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Diablo 4 - Developers talk ray tracing & an all-new game engine

We caught up to Diablo 4 developers to talk about everything from the lore of Diablo 4 to the new era of technology going into it.

TJ Denzer

November 18, 2019 6:05 PM

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Diablo 4 is finally a real thing and not just a rumor going around, so of course we went to straight to the developers to hear the latest on it. Diablo 3 came out in 2012 and even its last expansion, Rise of the Necromancer, only arrived in 2017. With a new era of technology over the horizon, we made sure to ask what Blizzard is doing with it as they develop the new and heavily anticipated Diablo 4.

Some of the changes Blizzard started to go into were time of day changes, weather changes, and, most importantly, the implementation of an all-new engine - the PBR engine. You can check out the entire interview just below.

“PBR is physically-based rendering,” the developers told us. “What that allows us to do is render things in a more realistic way. What that allows us to do is render things in a more realistic way. If you look at previous Diablo games, they are more painterly, and I think this lets us take things to the next level. If you’re looking at metal, skin, blood, fur, or hair, it just looks way more real. So, I think baseline, the entire game is affected by that.”

Blizzard mentioned the PBR Engine would affect a number of aspects, including 3D terrain sculpting and the transition between areas.

“When you go into a dungeon and you start going down, you don’t have to hit a loading screen to go to another level,” the devs explained. “You just keep going into that dungeon and it feels great. It feels like real 3D now, like you’re actually in the environment.”

With so much expected of Diablo 4, be sure to subscribe to the Shacknews and GamerHubTV YouTube channels for more exclusive interviews on this and other games.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.