Modder brings path tracing to Dark Souls 3, outshining Elden Ring's ray tracing

FromSoftware is renowned for its atmospheric action RPGs, but not for pushing graphical boundaries. In Elden Ring, the studio led by Hidetaka Miyazaki experimented with ray-traced ambient occlusion and shadows, yet the result falls short of what the modding community is preparing for Dark Souls 3.

A modder known as Ganaboy is developing a new version of the DS Lighting Engine mod, which will introduce path tracing to the third entry in the series. The same author previously released a similar mod for Dark Souls 2 back in April. While no release date has been confirmed, two work-in-progress videos already showcase the High Wall of Lothric and Firelink Shrine in path-traced glory.

The modder also shared system requirements for the upcoming release. According to Ganaboy, Dark Souls 3's geometry is ten times more complex than that of Dark Souls 2, so requirements will be similar to the previous mod, with some caveats. All graphics cards that supported the Dark Souls 2 version will work here as well, including RTX 2 and RTX 3 series. Due to the increased load, a more aggressive upscaling setting may be needed: if Quality mode sufficed in Dark Souls 2, Balanced will likely be required for Dark Souls 3.

Path tracing is extremely demanding even for older games, so upscaling via NVIDIA DLSS will likely be necessary to achieve playable performance. Despite some current issues, such as overly dark scenes, the visuals look stunning thanks to FromSoftware's art direction. Hopefully, the studio itself will soon implement path tracing natively in its games, as it could greatly enhance the unique atmosphere of its hardcore action RPGs.