Crimson Desert has firmly secured its place at the pinnacle of gaming enthusiasts’ wishlists, particularly with the recent release of Slay the Spire 2. As the latest offering from Pearl Abyss, the developers behind Black Desert Online, this expansive open-world game has consistently dazzled audiences with its stunning visuals and fluid gameplay. Recent insights from hardware specialists at Digital Foundry have unveiled that the PC version of Crimson Desert incorporates ray tracing options that significantly enhance the lighting quality, delivering an ultra-quality experience that remains unmatched on other platforms.
Visual Enhancements and Performance Insights
Digital Foundry’s Alex Battaglia was so taken by the visual advancements brought about by the ray tracing settings in Crimson Desert that he dedicated an entire video to showcase these enhancements. Ray tracing plays a crucial role in the game’s lighting across all platforms, and the optimization ensures smooth performance, even on less powerful systems. For PC gamers, the option to utilize AMD’s FSR Ray Regeneration or Nvidia’s DLSS Ray Reconstruction is available, provided their hardware supports these features. Battaglia notes, “This would usually be a tertiary thing I would talk about in a review, but here it is so fundamental that I just had to make a video about it.”
The optimizations to the default ray-traced global illumination in Crimson Desert yield a remarkable boost in visual fidelity. Comparatively, the alternatives from Nvidia and AMD offer significant enhancements, particularly in terms of denoising. Battaglia expresses his astonishment, stating, “I could not believe it the first time I toggled it on and off.” The difference is so pronounced that he likens it to toggling ray tracing entirely, a sentiment echoed by viewers of the accompanying footage. This upgrade is one that many players will undoubtedly want to leverage.
System requirements for Crimson Desert are relatively accessible, allowing a broad spectrum of players to customize settings to optimize performance for their specific builds. This is especially encouraging for those hesitant to upgrade amidst rising component prices. However, players with more robust systems are encouraged to explore the settings menu to see if they can accommodate the enhanced features.
It is important to note that these visual improvements do come with a performance trade-off. Digital Foundry reports an average frame rate drop of 14% when Ray Reconstruction is enabled on an RTX 5080 in 4K performance mode. The impact is even more pronounced for AMD users, with a 24% decrease on the RX 9070 XT when utilizing FSR4’s Ray Regeneration. Battaglia advises, “I think any and every person who has a capable GPU should turn these features on, definitely,” while also suggesting that players may need to “adjust your priorities in other settings to maintain your performance goals.”
For those contemplating where to purchase Crimson Desert, these revelations could significantly influence their decision. However, the PC version has not been without its controversies, particularly following the announcement of Denuvo DRM, which may not sit well with some players. Pearl Abyss has assured that all benchmarks, including those featured in Digital Foundry’s performance videos, were conducted using the same Denuvo implementation that will be present in the launch build, raising hopes that performance will remain stable in the final version. The wait for clarity on this matter is nearly over.
