The new NVIDIA GeForce 290.36 beta drivers are now available to download. Recommended for gamers diving into Batman: Arkham City , the drivers also add official support for Ambient Occlusion in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Furthermore, a Battlefield 3 fix is included to combat the random appearance of triangular artifacts, a SLI shadow bug is stamped out in Crysis 2, and Settlers 7 corruption is eliminated.

On the tech side, the 290.36 beta drivers enable NVIDIA Surround on newly-released X79 SLI-certified motherboards, and native 3D Vision DisplayPort 1.1 connections are now possible on BenQ XL2420T and BenQ XL2420TX monitors.

Ambient Occlusion

As mentioned, the 290.36 beta drivers now allow for the use of Ambient Occlusion directly through the control panel in the two most popular titles of the moment: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

If you're unfamiliar with Ambient Occlusion, it is most easily described as a way to make in-game shadowing more realistic, and therefore better. To enable the effect, open your NVIDIA Control Panel either via the desktop or the tray icon, and follow the steps below:

Browse to 'Manage 3D Settings,' select 'Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim' or 'Modern Warfare 3' in the drop-down. If you can't see it in the list, untick the 'Show only programs found on this computer' box and try again.
Set the 'Ambient Occlusion' option to Performance or Quality.
Click the Apply button.

There will be a performance impact, have no doubt, though it is impossible to predict exactly how large given the millions of PC configurations, so we suggest enabling Fraps' frame rate overlay while you play, and should the frame rate drop below thirty simply undo the Ambient Occlusion changes or use the less demanding Performance mode.

Release Notes In Full

NVIDIA Ambient Occlusion

Adds NVIDIA Control Panel ambient occlusion support for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
Adds NVIDIA Control Panel ambient occlusion support for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.
NVIDIA PhysX

Updates PhysX System Software to version 9.11.1107 for the best PhysX experience in Batman: Arkham City.
NVIDIA Surround

Enables NVIDIA Surround support for Intel X79 SLI-certified motherboards.
NVIDIA SLI

Added or updated SLI profiles for Crysis 2, Heroes and Generals, Inversion, Stronghold 3, and Syndicate.
3D Vision

Adds support for 3D Vision over native DisplayPort 1.1 connection - available on BenQ XL2420T and BenQ XL2420TX monitors.
Added or updated the following 3D Vision game profiles:
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 – Rated Good
Cang Sheng – Rated Good
Diablo 3 – Rated Good
Fei fei – Rated Good
Final Combat – Rated Good
L.A. Noire – Updated Rating To 3D Vision Ready
LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7 – Rated Fair
Qian Nv You Hun Online – Rated Good
QQ Xi You – Rated Good
Sonic Generations – Rated Good
Xian Tu – Rated Good
Yong Bing Tian Xia Online – Rated Good
HD Audio

Updates HD Audio driver to version 1.3.9.0.
Bug Fixes

Fixes random flickering as Windows boot logo is loading or fading away.
Fixes corruption in Crysis 2 with SLI and lower quality shadow settings.
Fixes ability to set Surround resolutions to 5760x1080 using custom resolutions.
Fixes some random instances of triangular artifacts when playing Battlefield 3.
Fixes corruption and flickering of some objects in Battlefield 3 in the New York single-player level when anti-aliasing is enabled.
Fixes corruption seen in Settlers 7 with the NVIDIA 275.33 drivers.
Fixes playback of videos or live TV using Window Media Center resulting in a black screen.
Fixes the issue where 1920x1080 @60Hz PC resolution mode switched down to @59Hz.
Fixes mouse cursor flickering and shaking in Crysis 2, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Deus Ex and Civilization V when SLI is enabled when using 3DTV Play.