Before Elden Ring was even released, Bandai Namco officially confirmed that FromSoftware would add ray tracing to the open world action RPG game at some point after launch. After several months of complete silence, Elden Ring patch 1.07 added strings related to ray tracing, but its implementation isn't complete yet. Clearly, work is being done to make that happen, though.
The question remains whether FromSoftware would also update its most recent game to support any of the upscaler technologies developed by NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel. It would seem like a no-brainer, as the computing cost of ray tracing is so high that it basically requires upscaling to offset the lost performance, but one can never know.
While we wait to find out what's coming from the Japanese studio, renowned modder PureDark has begun working on a mod to add NVIDIA DLSS/DLAA, AMD FSR 2, and Intel XeSS to Elden Ring.
In case you aren't familiar with PureDark, he already managed to inject the aforementioned upscaling technologies into Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (including the Virtual Reality version) and Fallout 4. FromSoftware's Elden Ring is based on an entirely different engine, of course, but it does natively support TAA, which is the basis of all these upscaling algorithms.
The modder has already shown a work-in-progress image (the featured one at the top of the article). NVIDIA's Deep Learning Anti-Aliasing (DLAA) already works in the game, delivering a cleaner image than what was possible with the default Temporal Antialiasing.
More time will be needed to implement DLSS/FSR2/XeSS, but it shouldn't be long now. Needless to say, we'll keep you informed as soon as the upscaler mod becomes available.
As a reminder, FromSoftware officially confirmed the Elden Ring expansion called Shadow of the Erdtree. Rumors say it might be coming after the release of Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon, which is said to be around September. It is presently unclear whether Elden Ring fans will have to wait for the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion to get the promised ray tracing features.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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