Ray tracing promises to deliver a massive increase to the fidelity of gaming graphics. But what is it? How does it work? And to what extent can the techniques be used when you *don't* have a Titan V graphics card? Note that we had to use second generation video here - unfortunately the developers and Nvidia couldn't supply higher quality assets.

What is anti-aliasing? Is it just about smoothing off the jaggies or is there more to it? Join Alex as we isolate what the problems of aliasing are, and what solutions developers have to address them.

Can Alex possibly convince the most hardcore haters that motion blur is actually a really good thing? Here's where we find out.

The best part of PC gaming is the way users can customise their experience, usually via their choice of hardware. But there's a software angle too - and not just via modding, but through the use of injectors like Reshade that allow you to 'remix' visuals on the fly. Alex shows you what Reshade is, what it can do and what the performance hit is.

Dynamic Resolution Scaling (DRS) started out life smoothing performance on console titles by lowering rendering resolution on the fly. But the technique is coming to more and more PC titles too. How does it work, what are the gains and how best to let the user configure it? Alex takes a look.

V-Sync is one of the most important - and controversial - options in PC gaming, but what does it do, how does it work and should you use it? Join Alex for a new Tech Focus.

Nvidia's Turing architecture pushes rendering into new territory with a number of brand new features - including variable rate shading, an attempt to lessen GPU load based on human perception of aspects such as motion and luminance. Alex has the full story plus analysis of the tech in action in Wolfenstein: The New Colossus.

Original games, original peripherals for all major retro consoles... on a single all-in-one retro unit? The Polymega aims to be the one-stop-shop for everything you need to run retro games on a modern flat panel display. But can it bear up to DF-level scrutiny when it comes to features and accuracy? John puts the unit through his paces, joined in this video by My Life In Gaming's Coury Carlson.

Straight out of nowhere, the original Doom Trilogy has been ported to the current generation consoles. Controversy surrounds the first two games - and to be clear, they do need a lot of work - but Doom 3? It's gold.

Having the full arcade experience at home is an enticing idea – and today we go hands-on with a Capcom-licensed take on the concept. The Home Arcade sports solid hardware, and packs in 16 classic CPS1 and 2 titles from its 2D golden age. Tom and John discuss early experiences with it, plus the controversy surrounding its emulation on reveal.

One of the defining highlights of the Xbox One/PS4 console generation has been the move to much more realistic volumetric lighting. From Red Dead Redemption 2's beautiful skyboxes to other increasingly commonplace voxel-based solutions, games are looking more realistic than ever. But what actually is volumetric lighting and what sets it apart from the god rays of yesteryear? Alex explains all.

In honour of Eurogamer - our partner website - reaching its 20th anniversary, we decided to celebrate its birthday by revisiting some of the most classic and interesting games of 1999, running them on a vintage retro PC with Coppermine Pentium, plus Voodoo 2 and Riva TNT2 Pro graphics cards!

Tech Focus returns with a closer look at Radeon Image Sharpening - a feature for Navi and Polaris graphics cards and an open source component of AMD's new FidelityFX. What's it best used for? What are its limits? Everything you need to know is right here.

DF Retro takes over DF Direct this week with a deep dive into the music of the legendary Chris Huelsbeck... courtesy of a conversation with Chris himself! Learn all about his music for Rainbow Arts, Factor 5 and more on C64, Amiga, consoles and beyond. Check out Chris's Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/chris_huelsbeck

We're going to be hearing a LOT about variable rate shading as we transition into the next generation console era. But what is it? What are its strengths and weaknesses? Is it really a game-changer in terms of more efficient graphics rendering? Alex Battaglia assesses the technology based on two games we've seen using it so far... and talks about how it could be used in future.

Digital Foundry tells developer stories that might not otherwise have been told. In this special episode, John Linneman talks to Bitmap Bureau and Big Evil Corp about how they created the brand new Sega Mega Drive/Genesis titles Xeno Crisis and Tanglewood.

Continuing our developer-focused series made by possible by support from Barclays, Digital Foundry returns to the brilliant Moon Studios, to talk to co-founder and lead engineer Gennadiy Korol. Topics covered include the challenges in delivering Ori and the Will of the Wisps to the next generation Xbox Series X and Series S consoles in the incredibly challenging environment brought about by Covid-19.

John and Audi sit down with Modern Vintage Gamer, famous YouTuber and emulation coder, who recently worked on the re-release of the famous Shantae for Game Boy Color, making use of his Carbon Engine - an all-new multisystem emulator tailored for the modern consoles.

Welcome to a brand new Tech Focus! In this video, delivered with early access to DF Supporter Program backers, Alex goes into depth of Global Illumination - or GI. What is it, how does it work, what are the implementations with rasterisation and ray tracing?

In this DF Developer interview, we sit down with Limited Run Games' Joe Modzeleski. Joe has been the architect of the Carbon Engine, allowing retro games to run flawlessly on modern hardware, and has a long history with speedrunning tech. In this interview we go over his career thus far, Carbon Engine plans, thoughts on the evolution of speedrunning and just how he and Audi would go about making a new Bubsy game.

How far we've come! Path tracing is the ultimate form of ray tracing and somehow, in just a few years, we've gone from a path-traced Quake 2 to a path-traced Cyberpunk 2077! How is this possible? In this Tech Focus video, Alex explains the combination of hardware improvements since the launch of RTX 20 Series, working in combination with radically more advanced software and the rise of AI-generated pixels - everything coming together to push in-game visuals further than they ever have before.

TAA - or Temporal Anti-Aliasing - has become the de facto standard form of anti-aliasing in video games today. It's a potent form of improving image quality and delivering effects similar to super-sampling while using a tiny fraction of your GPU's power. However, it's not without its issues and challenges and many users actively despise it. How have we got to where we are, why aren't other forms of AA used and where does it fare best? Alex Battaglia has this video for you.