visuals, and gameplay while adding a few new features, all resulting in a sharp increase in player numbers and a more positive reputation.
Update 1.61 for Cyberpunk 2077 may seem like just another minor patch by looking at its number, but the addition of AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution 2.1 upscaling technology is an important development for the game. On newer consoles, AMD FSR 2.1 will be outright replacing the previous temporal antialiasing method which has resulted in notable improvements to the visual quality without sacrificing performance. Digital Foundry's comparison footage shows how details in motion are noticeably sharper, and finer materials like hair and grass appear much cleaner. Although upscaling still has its problems such as some ghosting from fast-moving objects and less-than-perfect clarity when panning, it's still a visual improvement from TAA and the drawbacks are considered worthwhile.
AMD's FSR upscaling rivals Nvidia's Deep Learning Super Sampling technology, with both technologies using AI to intelligently upscale images to higher resolutions. This technology has been a game changer with the advent of 2K, 4K, and even 8K screens demanding increasing processing power, allowing cheaper hardware configurations like consoles and lower-end PCs to achieve visuals and framerates that would normally be out of range. While upscaling to 4K can't truly match up to natively rendering at 4K, the massive positive impact FSR and DLSS can have on performance is often worth considering.
After nearly 2 years since the release of Cyberpunk 2077, it's impressive that CD Projekt Red continues to push meaningful updates like this. Along with AMD FSR, update 1.61 has also included the usual list of bug fixes and changes on top of the thousands that have already been implemented so far.
Cyberpunk 2077 is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
Source: Eurogamer