At the Game Developers Conference, Nvidia showcased the online game Dragon Hound, demonstrating how ray tracing lighting technology can be applied in an online game. And it looks quite nice.
Modern online games need to be visually appealing. And that is exactly what Dragon Hound focuses on, which not only uses Unreal Engine 4 but also Nvidia’s ray tracing technology.
Monster Hunter meets World of Tanks
What is Dragon Hound? Currently, not much is known about this online RPG. However, it is a sort of Monster Hunter with some World of Tanks elements included.
- It is being developed by DevCat in collaboration with Nexon.
- You hunt mighty monsters in the game world that you must defeat together with others.
- Mounts are an important aspect of the game, including battles on mounts. It is not possible to dismount during combat, which makes Dragon Hound somewhat like World of Tanks.
- You need to figure out which weapons and tactics you can effectively use against which monsters.
- The title takes place in a fantasy world whose technology is roughly equivalent to that of World War I.
- The hunting areas in Dragon Hound are significantly larger than in Monster Hunter World.
- It is not a traditional MMO but an online game for player groups, similar to Monster Hunter World. However, MMO elements play a role.
- You start as a kind of centaur and can breed and use mounts over time.
- There is no PvP, but a type of tower defense mode where players cooperatively face wave after wave of enemies. In this mode, MMO elements come into play as you interact with many other players.
Better graphics thanks to ray tracing
What was shown at GDC? During the Game Developers Conference, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang used Dragon Hound as an example of how the ray tracing technology of current GeForce RTX graphics cards can visually enhance a game.
Dragon Hound uses ray tracing to improve reflections and shadows.
What makes it special? So far, games have only utilized one aspect of ray tracing technology.
- Battlefield 5 enhances reflections.
- Metro: Exodus improves global illumination.
- Shadow of the Tomb Raider is expected to enhance shadows with a patch.
Dragon Hound will use ray tracing for several aspects, which apparently represents a novelty.
What are the drawbacks? Ray tracing consumes a lot of performance. The more the technology is utilized in a game, the slower it runs. That is why many developers only use it for one aspect.
Since Dragon Hound enhances shadows and reflections, it could impact the game’s performance. However, this is still unclear. This is precisely what players are concerned about, as they respond to Nvidia’s video of the game.
Cloaked Clover commented on the video on YouTube: “Looks good. But I wish you could play it with more than 10 fps.”
When will Dragon Hound be released? The online game currently does not have a release date. It is not even clear whether the game will be released here in Europe.
