Back 4 Blood is an action-packed zombie shooter in the same vein as – and from the developer of – the Left 4 Dead series, and the good news for Nvidia RTX graphics card owners is that it now supports DLSS.
The frame rate boosting technology is live in Back 4 Blood as of the open beta which kicked off today for those who have pre-ordered the game – and this first beta phase runs until August 9. A second phase will be held from August 12 to August 16 for all-comers.
Obviously as the game is still in the testing stages, DLSS performance – or all manner of other things for that matter – could still be a bit wonky. Any issues should, of course, be ironed out over time as the release date comes nearer.
Back 4 Blood is set to debut on October 12, after having been delayed. Previously, it was expected to arrive in June, but like a good many games in recent times, the launch timeframe has slipped. As always, though, we’d much rather something was done and well-dusted for release, rather than coming out earlier but unpolished.
As with Left 4 Dead, the shooter is a co-op affair with four players pitted against a ton of zombies and difficult-to-overcome odds. There’s also an eight player PvP mode which sounds intriguing and sees two teams of four do battle.
Analysis: DLSS adoption is gathering momentum
It’s good to see Nvidia’s DLSS getting supported by another major game, one which is highly anticipated – and essentially regarded as Left 4 Dead 3 in all but name. Remember that folks have been clamoring for another episode in the franchise since Left 4 Dead 2 was released way back in 2009 (incidentally, it’s a game that still stands up well today, and we recently had a great time replaying it with friends).
Nvidia is clearly pushing forward with DLSS, recently introducing it for both Rainbow Six Siege and Doom Eternal, allowing for upscaling that basically lets you switch to a higher resolution that isn’t nearly as demanding as rendering natively would be (but the difference in visual quality isn’t a big one).
In total, almost 60 games now support DLSS, with that number ticking up pretty quickly, and bringing in a good helping of big-name games such as Back 4 Blood (Baldur’s Gate 3 is another title rumored for the DLSS treatment in the future, too). And with support having been introduced with popular game engines, as well, increasing adoption of DLSS can be expected going forward.
In short, there are very real benefits to having a GeForce RTX graphics card that can benefit from the tech, and if a game supports ray tracing as well – which can be seriously demanding – DLSS really helps to make things playable.
