New Elden Ring patch introduces ray tracing and more
In the context: While gamers patiently await further details on the recently announced Shadow of the Erdtree expansion, Elden Ring developer FromSoftware has just released a new patch adding ray tracing effects and a host of balance adjustments to their award-winning RPG.
The long awaited ray tracing update for Elden Ring is finally here as Japanese developer FromSoftware has released patch 1.09 for all supported platforms. According to FromSoftware, the new lighting effects are only available on the latest gaming consoles (PS5, Xbox Series X) and PC, and users can expect a significant impact on game performance as support for scaling algorithms is not yet available.
The new ray tracing feature can be enabled in the Settings menu. early tests confirm that the performance impact is indeed quite noticeable. Despite the drastic FPS drop, ray tracing lighting seems to be very limited (with no reflections with ray tracing), while the overall effect on graphics fidelity is very subtle. The ray tracing update weighs in at 200MB on PC and 5GB on PS5, likely due to the precompiled shaders included with the console version.
Despite the boring results, ray tracing effects require the new minimum and recommended system requirements listed in patch notes 1.09. To get (slightly) better lighting at 1080p (low quality, low ray tracing), gamers will need a Core i5-10600K or Ryzen 5 3600XT processor, 16GB of RAM, and a GeForce RTX 3060 Ti 8GB or Radeon RX 6700 XT 12GB. . Recommended specs for high-quality 1080p ray tracing include Windows 11, Core i7-10700K or Ryzen 7 3800XT, and GeForce RTX 3070 Ti 8GB or Radeon RX 6900 XT 16GB.
ELDEN RING 1.09 update is available.
The full patch notes can be viewed here: https://t.co/Su9mOtjsXj
Please apply this patch to continue playing. #ELDENRING Online. pic.twitter.com/hsKqa1usku
— ELDEN RING (@ELDENRING) March 23, 2023
In addition to improved graphics, patch 1.09 also brings a huge amount of balance adjustments to Elden Ring’s gameplay, weapons, skills, and spells. Some of these balance tweaks are for PvP games only, where they mostly reduce the effectiveness of certain skills and spells, but do not affect solo or co-op games. In addition, the developers are still fixing bugs and making “several performance improvements” on all supported platforms.
After a big win at the Game Awards event in 2022, Elden Ring also headlined the 23rd annual Game Developer Choice Awards. Soulsborne formula poster brought by FromSoftware three more awards at a collegiate event held in San Francisco, winning in the categories “Best Visual Art”, “Best Design” and “Game of the Year”.
During the aforementioned Game Awards, Elden Ring director Hidetaka Miyazaki said his team is still hard at work bringing new stories, experiences, and cryptic in-game conversations to Lands Between. Shadow of the Erdtree is the recently announced first expansion for Elden Ring, although no further details have been provided other than illustrations depicting the demigod Michella riding through a ghostly decaying environment.
