Will PC Gamers Get the Most Beautiful Version of Crimson Desert? One Setting Can Transform Graphics

Modern technology allows for truly impressive lighting effects on PC.

A specialist from Digital Foundry recently examined the PC version of Crimson Desert and shared their observations regarding the project's visual presentation.

They specifically highlighted the transformative impact of NVIDIA DLSS Ray Reconstruction and AMD FSR Ray Regeneration options.

When the standard denoiser [for noise reduction] is enabled, the lighting can appear flat and lack direction, with objects often missing correct contact shadows. Grass might look almost unlit.

However, enabling these advanced options "fundamentally changes the situation":

Now, dense, sharply defined shadows emerge under pipes and awnings, and directional lighting is restored to the scene, making objects appear organically integrated into their surroundings. And it's not just about shadows—localized lighting and reflection quality are also significantly improved.

The specialist further clarified that these benefits are not limited to static lighting:

Both of these machine learning (ML) systems [Ray Reconstruction / Ray Regeneration] eliminate the 'grainy' effect and 'ghosting' artifacts that previously arose with low ray counts in reflections on moving surfaces. With the standard denoiser, water reflections looked as if they were running at a reduced frame rate due to ghosting from previous frames. Switching to ML-denoising resolves these issues, making the image more responsive and stable. You can also notice higher quality light from emissive sources.

According to Digital Foundry, the effect is so profound that it essentially creates a "super high-quality lighting mode, exclusively available on PCs with ML-denoising support."