Currently in development, with no planned release date as of yet, Viking City Builder blends city building and RTS combat using the glory days of the Vikings as its setting. In a new video the game’s solo developer Roslagen showcases new real-time ray-tracing effects powered by Unreal Engine 4 and NVIDIA RTX.

The developer notes that adding real-time reflections and shadows and ambient occlusion impacts performance, but that the use of DLSS 2.0 alleviates that.

- Fortify your settlement and battle the Europeans, who want to take back their territories
- Pilliage neighbouring villiages for valuable resources
- Build real-life structures, taken out straight from Viking history
- Manage the settlement, assign tasks and various professions and build a strong economy
- Take on an adventure and sail through the seas and rivers

What makes this an interesting case is that with ray-tracing and DLSS being added to Unreal Engine, it looks like we’ll be getting to see the technology pop up more and more over the next couple of years. Especially now that the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X are right around the corner.

On that note though we can’t help but wonder if ray-tracing’s secret weapon might just be DLSS - which offers up a massive 40% or so performance boost to negate the sheer cost and strain the next-gen effect puts on hardware. Also, the fact that this comes from a solo developer points to the tech being readily accessible and a great tool for indies to add some visual sheen to their titles.

Here's the Steam Page for Viking City Builder, ready to be added to you wishlist.