DXR, or DirectX Ray Tracing, is the API Microsoft announced at the Game Developers Conference 2018. A compatible extension to the existing DirectX 12 API, DXR was publicly released with the October 2018 Windows 10 update.

　　A few months ago, on the first anniversary of the DXR announcement, NVIDIA partnered with Epic and Microsoft for an Indie Spotlight contest. Participants were asked to create tech demos using Microsoft's DXR and Epic's Unreal Engine 4.22 which featured ray traced effects like reflections, shadows and ambient occlusion.

　　Today, NVIDIA announced the three winners of the DXR Indie Spotlight contest, which were picked out of 'dozens' participants. Each one of the winners is getting an NVIDIA RTX TITAN graphics card and developer support from both Microsoft and NVIDIA itself.

　　The tech demos are all available for download, as you can read below.

Christian Hecht with Attack from Outer Space

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　　You can download the DXR tech demo here.

Alden Fillion with Diode

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　　You can download the DXR tech demo here.

Opus Visual with LP Trailer

　　Opus Visual is an architectural visualization and 3D visual rendering company based out of Houston. Their tech demo LP Trailer allows you to drive your big rig around a truck yard and uses ray-traced reflections and ambient occlusion to deliver life-like lighting.

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　　You can download the DXR tech demo here.