Hitman 3 ray tracing update is coming for Xbox Series X and S

Hitman 3 ray tracing support is in the works for Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, along with plans to bring the graphics technology to PC.

Hitman 3 does not currently include ray tracing support on any platform, but IO Interactive confirmed before launch that it was working on bringing it to PC in a future update. In a new Xbox Wire post about optimizing Hitman 3 for Xbox Series X and S, IOI chief technology officer Maurizio de Pascale said it's also on the roadmap for Microsoft's consoles.

"We see Hitman as a 'live game' and our launch date on January 20 is just the beginning of a journey, in which we're going to keep working on the game and adding new features," Maurizio explained. "It's great that the GPU in the Series X|S has hardware support for ray tracing. We've already started working on RT technology for the renderer in our Glacier engine, and once that's deemed ready for prime time, we'll definitely bring it to the Series X|S hardware."

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Elsewhere in the interview, de Pascale also explained how the new console hardware lets Hitman 3 update its NPCs more frequently and in higher numbers (meaning more people to shriek and start running when you drop a chandelier on your target), as well as simulate more detailed cloth and destruction effects.

Better light and shadows are something to look forward to for Xbox fans, though we've also reached out to IOI to see if ray tracing support is planned for the PS5 version of the game. We'll update this story if and when the studio gets back to us.

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