Feature Request: Implementing Shader Model 6.9 & Agility SDK 1.619 for Path Tracing

[Evil.God]

Hello CDPR Team,

With Microsoft officially dropping the release for Agility SDK 1.619 and Shader Model 6.9 today, I wanted to put in a formal request/suggestion to see these implemented into Cyberpunk 2077.

I realize REDengine is being sunset, but this game is the benchmark for modern graphics, and this SDK update feels tailor-made for it. Having Shader Execution Reordering (SER) officially out of preview could heavily optimize how the game handles complex ray and path tracing. Furthermore, the revised D3D12 resource view creation and CPU timeline query resolves would significantly cut down on API overhead.

Trying to push maximum frames with Path Tracing Overdrive can still stress even high-end systems like my Ryzen 9800X3D build. A final tech patch hooking into this new Agility SDK would be an incredible send-off for REDengine, cementing Cyberpunk as the ultimate PC tech showcase.

Devblog for reference: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/directx/shader-model-6-9-retail-and-more/

 

[AhmedHnewa]

I think it would be interesting but will this cause compatibility issues when using Proton on Gnu/Linux or SteamOS? I think it's most likely still possible to fallback to DirectX 11 even after a patch.

 

[NikkMann]

Second this.
Digital Foundry also had an interesting video come out yesterday where they talked about how all current games which use path tracing still trace the actual rays through a raster pipeline, but now with the 50 series of RTX gpus, tracing fully with true/primary pathtracing rays is finally as efficient as tracing them through raster, so in combo with the above suggestion, an option to have the scene trace through entirely primary pathtracing rays would provide a nice visual bump up as well, or at least better performance scaling for path tracing with future hardware.
They talk about it starting at 59:19 here

 

[NikkMann]

To add on to this, Nvidia has an almost production-ready major update for ReSTIR, which path tracing utilizes, which drastically improves both quality and performance, info with examples on it here:

https://overclock3d.net/news/software/nvidia-restir-pt-update-makes-path-tracing-2-3x-faster/

I assume this will be released next year along with the RTX 6000 GPUs, at which point would be the perfect time to both update the path-tracing shader model with the improvements above along with this ReSTIR upgrade.