The implementation of ray tracing to Elden Ring has been reportedly breaking the game across several platforms for what seems to be little gain. Ray tracing was added in Elden Ring's 1.09 update for the PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X versions of the game, but based on reports from players across those systems, enabling it has major downsides.Ray tracing is a tool that uses dynamic lighting techniques to greatly enhance how a game's scenes are lit and when implemented well, can make newer titles look cutting-edge and alter the experience of older ones. Titles such as the first Half-Life recently had ray tracing implemented via a mod to astounding effect, greatly enhancing lighting and visuals that have a large impact on the atmosphere. A downside to ray tracing is that it is intensive and only recommended enabling when playing on a powerful machine. If utilized correctly, it can minimize performance drops while looking fantastic.Elden Ring appears to be an unfortunate instance where it was neither implemented well nor worth the performance sacrifice. Players across various platforms have been taking to Reddit and Twitter to air their complaints about Elden Ring's use of ray tracing, with one stating that the update offers minimal change for the performance it takes. Another playing the game with an RTX 4090 has stated the ray-traced visuals have caused massive stuttering and dropped the framerate to 40 FPS, and one Xbox Series X player has said that the update caused the game to drop down to 5 FPS. The most unfortunate player has stated that even with ray-traced visuals turned off, the game crashes whenever attempting to fast travel.
This is not the first time complaints about performance issues have been lobbed at Elden Ring. When Elden Ring launched on PC, it received significant backlash for its poor performance on the system. A key difference here is that this update affects players on more than just that platform, and more than a year had passed since its February 2022 release.
When not considering the poor implementation of ray tracing, update 1.09 for Elden Ring is a fairly minor one, focusing on buffing and nerfing various elements in the game while also removing a PvP exploit. It is unfortunate that the biggest feature in it has launched busted, and one can only hope that a fix that removes the performance issues is released soon while making ray tracing worth turning on.
Elden Ring is out now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: Kotaku