What is RTXDI? 

For those wondering what RTXDI is, don’t worry. You’ve come to the right place.

With the upcoming release of Nvidia’s Cyberpunk 2077 Ray Tracing: Overdrive Mode on April 11, many people are becoming increasingly interested in graphics and graphics rendering techniques. Cyberpunk 2077 Overdrive Mode will be changing the ray tracing game if the latest trailers are anything to go off. But how are they doing it? Nvidia RTX Direct Illumination – or in other words, RTXDI. But what is RTXDI?

Let’s get into it.

What does RTXDI do?

RTX Direct Illumination (RTXDI) allows gamers to see and interact with multitudes of realistic looking light sources in real time, rather than just on pre-built background scenes.

While ray tracing has been around for a while and is used increasingly in big-names games like The Finals, and Hogwarts Legacy. The difference between ray tracing and RTXDI, though, is that RTXDI allows for far more dynamic light sources. This also means more shadows as well as light. Nvidia say there will be ‘no more hero lights.’ This is good news as many gamers know that casting shadow is a key way to give an object weight within a virtually rendered world and make it seem more realistic.

Furthermore, RTXDI builds on previous technology to allow all this rendering to occur without affecting fps too negatively, which was the pervious barrier to such high quality rendering. It does this by a process we felt was kind of similar to vodka distillation in that it takes a sample of information and distills it down and down and down until it has something workable. Then, like mixing vodka in mixers makes it greater than the sum of its parts (in some people’s opinion), RTXDI uses information taken from around the sample size to build off. This then creates super realistic interactive light reflection and shadow.

Not only that, but you can add ‘true geometry’ to the lights. Light sources like neon signs or fairy lights which might previously have been harder to produce realistic looking light and shadow for due to the complexity of the light source itself, can now be rendered realistically, and in real-time.

If you want a full deep-dive into the technical inner-workings of RTXDI, we recommend heading over to the Nvidia On-Demand site and signing up to access the research materials there.

For all the gaming news you could need, make sure to watch this space. We’ve got you covered from a handy guide to the best GPU for ray tracing to a guide to the best wireless gaming headset.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I run Nvidia RTXDI on my PC?

If your PC is Windows 10 or higher and you have a supported API or AMD then you should be able to run Nvidia RTXDI. Bear in mind, we recommend checking out the full system requirements laid out by Nvidia before attempting to download.

What is the difference between RTXDI and RTXGI?

RTXDI allows for multiple light sources to cast dynamic and realistic looking light, rendered in real-time. RTXGI takes a broader view focusing more on realistic rendering of larger light sources (e.g. the sun) and indirect light.