In addition to its spotlight-stealing GeForce RTX 30 Series GPU announcements, Nvidia today showed off a suite of new streaming features under the umbrella name Nvidia Broadcast, as well as a new gaming enhancement, Nvidia Reflex.
For popular and aspiring streamers alike, Broadcast can enhance the current streaming equipment you have, and replace the bits you don’t. These include an all-digital green screen named Virtual Background Effects, as well as background noise filtering for your microphone ("Audio Noise Removal") and Auto Frame automatic head-tracking for your camera.
Nvidia Broadcast will be available for download sometime this month, and it's compatible with any GeForce RTX GPU.
Nvidia Broadcast's Virtual Background Effects in action.
The most eye-catching of these features is Virtual Background Effects. Many dedicated game streamers use a physical green screen in the background of their camera setup, which allows them to change their backdrop to any image, location, or gameplay they desire. Nvidia’s development takes the need for a physical green screen out of the equation, allowing you to blur your background, turn it into an image, or broadcast your live gameplay behind you with the camera focused on you. (See our guide to streaming for beginners.)
The digital green screen can even broadcast your live gameplay as your background.
Audio Noise Removal, meanwhile, is self-explanatory. Using AI learning, Audio Noise Removal removes background noise that your mic would normally pick up, muting it for those on the other end so they only hear your voice come through as intended.
Whether it’s talking in the background, a dog barking, or a bell ringing, Audio Noise Removal will eliminate these sounds so your friends or stream viewers can hear you clearly. This is similar to what the company has achieved with RTX Voice, which is also being rolled out now to its GTX GPU series for non-GeForce RTX users who want to give it a try.
Toggle background noise removal on or off with Audio Noise Removal.
Auto Frame also uses Nvidia’s AI to automatically track your head with your camera. The company describes this as having your own virtual cameraperson, keeping your face in the center of the frame as you move around. Not all streamers would want this on, but it is a toggle-able option like the others.
Reflex: An Instant Power-Up for GeForce Gamers?
All these Nvidia Broadcast features could be deployed on conference calls or voice chats with your friends; they're not just for Twitch streams. The other feature Nvidia announced, Reflex, is definitely meant for gaming, however.
The new GeForce Experience performance tab will allow you to tweak and monitor your system.
Reflex optimizes the rendering process across both the GPU and CPU to reduce latency by up to 50 milliseconds (ms). In practice, while gaming, this should give you a longer window to react to what you see, such as shooting an opponent running across a small opening for only a brief moment. A new Performance tab, pictured above, will be available in the GeForce Experience overlay. Reflex is compatible with Nvidia GeForce GTX 900 GPUs and higher.
The full spectrum of latency when gaming.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang claimed that the typical gamer only has the reaction time of 150ms from the time they see something on screen to the time they press a button, and if your PC is adding delay to that time frame, you’ll miss your opportunity. With Reflex ostensibly reducing the latency, gamers have a better chance of reacting in time. Huang says this will instantly, passively make millions of GeForce gamers more competitive.
This is the ideal, condensed path for the time from input to display with Reflex active.
We will, of course, have to test this ourselves when it becomes available to confirm its effectiveness. Nvidia Reflex will launch this month with Nvidia's next Game Ready driver. Check back for full reviews of the new GeForce RTX GPUs, as well, when they become available in the coming weeks.
Further Reading
- Nvidia's GeForce RTX 3080 Lands Sept. 17 for $699, RTX 3070 Drops Next Month
- Specs for Nvidia's Upcoming GeForce RTX 3080 and 3090 Leak Online
- Nvidia's New Graphics Cards Will Use 12-Pin Connector
- Intel to Launch 'Xe HPG' PC Gaming Graphics Cards in 2021, Using Outside Foundry
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