Metro Exodus PC Enhanced Edition Brings DLSS 2.0 and Enhanced Ray Tracing Features

Metro Exodus Logo
(Image credit: 4A and Deep Silver)

While Deep Silver's and 4A Games Metro Exodus has been available for several years, that hasn't stopped the developer from improving upon it. Today, it was announced that the game would see a new edition called Metro Exodus PC Enhanced Edition, which will bring DLSS 2.0 to the game and more ray tracing features than you can shake a stick at, but only if you have the latest graphics cards.

This upgraded version will take advantage of 4A's new fully Ray Tracing Lighting Pipeline and adds support for Nvidia and AMD hardware. Those who picked up AMD's latest graphics cards will have another game that will provide ray tracing support. Nvidia cards will benefit from DLSS 2.0, while there's no word on if support for AMD's DLSS competitor, DirectML Super Resolution, will be added. 

"We have built an all-new Fully Ray Traced Lighting Pipeline that brings a number of optimizations, upgrades, and new features to the Ray Traced Global Illumination and Emissive Lighting that we pioneered with the original release of Metro Exodus, as well as an upgraded implementation of our powerful Temporal Reconstruction technology to further boost resolution, visual detail, and performance." -- Deep Silver / 4A Games Press Release

This upgraded version will take advantage of 4A's new Fully Ray Tracing Lighting Pipeline and adds support for Nvidia and AMD hardware. Those who picked up AMD's latest graphics cards will have another game that will provide ray tracing support. Nvidia cards will benefit from DLSS 2.0, while there's no word on if AMD's DLSS competitor, DirectML Super Resolution, will be added. 

However, this is more than just a mere upgrade. As there are many added features under the hood, this wouldn't be released as a patch. Instead, it will be released as a separate version of the game that will be free for all existing Metro Exodus owners on the Epic Games Store Steam and GOG. The Metro Exodus PC Enhanced Edition will be available in Spring 2021.

This upgraded version is strictly for ray traced enabled hardware, as the bare minimum for even playing the game will require either Nvidia's or AMD's capable hardware. If you try to run the game and don't have a GPU that can provide ray tracing, the game won't run. This also means you probably don't want to try running Nvidia's software-enabled ray tracing on the GTX series cards.

Metro Exodus PC Enhanced Edition Ray Tracing Features

(Image credit: 4A)

In addition to The Metro Exodus PC Enhanced Edition version, 4A games have also announced that Metro Exodus is also making its way to both Mac and Linux. These versions were promised some time ago and are still in the works. The Mac version will be available in March 2021, while the Linux version looking like a much later 2021 release.

Ray tracing support is also heading to the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S consoles. The beefer consoles, PS5 and Xbox Series X, will run at 4K / 60FPS with full ray traced lighting. The Xbox Series S will also see upgraded ray tracing features, but not 4K as the console wasn't designed around 4K gaming. The PS5 version will benefit from added haptic feedback for the DualSense controller. While the Xbox Series X|S will see spatial audio and controller latency improvements.

Metro Exodus is the conclusion to the Metro gaming series, which has spanned three games and is currently available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC, while being backward compatible for the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.

Keith Mitchell

Keith Mitchell is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He is an IT professional during the day, and a passionate lover of video games and tech after his 9-5 grind. He has a weird affinity for Soulsborne games and plays them non-stop.

  • olin9
    Who cares? I got the metro game because I had played the others. while this one has a lot of eye candy. the game play sucks, I stop playing after 3 hours and have not touch it since. Just watch any demo and count that as the best of the game and walk away.
    Reply
  • woot
    olin9 said:
    Who cares? I got the metro game because I had played the others. while this one has a lot of eye candy. the game play sucks, I stop playing after 3 hours and have not touch it since. Just watch any demo and count that as the best of the game and walk away.
    Was it too scary for you? it can be very atmospheric and tense at times, which can put off some players.
    Reply
  • Nemz2010
    olin9 said:
    Who cares? I got the metro game because I had played the others. while this one has a lot of eye candy. the game play sucks, I stop playing after 3 hours and have not touch it since. Just watch any demo and count that as the best of the game and walk away.

    Just stick with Call of Duty, real games aren't for you.
    Reply
  • d0x360
    olin9 said:
    Who cares? I got the metro game because I had played the others. while this one has a lot of eye candy. the game play sucks, I stop playing after 3 hours and have not touch it since. Just watch any demo and count that as the best of the game and walk away.

    Then you stopped playing way too soon. Probably didn't get out of the first big area. I'm talking the snow/river map. I probably spent a good 4-5 hours in that one area alone.

    I'm pretty excited for this. I could run exodus at 3200x1800 with RT on and DLSS off at 60fps with some rare dips.

    With this version I'm hoping for a full 4k60+ since it's using not only DLSS2.1 but also variable rate shading.

    I'm hoping those 2 performance enhancers will allow my 2080ti ftw3 ultra to run the game the same or better... Kinda makes me glad I stopped playing because I was trying to get a 3080. Perhaps now I won't need it for this game.
    Reply