Oooh, shiny. Ray tracing is coming to Diablo 4 March 26

Diablo 4 with ray tracing and DLSS3
(Image credit: Blizzard / Nvidia)

As promised in Nvidia's CES 'Special Address' ray tracing is coming to Diablo 4 this month, and it's just been announced that's happening on March 26th. So, should you require any further incentive to dip back into the game, it ought to look a little prettier once that patch has launched. So long as your GPU has the ray tracing chops to cope with the extra load, that is.

You are only getting a pair of new ray traced lighting effects in the update: ray traced reflections and ray traced shadows. So it shouldn't be as demanding as some full fledged ray tracing everywhere all at once mode, and with DLSS 3 being in the game already you should at least have some mitigation for the extra pretties now being dropped into Diablo 4

In terms of specifics, Nvidia has been rather scant with details, though it has said today that "armour, water, windows, and other suitably reflective surfaces will now feature accurate, realistic ray-traced reflections and ray-traced transparent reflections."

While regarding the spookier effects of shadows... "the many shadows of Diablo IV will be enhanced with ray tracing, adding extra detail to all scenes." 

I will say that my initial reaction to that is maybe my delicate sensibilities don't necessarily want that extra detail in some scenes, but it does all look very pretty. And Diablo 4 was already a pretty game. Y'know, in that rather gruesome, what-the-hell-is-that-sprouting-from-that-pile-of-gore kinda way. 

Nvidia showed off the twin lighting effects at the CES event, and you can see what a difference they make below:

For me, I think it's probably the shadow effects that are going to be the most noticeable, and have the biggest visual impact on your game. Devs have become very good at faking reflections to the point that you sometimes really have to look to see where ray traced reflections make a difference. 

Sure, in the rain-slicked, neon-soaked streets of Cyberpunk 2077 it's obvious, but in the brooding environs of Diablo 4 it's the shadows which will more obviously bring the gameworld to life. Shudder.

I know it's not cool to have your head turned by added pretties, but the way Diablo 4 looks with this update, and the fact it's on Steam now, I'm sorely tempted to dig back into the game again.

Dave James
Editor-in-Chief, Hardware

Dave has been gaming since the days of Zaxxon and Lady Bug on the Colecovision, and code books for the Commodore Vic 20 (Death Race 2000!). He built his first gaming PC at the tender age of 16, and finally finished bug-fixing the Cyrix-based system around a year later. When he dropped it out of the window. He first started writing for Official PlayStation Magazine and Xbox World many decades ago, then moved onto PC Format full-time, then PC Gamer, TechRadar, and T3 among others. Now he's back, writing about the nightmarish graphics card market, CPUs with more cores than sense, gaming laptops hotter than the sun, and SSDs more capacious than a Cybertruck.

Read more
Doomslayer pointing a gun at demons while giants fight in the background
Ray tracing is quickly becoming inescapable and I think it's time we bit the bullet and embraced it
Screenshots from Half-Life 2 RTX, showing the various new effects delivered by full ray tracing and enhanced assets.
Microsoft announces DirectX Raytracing 1.2 claiming 'game changing' performance benefits but it looks like the important stuff is already in Nvidia's RTX GPUs, even the old ones
Screenshots from Half-Life 2 RTX, showing the various new effects delivered by full ray tracing and enhanced assets.
I just played Half-Life 2 RTX, a fully ray-traced overhaul of the original, and its meaty headcrabs have me hankering for more
Nvidia RTX 5090 Founders Edition graphics card on different backgrounds
AI will be crammed in more of the graphics pipeline as Nvidia and Microsoft are bringing AI shading to a DirectX preview next month
A screenshot taken from the 2025 Nvidia tech demo Zorah
Nvidia RTX 50-series and dev kit show that rasterization is old news and we're now firmly in the era of AI rendering
Image of Yasuke striking an enemy in Assassin's Creed Shadows
10-series and other old GPUs should be able to run Assassin's Creed Shadows says director, and my RTX 3060 Ti sheds a single hopeful tear
Latest in Hardware
Razer Blade 16 (2025) gaming laptop
Nvidia RTX 5090 mobile tested: The needle hasn't moved on performance but this is the first time I'd consider ditching my desktop for a gaming laptop
A woman wearing a VR headset with dramatic, colourful lighting across the background
'World’s smallest LEDs' could lead to accurately lit screens with 127,000 pixels per inch and much more immersive VR
The NES themed 8BitDo Retro mechanical gaming keyboard on a blue background
I love the 8BitDo Retro C64 keyboard but I'd pick its cheaper NES-themed model near its lowest price ever during Amazon's Big Spring Sale
An MSI RTX 5080 in white installed in a gaming PC.
MSI GeForce RTX 5080 Ventus 3X OC White review
The snazzy red and black HyperX Cloud Alpha wireless headphones float in a teal void. The microphone is attached to the headset.
The best wireless gaming headset is now even better in the Amazon Big Spring Sale, boasting a more than $50 discount
A chip being held up in an Intel fab
Intel is reportedly 'working to finalize commitments from Nvidia' as a foundry partner, suggesting gaming potential for the 18A node
Latest in News
Crysis hero Prophet running down a beach while under fire
Crysis Remastered Trilogy activates maximum value mode as upgraded version of the legendary, hardware-crushing FPS series is currently 60% off
A goblin with sharp teeth, wearing goggles, lets out a mischievous cackle in WoW's latest patch: Undermine(d).
World of Warcraft's started swiping good ideas from one of its most popular user-made UI addons, and it's honestly about time
A female druidic figure clutches a heart riven with thorns in Hunt: Showdown
'We want to increase the cost of silence': Hunt: Showdown 1896's latest update brings a new event, a massive list of bugfixes and a tougher challenge for stealthy players
It's ENA! From the free adventure Dream BBQ!
Mindbending free multimedia adventure ENA: Dream BBQ is out now, has activated all my neurons and opened my third eye
PC Gamer magazine issue 408 Doom: The Dark Ages
PC Gamer magazine's new issue is on sale now: Doom: The Dark Ages
A gigantic terracotta sentinel made of living armor
Total War: Warhammer 3's army of Cathay has broken containment and is making its way to tabletop Warhammer at last