The Blood of Dawnwalker Best PC Settings & Ray Tracing

Best settings and ray tracing: the quick answer

Ray tracing is an officially listed capability on the Xbox product page. On PC, Hotfix 1.0.4 explicitly names FSR Frame Generation and fixes a VSync interaction with it. Official Steam news for Hotfix 1.0.5 then says the shader-compilation pipeline was improved to address stuttering for some users.

Those confirmations are not enough to publish one magic Low, Medium, High or Quality configuration for every CPU, GPU, resolution and patch. Start from the game's detected preset with Frame Generation disabled, measure one repeatable scene, and change one option at a time. Only call a preset best when its hardware, resolution, patch and frame-time target are recorded.

Does Blood of Dawnwalker support ray tracing?

Yes at the product-capability level: Microsoft's current Xbox listing includes Ray Tracing alongside 4K Ultra HD. That is the strongest first-party confirmation available in the sources used here. It establishes that ray tracing belongs to the shipping feature set, not how every platform exposes or executes it.

The capability label does not identify a PC toggle, separate ray-traced shadows, reflections or global illumination, the Xbox Series S behavior, or a performance cost. An RTX model in the recommended requirements is also not evidence that ray tracing is required. Treat each of those narrower claims as unconfirmed until the exact menu and platform build can be reproduced.

FSR Frame Generation and upscaling status

Rebel Wolves' Hotfix 1.0.4 notes provide direct PC evidence for FSR Frame Generation: the patch fixes VSync issues when that option is used. The same notes refer to Low graphical settings and Quality preset mods, confirming that the released build exposes multiple graphics levels even though the patch is not a complete settings manual.

Frame Generation should be tested after a stable non-generated baseline. It inserts frames to improve displayed smoothness but cannot remove a CPU bottleneck, repair shader compilation or prove that input response is acceptable. The official notes used here do not provide a complete DLSS, FSR, XeSS or frame-generation compatibility table, so this guide does not invent one.

Build a clean performance baseline first

A useful settings recommendation begins with controlled evidence. Use the same save, camera path and weather or time-of-day state for every pass. Record the current game build and driver because a hotfix can change the result more than a one-step preset adjustment.

• Install the current official hotfix, restart the game, and record the displayed build number.
• Set the final output resolution and refresh rate before comparing presets.
• Begin from the detected preset with Frame Generation off so generated frames do not hide the base result.
• Repeat the same 60–90 second route and watch frame-time consistency as well as average FPS.
• Change one option or one preset step, repeat the route, and keep the cleaner result only when the tradeoff is visible.

Choose a target before choosing a preset

Best is a target, not a label. A 4K display prioritizing image quality, a 1440p high-refresh monitor and a minimum-spec 1080p machine require different compromises. Decide which failure matters most—low average frame rate, uneven frame time, blur, input latency or excessive GPU memory use—before changing settings.

• Image-quality target: keep native output or the highest-quality reconstruction mode that still meets a stable base-frame target.
• Smoothness target: lower the overall preset one step and retest before depending on Frame Generation.
• Troubleshooting target: remove optional frame generation from the test, reproduce the same hitch, then match it to the current official patch notes.

Shader stutter, VSync and patch-aware troubleshooting

Official Steam news says Hotfix 1.0.5 improves the shader-compilation pipeline and may fix stuttering for some users. The wording is deliberately limited: it is not a guarantee that every traversal hitch, CPU spike or low frame rate has been removed. Update first, then retest the exact scene before applying unrelated tweaks.

Hotfix 1.0.4 separately addresses VSync with FSR Frame Generation and Steam FPS drops caused when controllers used outdated GameInput software. These are symptom-specific fixes. A controller-triggered drop, a frame-generation pacing problem and a shader hitch should not be collapsed into one generic performance issue.

PC and console settings are not interchangeable

The Xbox store's Ray Tracing and 4K Ultra HD badges describe the Xbox product, while the PC hotfix identifies PC-only plugin behavior. Neither source provides one shared menu for Series X, Series S, PS5 and PC. Console mode names and targets should be checked on their own builds instead of copied from a PC recommendation.

Likewise, a console capability badge is not a benchmark. It does not promise that ray tracing, resolution and frame rate are all delivered at their maximum values simultaneously. Use the separate platform guide for availability and mode claims, and keep this page focused on the PC testing workflow.

What still needs hardware testing

A true optimized-settings table needs release-build captures across representative GPUs, a fixed CPU, documented drivers, matched scenes and both image-quality and frame-time review. This site has not completed that matrix, so it publishes the reproducible method and confirmed feature status instead of assigning unsupported percentages to individual options.