What you need to know
- Diablo 4 launched across consoles and Windows PC back in June 2023.
- At CES 2024, NVIDIA revealed that the brutal hack-and-slash RPG is getting ray-tracing support in March 2024.
- Details are limited, but the integration will include ray-traced shadows and reflections.
Get ready to dive into the world of Sanctuary will more visual detail than ever before.
During the NVIDIA CES 2024 presentation, NVIDIA revealed that Blizzard Entertainment's action-RPG Diablo 4 is getting ray-tracing in a couple of months. This update will include ray-traced shadows and reflections, meaning you can admire your Wanderer and monsters you butcher through reflections in blood and water. You can take a brief look at the gameplay and some comparison shots in the video below:
NVIDIA naturally advertised how DLSS 3 will make this ray-tracing more efficient with the near tripling of framerates, though as the video neglected to include any information on hardware or settings, it's definitely worth taking the featured numbers with a grain of salt.
There's no exact release date for the Diablo 4 ray tracing update right now, but NVIDIA does say that it's coming at some point in March 2024, so players eager to see their reflections in viscera and forgotten pools won't have to wait too long.
Naturally, this wasn't all NVIDIA had to share during its CES 2024 presentation, with the tech giant revealing three new graphics cards as part of its RTX 40 Super lineup and are launching throughout January.
What about Diablo 4 on consoles?
We won't rule out any possibilities, but right now, this announcement only pertains to the Windows PC version of Diablo 4. Some games on Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 have gotten ray tracing support, but it's usually in far more limited ways than what's available on PC, such as ray-traced shadows in Cyberpunk 2077 vs. the full path tracing that's available on high-end PC hardware, or how Alan Wake 2 omits ray tracing on console entirely but uses extremely advanced path tracing on PC.
A large part of this isn't just the differences in sheer hardware (though the extra specs don't hurt) but instead due to DLSS 3 frame generation, which makes games playable at the highest settings with framerates that simply wouldn't be possible otherwise.
Analysis: A great visual boon
Diablo 4 already looks great, but having ray tracing in there to boost it further will be awesome to see. I primarily play Diablo games on console because I just want to sit back and relax while zapping demons with my Sorceress, but I'll be tempted to double-dip and see what the PC version looks like when I get my PC overhaul done.
