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id Software's next entry in its iconic shooter franchise will take advantage of full ray tracing technology.
We now know a tiny bit about one of the year's biggest upcoming games.
As part of its CES 2025 briefing, NVIDIA shared footage from a number of games benefitting from the latest technology in the 50-series graphics cards. One exciting tidbit that got buried under the chatter around the new graphics card lineup? Bethesda Softworks and id Software's DOOM: The Dark Ages will not only support DLSS 4 but will also feature path tracing.
You can check out the brief bit of new game footage for DOOM: The Dark Ages in the video below:
Since the launch of the original DOOM, id Software has often helped lead the charge in PC technologies while also remaining committed to solid gameplay performance. DOOM Eternal, which ran on id Tech 7, was remarkably well-optimized even when using ray tracing, so it'll be interesting to see just how far DOOM: The Dark Ages pushes the latest version of id's proprietary engine.
Even though path tracing remains firmly a PC-only feature for now, I'm fully confident that the console versions of DOOM: The Dark Ages will run well, as id Software delivered fantastic Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 upgrades to DOOM Eternal for free in 2021, and this new game is being built while only targeting the latest line of console hardware.
Only a handful of games support path tracing right now
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is one of a small number of games supporting path tracing. (Image credit: Windows Central)
While different forms of ray tracing have become more and more common over the last few years, path tracing — sometimes referred to as "full ray tracing" — remains rather rare. Path tracing is ray tracing, but it's a more complete version of it. Instead of only focusing on one particular aspect of a scene, like the reflections of light in water and glass, path tracing more accurately models the entire light of a scene, creating a vastly more realistic image overall.
It's also extremely computationally expensive, basically requiring NVIDIA's frame generation technology in order to run at a decent framerate, and its this feature that the upcoming DLSS 4 (which is exclusive to 50-series cards) is set to drastically improve upon via Multi Frame Generation. Additionally, it's worth keeping in mind that only a tiny handful of games support path tracing at the moment, with the current lineup including CD Projekt RED's Cyberpunk 2077, Remedy's Alan Wake 2, and MachineGames' Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.
The recent release of the latter is especially notable, as MachineGames is a sister studio to id Software and Indiana Jones was developed using the "Motor" fork of id tech, so I'm curious to see what notes the teams have shared on technology heading into DOOM: The Dark Ages.
DOOM: The Dark Ages is slated to launch at some point in 2025 across Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and PlayStation 5. As an Xbox first-party game, it'll also be available day one in Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass.
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