Elden Ring is getting ray tracing to make those poison swamps even prettier

Elden Ring is getting ray tracing in a future update, Bandai Namco has announced.

Tucked away in the first batch of Elden Ring patch notes, the publisher reveals that ray tracing, which is quickly becoming standard for new-gen games, is on its way to FromSoftware's latest release. We don't have a release date for the ray tracing patch, but Bandai Namco says news is coming at an unspecified point in the future. 

"The timing of the implementation of ray tracing, which is planned to be supported after the launch, will be announced in future announcements," reads a line from the patch notes.

As we said in our Elden Ring review, FromSoftware's latest is a beautiful game even without ray tracing. Our own Joel Franey calls Elden Ring's world "suitably gorgeous" with clear and distinct visual themes across various regions. That said, the addition of ray tracing should make reflections bouncing off poisonous swamps, venomous smoke spat from Patches the Untethered's mouth, and sun rays peering down from dark clouds much more true to life.

"The swamps and lakes to the West have eerie balloons floating over them, half-visible in the mist," reads a bit from our review. "The fiery wastelands couldn't just be singed rocks, they're overgrown with fat, tumorous growths that make it feel like the land itself is diseased. And a dragon the size of a skyscraper has crashed into the gods' golden capital, its body draped over the palatial architecture. Could a world by Miyazaki be anything other?"

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