It seems that Nintendo is finally exploring ways to maximize the capabilities of the Switch 2 hardware.

Nintendo Switch 2 games will be able to use Nvidia RTX technologies, such as DLSS and ray tracing, to provide better visuals and image quality while maintaining stable performance. Since its release, Nintendo’s first-party games have not taken advantage of these technologies, but Kirby Air Riders reportedly uses the RTXGI SDK, meaning it uses ray-traced global illumination to some extent. A screenshot of the game license readme in the Nintendo Switch 2 menu, shared on the ResetEra forum, confirms that Kirby Air Riders uses the RTXGI SDK. This means that it uses ray-traced global illumination to some extent, which could make it the first Nintendo first-party game to do so.

It is not yet known how Kirby Air Riders implements ray-traced global illumination, but this is an interesting discovery, considering how the Nintendo Switch 2 handles the game. The game looks beautiful and runs at a smooth 60 FPS, even when the tracks get chaotic. It will be interesting to see how they achieve this and whether they use any resolution-boosting technology, such as Nvidia DLSS, to ensure the game delivers excellent image quality and stable performance at launch.

Although Kirby Air Riders is reportedly the first Nintendo game to use RT, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen ray tracing on the Nintendo Switch 2. Ubisoft’s Star Wars Outlaws (the publisher is to be acquired by Tencent…), makes extensive use of RT. Based on currently available footage, future third-party games (e.g., Resident Evil Requiem) will likely also use RT to some extent.

Just because Kirby Air Riders uses RTXGI doesn’t mean the game will use ray-traced global illumination on the Nintendo Switch 2. According to Alex Battaglia of Digital Foundry, the RTXGI SDK enables developers to incorporate probes for an offline mode that does not use real-time ray tracing. Further examination of the game is necessary to determine if Kirby Air Riders is the first Nintendo Switch 2 first-party title to support ray tracing.

Source: WCCFTech, ResetEra, Bsky