Key Takeaways
- Diablo IV looks even better now with ray tracing and lighting tweaks, creating a more immersive gothic horror atmosphere.
- Contact shadows and lifelike reflections add depth to the environment, enhancing realism and visual detail in the game.
- Take advantage of the new graphical enhancements with an RTX 40 series GPU for optimal performance, or enjoy the improved visuals with any RTX-capable card.
Diablo IV’s stellar post-launch support continues to impress. As of patch 1.3.5, players can experience Sanctuary and all its demonic denizens with ray tracing (and a host of other improvements) turned on. One of the biggest “next-gen” features is now in the game and it has never looked better. We’re also getting a huge gold and experience boost event to celebrate the new look with.
A Beautiful Hellscape
Blizzard has always had an eye for visuals and Diablo IV was already among its best-looking games. Somehow, it now looks even better courtesy of the aforementioned ray tracing and tweaks to ambient occlusion (which determines how nearby objects prevent a given surface from receiving light from a light source) and other lighting systems. These are big changes for a game with such an oppressive gothic horror atmosphere. Sanctuary is a place where light and dark are in constant contrast, so improvements to the lighting engine stand out.
Reflections are much more lifelike, lending a sense of depth to the environment, and more characters now have contact shadows. For anyone who doesn’t know, a contact shadow is essentially a more realistically rendered shadow. There’s a lot of fancy tech behind it, but long story short, a lot more nuance is captured than when using traditional methods, resulting in greater realism. Shadows can vary in opacity and appear much more detailed and lifelike.
To get the most out of the new options, you’ll need an RTX 40 series GPU. Anyone with an RTX-capable card can turn ray tracing features on, but only players with a 40 series can take advantage of NVIDIA’s DLSS 3 Frame Generation technology. Doing so will allow you to max out both the graphical settings and your frame rate for the optimal experience. Don’t worry, though, the game still looks great even if you aren’t on the cutting edge.
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All Diablo 4 Season 3 Battle Pass Rewards
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To enable ray tracing on PC head to the options menu and check out the “Performance” tab. Everything you need to turn on is in there. For console players, select options, then “Graphics.” From there, go to “Performance” and look for “Enhanced Visuals.” Enabling this will turn on all the new improvements. It will also lock your game to 30fps so as not to compromise overall performance.
Mother’s Blessing Weekend Returns
In addition to graphical enhancements, Diablo IV players are getting the chance to earn huge amounts of gold and experience points as the Mother’s Blessing event returns to Sanctuary. From March 26, 10 a.m.–April 2, 10 a.m. PT, players can earn both Experience and Gold at a 35% increased rate. Even better, this bonus stacks with Elixirs and Urns of Aggression. This opportunity is not to be missed.
Level up your character, blaze your way through the battle pass, and climb to all new world tiers. There has never been a better time to lay waste to your enemies. You don’t have long to take advantage, so make the most of Mother’s Blessing while you can.
This is a good time to jump back in if you haven’t been playing for a while. A nice graphical refresh and a chance to make some serious progress are a very tempting combination. Whatever you decide to do, stick with us for all the latest updates on Diablo IV. There are bound to be more to follow.
