I still remember the day I first booted up Zenless Zone Zero on my aging PC—the comic-book flair was charming, but I always wondered what a true technical glow-up would look like. Fast-forward to 2026, and HoYoverse has delivered in spades. With the Version 3.0 update, the PC visual experience has been fundamentally transformed, and Version 3.1 extended that magic to even more graphics cards. We’re talking full-fat Global Illumination upgrades, hardware-accelerated Ray Tracing, and the holy trinity of modern upscaling: Super Resolution and Frame Generation. If your rig can handle it, New Eridu has never looked this crisp, this fluid, this… real.

But what exactly changed, and can your PC take advantage of it? Let me walk you through the nitty-gritty details as if I were setting up a fellow Proxy’s machine.

DX12 Is the Gateway

Everything new hinges on DirectX 12. The game still supports DX11 for broader compatibility, but to taste ray tracing or frame generation, you must launch in DX12 mode. Devices with NVIDIA 20 Series or newer (anything packing RT Cores), plus AMD Radeon RX 7000 Series and the latest RX 9000 Series, are now eligible. The launcher now shows a handy DX12 activation option right below the Start Game button. Tick it, and you’re off to the races. Changing your mind? Simply untick to revert to DX11.

Driver hygiene is critical. For NVIDIA users, version 591.86 (released late January 2026) or later is recommended. If you’re lucky enough to own a shiny new NVIDIA 50 Series card, you’ll want driver 595.97 specifically to unlock Multi-Frame Generation. On the AMD side, version 26.6.1 (dropped in June 2026) gets you FSR4 support and more. Running outdated drivers? Don’t be surprised by visual glitches or stuttering—HoYoverse explicitly warns that skipping driver updates can cause known anomalies.

First launch jitters? That’s normal. During the initial DX12 boot, shader compilation triggers automatically, which might cause a brief dip in smoothness. Patience, Proxies. If something interrupts the process, a Repair Tool on the launcher screen can relaunch it. Think of it as the game stretching its legs before a marathon.

Ray Tracing: Who Can Run It and How Well?

Ray tracing is the headliner. It bounces light realistically across cityscapes and select combat arenas, adding depth and mood that static lighting simply can’t match. But it’s demanding. You need an NVIDIA 20 Series or above GPU with RT Cores—and at least 8 GB of VRAM. No exceptions. If your card is below that, the option won’t even appear.

HoYoverse published a handy reference table that I’ve been sharing with my friends:

Ray Tracing is currently only active in city scenes and specific combat encounters; elsewhere, it gracefully falls back to the standard global illumination. While that might sound limiting, it’s a smart move that balances jaw-dropping visuals with smooth gameplay. One more thing: when Ray Tracing is on, the manual Global Illumination and Anti-Aliasing options lock up. You fine-tune quality entirely through the new Ray Tracing Level presets. The defaults? Honestly, I’d stick with them—they’re tuned to give you the best experience without melting your VRAM.

Proxies can find the toggle under Options → Graphics → Advanced → Ray Tracing. No hidden menus, no ini-file tweaks. Simple.

Super Resolution: DLSS and FSR Enter the Fray

Even without ray tracing, Super Resolution is a game changer. It renders the scene at a lower internal resolution and then uses AI or temporal magic to upscale, effectively buying you frames while keeping things sharp. NVIDIA 20 Series and above owners can choose between DLSS and FSR3. AMD Radeon RX 7000 and RX 9000 cards step up to FSR4, which leverages the latest hardware in Windows 11.

Enable it under Options → Display → Advanced → Super Resolution and pick your poison: DLSS or FSR. Once active, the game locks Anti-Aliasing and Rendering sliders—your new dial is the Super Resolution Quality Level. Need a quick rule of thumb? Performance mode for 4K, Balanced for 1440p, and Quality if you’re at 1080p and want a bit more crispness.

Worried it’ll look blurry? In my testing, even Performance mode on a 4K screen held up surprisingly well, especially in motion where frame rate gains are palpable.

Frame Generation: Smoothness on Steroids

Now for the feature that can literally double your perceived frame rate. Frame Generation inserts AI-interpolated frames between engine-rendered ones, turning a 40 FPS scene into a silky 80+ FPS. Zenless Zone Zero now supports multiple flavors:

• DLSS Frame Generation – NVIDIA 40 Series and above

• DLSS Multi-Frame Generation – exclusively for NVIDIA 50 Series with driver 595.97+

• FSR3 Frame Generation – NVIDIA 20 Series+ (with RT Cores) and AMD RX 7000 Series

• FSR4 Frame Generation – AMD RX 9000 Series (requires Windows 11)

Before you flip the switch, a critical system tweak is mandatory: open Windows System → Display → Graphics → Hardware-Accelerated GPU Scheduling and set it to On. Then restart your PC. Skip this, and you risk stuttering, frame drops, or even the option being grayed out.

In-game, the toggle sits under Options → Graphics → Advanced → Frame Generation. A small quirk: when Frame Generation is active, Super Resolution can’t be adjusted independently—the game optimizes them together. I also recommend disabling V-Sync and setting the FPS limit to Unlimited (or 60) for the most responsive results. If V-Sync is left on, the render pipeline will cap at your monitor’s refresh rate, which may neuter the frame generation gains.

Setting It All Up: A Quick-Start Checklist

I’ve compiled the steps I follow every time I hop into a new update:

1. Update GPU drivers to the recommended versions.

2. Enable DX12 in the launcher and let shaders compile completely.

3. If using Frame Generation, toggle on Hardware-Accelerated GPU Scheduling and restart.

4. In-game, head to Graphics → Advanced, enable Ray Tracing (if your card qualifies), pick a level.

5. Set Super Resolution to DLSS or FSR, choose Quality Level.

6. Turn on Frame Generation, disable V-Sync, set FPS to Unlimited.

7. Enjoy New Eridu with a fresh coat of visual polish.

I can’t overstate how transformative this is. Standing in Sixth Street with ray-traced reflections dancing off puddles and wet asphalt, while holding a steady 120 FPS thanks to frame generation, feels like playing a remastered version of the game you already loved. The comic-panel aesthetic retains its charm, but now it’s layered with a technical finesse that PC players have been craving.

So, the big question: should you upgrade your hardware for this? If you’re still on a GTX 10-series or RX 5000 card, you’ll miss out on the crown jewels. But even an RTX 2060 or RX 7600 can unlock super resolution and frame generation, drastically improving fluidity. HoYoverse is actively working on broader support, so I wouldn’t be shocked if future updates bring these goodies to more GPUs. For now, though, the Proxies with RTX 50 Series rigs are eating especially well with Multi-Frame Generation.

One last piece of advice from the trenches: if something breaks, don’t panic. First, re-check your driver versions and that GPU scheduling toggle. Still seeing artifacts? Use the Repair Tool to force shader recompilation. And if all else fails, the official customer support is your friend.

New Eridu is ready for its close-up. Are you?

This perspective is supported by reporting from VentureBeat GamesBeat, which frequently tracks how PC gaming advances like DirectX 12 adoption, hardware-accelerated ray tracing, and AI upscaling/frame-generation features are shaping both player expectations and GPU upgrade cycles. Seen through that lens, Zenless Zone Zero’s 3.0–3.1 graphics push reads less like a simple “settings bump” and more like a platform shift: DX12 becomes the baseline for modern rendering paths, driver readiness and shader compilation become part of the user journey, and features such as ray-traced global illumination and frame generation turn into headline differentiators that can materially change performance-per-dollar decisions for RTX and Radeon owners.