A few days after the originally intended launch window of late January, the NVIDIA RTX Kit has finally been released to the public for the most part. NVIDIA RTX Kit can be downloaded via GitHub, though each component also has a dedicated repository. This includes what was arguably the most exciting and future-facing technology: RTX Neural Shaders, now abbreviated as RTXNS. Here's the excerpt from its dedicated GitHub page:
The sample is intended as a starting point for developers interested in bringing Machine Learning (ML) to their graphics applications. It provides a number of examples to help the reader understand how to train their own neural networks and then use those models to perform inference alongside their normal graphics rendering.
RTXNS uses the Slang shading language and it utilises the Vulkan Cooperative Vectors extension to provide access to the GPUs ML acceleration.
RTX Neural Materials is not yet available as part of the RTX Kit suite, but practically everything else is. For example, RTX Neural Texture Compression includes a demo sample that can be compiled to demonstrate the memory-saving technology. Compusemble did just that, finding massively reduced memory consumption (from 272 to 11.37 MB), although there is a performance cost associated when enabling the NTC AI inference model.
Similarly, RTX Mega Geometry (RTXMG) can be tested by compiling a new sample. This is the only technology that's already been used in a game (Alan Wake 2), but the tech demo is nonetheless interesting.
RTX Character Rendering (RTXCR) is also available, providing a sample of how to render path traced hair and skin. Hair is particularly interesting because, with the new GeForce RTX 50 graphics cards, NVIDIA introduced hardware support for a new hair data structure called Linear-Swept Sphere (LSS). According to NVIDIA, this delivers high performance in tracing and BVH updates while maintaining exceptionally low memory consumption. Compared to Disjoint Orthogonal Triangle Strips (DOTS), rendering animated hair on humans is about 2x faster with LSS and requires one-fifth of the VRAM. We'll see the first example of RTX Hair with the Indiana Jones and the Great Circle February update.
The RTX Kit also includes one technology that NVIDIA had not previously discussed at CES 2025: RTX Texture Filtering (RTXTF). According to NVIDIA, RTXTF randomly samples textures after shading and filters difficult volumes, reducing artifacts and improving image quality.
Lastly, NVIDIA also updated its Streamline SDK to version 2.7.2, adding support for DLSS 4 Multi Frame Generation and the new models for Ray Reconstruction, Frame Generation, and Super Resolution. This means we might soon see the first DLSS 4 mods.
