Microsoft brings PC Game Pass to NVIDIA’s GeForce Now service

Microsoft

Microsoft is fulfilling its promise to make PC Game Pass available on NVIDIA’s GeForce Now service. The companies have revealed that Game Pass and Microsoft Store games will be streamable on GeForce Now from August 24th. Although not all games will work immediately, this will let Game Pass members enjoy titles like Deathloop and No Man’s Sky on NVIDIA’s platform.

It might seem strange to access one streaming service’s games through another, but there might be benefits. GeForce Now is designed for enthusiasts who want the best visual quality and low latency, with the Ultimate tier supporting 4K at 120 frames per second. So, Game Pass could perform better on GeForce Now than on other platforms if your PC and internet connection can handle it.

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NVIDIA generative AI tech can let you have real convos with NPCs

NVIDIA has introduced Avatar Cloud Engine (ACE), a technology that lets gamers have natural conversations with non-playable characters (NPCs) in games. The company showcased the tech at Computex 2023 with a demo called Kairos, where a player chats with an NPC named Jin in a futuristic Ramen shop.

The demo shows how the player can ask Jin about his life and get relevant answers. For example, the player says: “Hey Jin, how are you?” Jin replies: “Unfortunately, not so good. I am worried about the crime around here. It’s gotten bad lately. My ramen shop got caught in the crossfire.”

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Microsoft Edge tests the option to upscale web videos using AMD, NVIDIA GPUs

Screenshot: Microsoft

While NVIDIA video card owners can already upscale videos in both Chrome and Edge, Microsoft is helping those with an AMD board (or even NVIDIA) to upscale videos and remove artifacts. The company is testing a Video Super Resolution feature for Edge, which requires at least a GeForce RTX 20 series or a Radeon RX5700. This feature can help with improving the quality of an older YouTube video or help with saving bandwidth on capped data plans. 

There are some conditions for this feature to work, though. It's only available for Windows users. If you're using a laptop, it has to be plugged in. And the video you're watching isn't using a digital rights management system like PlayReady or Widevine. At present, you also need to force Edge to use your dedicated GPU (if your laptop has a hybrid graphics setup). Microsoft is working on automatic hybrid video support. Video Super Resolution is currently only available to a handful of Edge Canara users, but it's expected to come to more testers in the "coming weeks." Microsoft also plans to bring this feature to more GPUs, so your hardware might be compatible in the future. It's unclear when this feature will exit testing, but for now, we just know it's on the horizon.

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CD Projekt Red, NVIDIA tease 'Cyberpunk 2077' and its ray-tracing features

With Cyberpunk 2077 finally coming out in the next few weeks, game developer CD Projekt Red wants to show off the gaming. The latest behind-the-scenes video shows off gameplay footage featuring DXR ray-tracing and NVIDIA's DLSS tech. According to NVIDIA, the game is "more immersive and detailed" if you have ray-tracing enabled. 

The company says that "glorious ray-traced reflections are cast on every possible surface; substantially improved shadows naturally soften and sharpen; [and] shops, streets and buildings are realistically illuminated with diffuse lighting."

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