Slay demons in realistic lighting with ‘Doom Eternal”s new ray-tracing patch


Doom Eternal’s sixth update has added ray-tracing and DLSS support to the game, alongside new content, bug fixes, and game balancing.

Ray-traced lighting effects in Doom Eternal drastically change how lighting appears. Ray-tracing creates a realistic render of how lighting refracts and reflects off surfaces.

Players will need a minimum of an RTX 2060 or an AMD Radeon RX 6700XT to play Doom Eternal at 60 FPS, 1080p with ray-tracing enabled. The feature’s demanding nature will require players on those cards to run the game with the lowest graphical settings.

Ray-tracing support is now also available on PS5 and Xbox Series X. The Xbox Series S does not have support ray-tracing, but the update does add 120 FPS gameplay.

Update 6 also includes DLSS support, which lets players take advantage of Deep-Learning Super Sampling. The technique involves running the gaming at a lower internal resolution while the AI upscales it to match the required resolution.

It can drastically lower the performance cost of running games at 4K. DLSS is exclusive to Nvidia cards, although AMD has also launched its rival equivalent called ‘Fidelity FX’.

Id Software added new content in the update as well. There’s a new master level called Taras Nabad, which the developer describes as an “entire new combat experience”, which it hopes will provide the most difficult challenge yet.

Doom Eternal
Doom Eternal. Credit: id Software

Battlemode also got a new map in the update called Corrosion. The patch notes describe Corrosion as a “forgotten fortress that’s been ravaged by a hellish swamp.” Battlemode is a competitive multiplayer mode in which two playable demons face-off against a demon slayer.

Doom Eternal‘s sixth update also features several gameplay and balance tweaks in singleplayer and multiplayer. For full details on ray-tracing, DLSS and all the fixes and tweaks, click here.

In other gaming news, Bungie has announced that it wants to hire a Destiny historian to ensure consistency and community in the game’s narrative.

The right individual will need to have an “encyclopedic knowledge” of Destiny and previous experience in producing books and scripts.