Shadow Warrior 2, the highly acclaimed first-person shooter is focused on fun. But not to be missed behind the numerous weapon choices, over-the-top gore and edgy sense of humour is an indie release that is loaded with next-generation technology, thanks in part to a collaboration between NVIDIA and Flying Wild Hog, the game’s independent Poland-based developer.

Published by Devolver Digital, the outfit behind indie hits like Hotline Miami and BroForce, Shadow Warrior 2 is a another example of Devolver Digital’s reach in the indie scene. Flying Wild Hog, along with Devolver sister company Gambitious, was a part of the NVIDIA Indie Spotlight program launch with their game Hard Reset: Redux.

NVIDIA’s work with them on Shadow Warrior 2 has resulted in a game with stunning visuals that were aided by NVIDIA created or inspired technologies.

Shadow Warrior 2 uses NVIDIA Multi-Res Shading, which includes simultaneous multi-projection (SMP) technology built into NVIDIA Pascal GPUs to project images into multiple viewports. It can, for example, decrease the resolution of a game’s graphics on the periphery of the screen, improving performance without harming image quality on the centre of the screen where a gamer’s eyes are focused during gameplay.

This is the first time Multi-Res Shading technology has been used outside a VR application. By intelligently reducing the workload on the GPU, a substantial amount of performance is gained.

Shadow Warrior 2 is also the first PC game to feature HDR (high-dynamic range). NVIDIA is driving the adoption of HDR in real-time 3D applications by working with developers to add the technology to their games. HDR expands the range of both contrast and colour, so developers can display a wider and richer range of colours, much brighter whites, and much deeper, darker blacks.