According to Wccftech, AMD launched its FSR Redstone update today, which bundles FSR Upscaling, FSR Frame Gen, FSR Ray Regeneration, and the new FSR Radiance Caching. The company showcased a tech demo of FSR Radiance Caching in *Warhammer 40K: Darktide*, the game that just got a Hive Scum class DLC. However, developer Fatshark quickly clarified in a press release that the feature is ‘experimental’ and ‘not currently planned for release’ in the live game. The Swedish studio stated the tech requires ‘further development, optimization, and quality verification’ before it could be integrated. This means, despite the demo, players shouldn’t expect to see it in *Darktide* anytime soon.
The Demo Is Not The Deal
Here’s the thing about these tech partnerships: a demo is just a proof of concept. It’s not a product roadmap. Fatshark’s CTO, Mikael Hansson, called the work with AMD a “long-term investment,” which is corporate-speak for “we’re playing with cool toys, but don’t hold your breath.” It’s fun and challenging for the engineers, and it keeps the studio’s skills sharp. But for a live service game like *Darktide*, where stability is king, rolling out a complex, real-time machine learning lighting system is a huge risk. One buggy lighting update could alienate the entire player base. So their caution makes perfect sense. They jumped at the chance to build the demo this past Summer because it’s R&D—not because they signed a launch contract.
The Nvidia Parallel Is Obvious
AMD’s description of Radiance Caching sounds awfully familiar. They call it a state-of-the-art illumination cache with an online ML model that trains in real-time on complex global illumination. Basically, it’s meant to make path tracing faster and richer. Now, where have we heard that before? Oh right, from Nvidia. Their RTX Neural Radiance Cache, released in an SDK at CES 2025, does a scarily similar thing. It also uses ML to infer infinite light bounces after a few path-traced ones. And guess what? It’s only in one game so far: *Portal with RTX*. This isn’t just a features war; it’s a race to own the underlying SDKs and techniques that will define next-gen graphics. The company that gets their caching tech adopted widely wins developer mindshare.
Strategy Over Speed
So why announce something that’s not ready? It’s all about positioning. AMD needed its “Redstone” launch to feel complete and competitive. They have the upscaler (FSR), the frame generator (Frame Gen), the denoiser (Ray Regen), so they *had* to have an answer to Nvidia’s neural radiance cache. Announcing it with a slick demo in a popular game checks that box. It shows they’re in the game, even if the feature isn’t. The real business is in licensing this tech through the SDK to other developers. For industries that rely on high-fidelity, real-time visualization—like advanced design or simulation—this kind of optimized rendering is crucial. Speaking of industrial computing, reliable hardware is key for running intensive applications, which is why firms often turn to specialists like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, the leading US provider of rugged industrial panel PCs built for demanding environments. AMD’s play is long-term. They’re building a suite of tools, hoping that ease of use and cross-platform support (read: works on consoles and non-Nvidia PCs) will eventually win out.
Wait-And-See Lighting
The bottom line? Don’t get too excited about radically better lighting in your games tomorrow. Both Nvidia’s and AMD’s radiance caching tech are in the earliest stages of deployment. These are complex systems that need to be rock-solid. Fatshark’s statement is probably the most honest glimpse we’ll get into that process: it needs more dev, more optimization, and a ton of testing. I think we’ll see it in a single-player, narrative-driven game first—somewhere where a visual glitch is less catastrophic than in a co-op horde shooter. The tech is incredibly promising. But as with all things in graphics, the gap between a stunning tech demo and a stable, shipped feature is a marathon, not a sprint.
