DOOM: The Dark Ages uses ray tracing to enhance gameplay, not just visuals

When you think about ray tracing and gaming, whether on a PC with the popular GeForce RTX 4070 GPU or a modern console like the PlayStation 5 Pro, you're probably picturing realistic reflections and other lighting effects. Cyberpunk 2077, Marvel's Spider-Man, Alan Wake 2. From simple implementations to full Path Tracing, the key is that you're picturing graphics and not gameplay.

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DOOM: The Dark Ages will support full Path Tracing on PC, and ray-tracing will be used to enhance gameplay.

Well, id Software's upcoming DOOM: The Dark Ages is going to change that. This game will use ray tracing to enhance the gameplay, not just the visuals. It will support DLSS 4 for the GeForce RTX 50 Series, including the new Multi Frame Generation, and its Path Tracing mode is set to bring full ray-traced visuals and lighting to all aspects of the game.

It will look incredible running on a GeForce RTX 5090 or RTX 5070, but id Software also uses ray-tracing to improve DOOM's gameplay.

During NVIDIA's Editor's Day at CES 2025, we were treated to a DOOM: The Dark Ages presentation from Bethesda and id Software. We learned a lot about the game's cutting-edge ray-traced visuals and how the veteran studio is all-in on RT and DLSS-from what you see on screen to how it creates levels, environments, and DOOM's intense, fast-paced action.

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"We also took the idea of ray tracing, not only to use it for visuals but also gameplay," Director of Engine Technology at id Software, Billy Khan, explains. "We can leverage it for things we haven't been able to do in the past, which is giving accurate hit detection. [In DOOM: The Dark Ages], we have complex materials, shaders, and surfaces."

"So when you fire your weapon, the hit detection would be able to tell if you're hitting a pixel that is leather sitting next to a pixel that is metal," Billy continues. "Before ray tracing, we couldn't distinguish between two pixels very easily, and we would pick one or the other because the materials were too complex. Ray tracing can do this on a per-pixel basis and showcase if you're hitting metal or even something that's fur. It makes the game more immersive, and you get that direct feedback as the player."

DOOM: The Dark Ages is one of our most anticipated PC games of the year. During NVIDIA's big GeForce RTX 50 Series reveal, we learned that id has been working closely with the GeForce team on the game for several years - and that it's already running smoothly on the latest hardware.