Hey, everyone! Today we're releasing v1.4.0, featuring added support for final Vulkan Ray Tracing API, and enabling dynamic selection between the pre-existing NVIDIA VKRay and the new Khronos extension backends.

New Features:

• Added support for final Vulkan Ray Tracing API. The game can now run on any GPU supporting `VK_KHR_ray_tracing_pipeline` extension
• Added temporal upscaling, or TAAU, for improved image quality at lower resolution scales.

Fixed Issues:

• Fixed a crash that happened when there are no available sound devices.
• Fixed a few issues with the tone mapper and the profiler for AMD GPU compatibility.
• Fixed a server crash: https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/issues/86
• Fixed black materials and some light leaks: https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/issues/55
• Fixed missing railgun lights in photo mode: https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/issues/75
• Fixed missing sun light on geometry with invalid clusters.
• Fixed the CFLAGS for MinSizeRel and RelWithDebInfo builds to generate correct debug symbols.
• Fixed the game stuttering on Linux: https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/issues/62
• Fixed the issue with all models being missing or corrupted on some maps during network play.
• Fixed the nearest filter when DRS was enabled and then disabled.
• Fixed building the game with GCC10 on Linux: https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/issues/80

Denoiser Improvements:

• Implemented a new gradient estimation algorithm that makes the image more stable in reflections and refractions.
• Implemented sampling across checkerboard fields in the temporal filter to reduce blurring.
• Improved motion vectors for multiple refraction, in particular when thick glass is enabled.
• Improved the temporal filter to avoid smearing on surfaces that appear at small glancing angles, e.g. on the floor when going up the stairs.
• Improved the temporal filter to make lighting more stable on high-detail surfaces.

Misc Improvements:

• Added git branch name to the game version info.
• Improved the console log to get more information in case of game crashes.
• Increased precision of printed FPS when running timedemos.
• Reduced the amount of stutter that happened when new geometry is loaded, like on weapon pickup.
• Replaced the Vulkan headers stored in the repository with a submodule pointing to https://github.com/KhronosGroup/Vulkan-Headers
• Static resolution scale can now be set to as low as 25%.
• Vulkan validation layer can now be enabled through the `vk_validation` cvar.
• Updated SDL2 version to changeset 13784.