The latest Diablo IV Quarterly Update has dropped and this time the focus is on environments, the diversity of locations found throughout Sanctuary, and how the team at Blizzard is working to make the game’s 150-plus dungeons look and feel different from one another.

“The environments of Diablo IV cover a lot of territory and visual real estate of the game: five distinct regions and hundreds of dungeons that you will experience,” writes Chris Ryder, Art Director, Environments Diablo IV. “It is where all the monster-slaying, loot gathering, and exploration happens. Of course, none of this would be possible without the collective efforts of our talented designers, worldbuilders, engineers, environment artists, lighting artists, and technical artists.”

Compared to previous entries the world of Diablo 4 is being built using physically-based rendering, which means weather, time of day, and other elements will affect how things look and behave. Rain will make the ground and elements wet, wind from the coast will wash over grass-lands, and dry and dusty plains will carry that look that’ll make you glad you bought that 20-pack of N95 masks.



But beyond all of the technical advances that a decade can bring (yeah, Diablo 3’s debut was back in 2012) the goal for Diablo 4 is not only to return the series to its dark and gothic roots, but to do so with an eye towards realism and a seamless open-world. And a nod towards the “old masters”.

“We filter concepts, locations, and final implementation through the dual pillars of "old masters" and "a return to darkness", adds Chris Ryder. “Using these pillars has been instrumental in keeping us consistent and aligned with the visual tone of Diablo IV. The "old masters" pillar gives us a lens to filter our art through, considering the techniques classical painters like Rembrandt used, with their controlled use of detail, tonal range, and expert use of color palettes. The "return to darkness" pillar is a through-line in everything from dungeons to lighting and embodies the idea that Sanctuary is a dangerous and dark medieval gothic world.”



As per above, the results look amazing. With the post going into great detail on specific locations like Scosglen Coast, Orbei Monastery, and Kyovashad. Each location carries that dark and gloomy feel and then some, it’s impressive. And with there being over 150 dungeons in the game, a mixture of hand-crafted and procedurally generated, the team is employing advanced tile-sets that can be used across multiple, visually-distinct locations and settings.

“Dungeons are still that randomized content that you know and love from previous Diablo titles,” Diablo IV team’s Brian Fletcher says. “However, we added new and exciting features that allow us to make even more dungeons across the world of Sanctuary than ever before. In order to support over 150+ dungeons, we’ve had to shift the way we make environment art so that it's flexible enough to be used in multiple locations and not just in a single dungeon. We break it all down into what we call tile-sets.”

Which can be seen in the following ‘Forgotten Places’ example.



“The fixed camera is one of our best tools since it allows us to place assets in the foreground without blocking the playable space,” Brain continues. “Because we always know where you are looking, we can dial in and customise the layouts, vistas, and foreground elements to make sure there's a good composition. The spider legs are placed in specific locations for their unnerving silhouettes twitching in the background. Our dungeon design counterparts give us some great layouts to play with, which allow us to push the depth of each scene. We want you to have the impression that the dungeon goes on forever, and you’re only seeing a small part of a large underground labyrinth.”

And with multiple tile-sets, objects, and detail to play with, the team has also made it possible for dungeons to change and feature seamless transitions between different thematic tile-sets. Very cool.

All in all Diablo 4 continues to impress, here’s hoping its eventual release isn’t too far away.