When CD Projekt RED revealed the first look at The Witcher 3 Next-Gen last week, the developer outlined ray-traced global illumination and shadows, while they said screen space reflections remained in place (albeit improved over the original release) instead of ray-traced reflections. However, experts like Digital Foundry's Alexander Battaglia pointed out that some of the water reflections seen in the trailer of The Witcher 3 Next-Gen seemed to indicate ray-tracing was in use.

　　Today, amidst their RTX and DLSS update post for December, NVIDIA confirmed that, indeed, The Witcher 3 Next-Gen features ray-traced reflections.

　　RTX Global Illumination (RTXGI) adds more immersive and realistic outdoor ray-traced lightingRay-traced ambient occlusion improves shading around objects occluding lightRay-traced shadows improve the fidelity, clarity, and visibility of shadowsRay-traced reflections increase the accuracy and quality of reflections on bodies of water and other suitably reflective surfacesOn top of that, Ultra+ settings increase draw distances, foliage density, background character detail, asset quality, and more. Texture resolutions are increased, and environments gain new geometric detail.

　　It's hard to imagine why they wouldn't say that outright in the reveal live stream. Perhaps it was a simple slip-up or a last-minute addition. Either way, we can't wait to check it out once The Witcher 3 Next-Gen hits on December 14th. As a reminder, The Witcher 3 Next-Gen also supports NVIDIA DLSS 3 (for GeForce RTX 40 Series GPUs), DLSS 2 (for GeForce RTX 20 and 30 Series GPUs), and NVIDIA Reflex (for GeForce GTX 90 Series GPUs and upward).

　　In related ray tracing news, NVIDIA is expanding Minecraft with RTX next week. Four new worlds will be added for free on December 6th.

　　World #1: Alien Encounter

　　Creator: Syclone Studios

　　Type: Adventure

　　World #2: The Redstone Temple

　　Creator: Gamemode One

　　Type: Puzzle Adventure

　　World #3: A Spirit's Journey

　　Creator: Everbloom Games

　　Type: Story-Driven Puzzle Adventure

　　World #4: The Isles of Whimsy

　　Creator: Shaliquinn's Schematics

　　Type: Open World Survival