Virtual reality enthusiasts, listen up. If you use an Nvidia GeForce graphics card, today is a great day to update your drivers.
Version 361.43 of Nvidia’s WHQL-certified GeForce drivers comes with all sorts of features for VR users, including support for version 1.1 of Gameworks VR. That should make games look a lot better while wearing your headset – which in turn will make things even more immersive.
“This Game Ready driver includes the latest GameWorks VR tweaks, bug fixes, and optimizations to ensure you have the ultimate VR gaming experience,” according to the release notes.
Gameworks VR is Nividia’s collection of APIs, libraries, and features for virtual reality devices. Version 1.1 of Gameworks VR offers VR SLI for both OpenGL applications and the latest Oculus SDK, expanding that capability to a bunch of games that previously didn’t support it. VR SLI means that if you have multiple GPUs, one can be assigned to each eye. This will should lead to better frame rates and frame pacing, which is very important for an immersive VR experience.
Like most drivers, these also include a selection of bug fixes. The new drivers should “mitigate flickering and tearing related to rendering to the scanout surface,” for example. A bug on Windows 10 systems that caused hot plugging to fail has been fixed. And lag in Star Wars Battlefront with SLI enabled should also be better, if not eliminated, meaning you can better immerse yourself in a galaxy far, far away, should you choose.
Go ahead and check out the release notes if you want more details — there’s a lot to read about here. It’s interesting to see Nvidia continue to work on the VR experience, especially when you consider that there’s basically no consumer-focused hardware out there yet. This driver update, and some patents Nvidia has applied for, suggests Nvidia thinks that will change.