Horizon Zero Dawn (Official Discussion Thread)

https://www.dsogaming.com/news/horizon-zero-dawn-patch-1-06-released-fixes-a-number-of-issues/

Horizon Zero Dawn Patch 1.06 released, fixes a number of issues

Horizon Zero Dawn Patch 1.06 Release Notes​

Crash Fixes​

  • Fixed a streaming compute shader crash
  • Fixed a crash on startup related to file paths with non-ANSI characters

Graphical Improvements​

  • Fixed an issue where characters would noticeably warp between cuts during a specific cutscene in main quest “The Point of the Spear”
  • Fixed an issue where box graphics would flash during the final cinematic of the game
  • Also fixed an issue in HDR where the UI could get overlapped by a black scene
  • Fixed an issue where turning on the Adaptive FPS option gave lower performance results than setting similar results manually

Gameplay Improvements​

  • Aloy forward walking direction – Aloy now walks directly towards the direction the camera is facing when you press forward, rather than at a slight angle

Other Improvements​

  • Executable details – Properties of the executable now also displays the current version
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Domingo said:
I guess that's what I'm experiencing. I'm running into enemies I'd almost classify as bullet sponges. Even hitting their vitals with what they're supposed to be weak to isn't hurting 'em like I'd expect. I'm not exactly dying much or getting clobbered, but I'm using up a boatload of resources and having to high tail it a lot. It feels like a departure from the earlier sections where I was killing enemies in 4-5 hits. It's like everything got stronger, but I didn't.
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I am playing on the second hardest difficulty and now that I am at the final mission, and currently completing the Frozen Wilds expansion, my character is a veritable machine slayer with all the unlocks and modded weapons. At the outset I had to employ stealth and avoid encounters because fights with 2 or more machines usually resulted in a quick death. With maximum health and the regenerating shield armor it is pretty easy to brute force the toughest enemies with melee attacks. Coupled with the tactic of overriding enemy machines when necessary, I rarely die from any encounter now.
 
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Normal difficulty for me all the way. I'd go nuts on anything harder.

Frozen Wilds is notorious for an insane difficulty spike. Don't bother doing it until you have the super armor and are ready to finish the game off.
 
I'm still plodding through the main game an am at level 35. I've only just started doing the quests in Meridian, so I have a long way to go I'm guessing. I killed one of those mega gigantic machines last night that was apparently the only machine I hadn't killed yet. The fight probably took a solid 10 minutes and I used a boatload of arrows, bombs, and everything else on him. It wasn't necessarily that hard (I have tons of potions and herbs), but it just took forever. I think that's what's throwing me off. I can kill most everything in seconds, but the larger machine fights take like 5-10 minutes and eat up a lot of resources. I don't really die, but they chew up ammo.
 
Q-BZ said:
Normal difficulty for me all the way. I'd go nuts on anything harder.

Frozen Wilds is notorious for an insane difficulty spike. Don't bother doing it until you have the super armor and are ready to finish the game off.
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Hard isn't too bad. I've thought about going through again NG++ on Ultra Hard but I'm not sure if I want that kind of punishment.
 
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I started an NG+ game with all my endgame gear and even then, seeing the map all black with nothing discovered was like.. ugh, maybe in a year. This soon after I don't know if I can do it. Problem for me is like with Witcher 3, i'm going to forget how to play the game by then and won't have a tutorial to refresh me. Should be interesting.
 
I have that issue also with NG+. If I don't start immediately it feels a bit masochistic to come back later when you have played a bunch of other games, forgotten how things work in this one, and try a harder difficulty NG+.
 
Yeah, I do the "I'll play NG+ later" thing to myself, too. If I wait more than a month or two, my timing is shot and I get smashed.
It's why I tend to play Souls/Bloodborne (and similar games) in 2-playthough spurts.
 
every difficulty is managable and even easy with the right gear and unlocks, except for the hardest as it rebalances all your skills and gear making the game much more of a grind.
 
I'm discovering that overriding other enemies make some of those big fights pretty trivial. Even the little pissant enemies seem to do pretty heavy damage to other machines. The bigger ones absolutely clean house. I wasn't really using that option all that much (and you have to unlock the ability to do so), but now I'm starting to.
 
Domingo said:
I'm discovering that overriding other enemies make some of those big fights pretty trivial. Even the little pissant enemies seem to do pretty heavy damage to other machines. The bigger ones absolutely clean house. I wasn't really using that option all that much (and you have to unlock the ability to do so), but now I'm starting to.
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It's a great ability, I stopped actually fighting, and started overriding everything. Made it a lot more fun, in my opinion.
 
scojer said:
It's a great ability, I stopped actually fighting, and started overriding everything. Made it a lot more fun, in my opinion.
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Yeah, it's at least a fun change-up. I'm one of those people that likes to get dirty and mix it up in melee, but the game clearly wants you to explore other avenues. At least unless you want everything to be tedious.
 
Yeah, override is mega OP if you have good stealth and the slient sprint skill, you can just sprint in and override big enemies that take everyone else out.
 
Heh till you go to the Frozen Wilds then nothing can be corrupted or overridden. Rather than override, I generally just stay far away and use corruption arrows and let them duke it out while sniping the non corrupted ones from the tall weeds.
 
I've actually kinda gone back to melee. After a few areas that seemed designed for overriding foes, the opportunities have been pretty limited lately. At least without having to sneak everywhere. I've completed all of the corruption, tallneck, and cauldron stuff (plus all of the side missions not tied to the main quest), so I'm plowing ahead. I figure I'll start the Frozen Wilds once I get the last power cell and the fancy armor. I do think there is at least some level or difficulty scaling to the game, though. There are definitely versions of the same enemy that take more hits and are a higher level.
 
I've made it to the final mission of the normal game (and just got the fancy armor), so I'm braving the Frozen Wilds now. Hopefully something up there lets me use these "Improve Spear Damage" modifiers I've been dragging around for the entire game.
 
Domingo said:
I've made it to the final mission of the normal game (and just got the fancy armor), so I'm braving the Frozen Wilds now. Hopefully something up there lets me use these "Improve Spear Damage" modifiers I've been dragging around for the entire game.
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Yeah, that's a side quest reward in Frozen Wilds.
 
Just finished it today.....74 hours to complete the main story, side quests and Frozen Wilds. Thoroughly enjoyed it, and is probably one of the better games I have played in years.

Seems like a fitting time to post the trailer for the sequel, if that's in-game then I am pretty impressed with the fidelity.

 
I'm trying to complete the hunting trials in the Frozen Wilds. Feels like they're 50% making a perfect run and 50% luck. One screwy enemy spamming their best attack can basically make a run impossible. I've gotten the first one (almost entirely luck) and have gotten close with the second. I still need to unlock the 3rd.
 
TheSlySyl said:
The last few patches on PC seemed to have stabilized the game some, i'll probably actually give this a try again soon.
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Yeah, I haven't had a crash in a while. In hunting around online (I was having frequent crashes), seems this game is really "good" at showcasing any instability your system might have, though. Even with the newer patches, if you have heat issues, a shaky overclock, memory troubles, etc. this game is going to let you know. It might not let you know exact details, but it'll start crashing.
 
Finally completed all of the Frozen Wilds quests. Those last hunter's lodge quests were the most challenging, although fighting fireclaws is pretty rough if you don't engage them from a distance. The Banuk hunter quests involve too much luck for my tastes, though.
At this point I'm at max level and have all the best gear, so I guess it's time to finally complete the final level.
While I'm not quite at the end, I feel confident in giving the game a solid 8.5/10. It's a little repetitious and I wish there were more melee-focused weapons, but there's a lot to like. I'll be grabbing the PS5 sequel for sure.
 
I might pick up this game at CD keys 32.00 then again I have rnore games for a dirty v dozen and their platoon.
 
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Comixbooks said:
I might pick up this game at CD keys 32.00 then again I have rnough games for a dirty v dozen and their platoon.
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It's worth that much easily. The game is large without being overwhelming or overly repetitious. Plus, you can play it very straightforward if you don't feel like collecting stuff or hunting. It could be a 25-30 hour game, or it could be an 80-hour game.
 
PATCH NOTES

Graphical Improvements

-Anisotropic Filtering now works correctly

-The mandatory/unskippable shader optimisation step at first launch has been removed

-Shaders are now pre-optimised in the game’s Main Menu, but can be skipped

-Shaders are also optimised dynamically in-game
 
With that, seems like the game is basically 100% "done" now. I'm sure there will probably be additional patches to fix major issues/crashes/etc. but it's in a pretty good place, now. Anybody who has been (justifiably) holding off on getting the game while they fix everything can jump on board now.
 
Domingo said:
With that, seems like the game is basically 100% "done" now. I'm sure there will probably be additional patches to fix major issues/crashes/etc. but it's in a pretty good place, now. Anybody who has been (justifiably) holding off on getting the game while they fix everything can jump on board now.
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Been holding off until I can get a 3080 too :(. /gripe
 
GoldenTiger said:
Been holding off until I can get a 3080 too :(. /gripe
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Maybe the rumors of the 20GB 3080ti will be true and you'll be better off for not getting one :) Plus, the game might go on sale, too.
I can tell you that the game is a pretty amazing experience with a 30-series card, though. Especially now that everything is patched up and stable.
Different art style, but this and Death Stranding are among the best looking games for the PC...and they're both PS4 ports.
 
Finally gave this a go after waiting long enough for patches and it runs smooth as butter now and fuck what a beautiful game.

I'm still in the early game but I'm getting over 80fps at 1440p with my 1080ti and that's more than good enough for me.

I played almost 10 hours the last few days without any stutter, crashes or noticeable bugs.

Sadly that puts 4k in a screen tearing mess of 40ish fps which, however, is not that enjoyable. (I don't have a Gsync monitor)
 
TheSlySyl said:
Finally gave this a go after waiting long enough for patches and it runs smooth as butter now and fuck what a beautiful game.

I'm still in the early game but I'm getting over 80fps at 1440p with my 1080ti and that's more than good enough for me.

I played almost 10 hours the last few days without any stutter, crashes or noticeable bugs.

Sadly that puts 4k in a screen tearing mess of 40ish fps which, however, is not that enjoyable. (I don't have a Gsync monitor)
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you could set your monitor to 60hz and then use the half refresh vertical sync option in the NVidia driver, to cap at 30fps with vsync.
 
chameleoneel said:
you could set your monitor to 60hz and then use the half refresh vertical sync option in the NVidia driver, to cap at 30fps with vsync.
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I could.
But I'm using mouse/keyboard for those precision arrow shots and I think that 30FPS would annoy me a hell of a lot more than slightly inconsistent FPS over 80FPS.

I should definitely have mentioned that I'm running multiple monitors and my 1440P monitor is 165hz while my 4k monitor is only 60hz.
 
I am having even more fun going back and doing side quests after doing the main quest line. I think I wandered off Frozen Wilds as I notice TallNecks weren't hacked in certain areas. Wandered off to do that. This game is beautiful and fun. Are we going to have to wait another 3 years after the Horizon Forbidden West is out on PS4/5 before Sony brings it to PC? I hope not. This has been an excellent and one of the better adventure games. Love to see an ambitious project like Horizon New World. Europe from Spain to Italy would be a fun locale. See locations from all over the planet a 1000 years after the fall. Until Valhalla gets some fixes in, this is where I am staying.
 
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/hori...rpening-fixes-startup-crash-for-non-avx-cpus/

Horizon Zero Dawn Patch 1.08 Release Notes​

Crash Fixes​

  • Fixed an audio crash when using mono audio devices
  • Fixed a crash that could happen in certain circumstances on 5.1 audio devices
  • Also fixed a crash in NetPresenceManager
  • Fixed multiple crashes that could occur during Shader optimization
  • Fixed a crash in PlacementMeshUpdateJob that occurred on machines with more than 16 cores
  • Also fixed a start-up crash for CPUs that do not support AVX instructions

Audio Improvements​

  • Potential fix for dialogue sounding metallicy and blown out for some users

Performance Improvements​

  • Improved VRAM budgeting which should help prevent VRAM-related instability and improve general performance and reduce micro-stutters
  • Improved Clouds performance on high and ultra settings
  • Also improved swap-chain buffering to allow for smoother frame-pacing

Graphical Improvements​

  • Fixed clouds looking pixelated in certain windowed resolutions
  • Added FidelityFX Contrast Adaptive Sharpening functionality to Graphics Settings
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After the game being released a little prematurely (IMO), I'm happy with the way the devs have continued to release updates and patches on a regular schedule. Hopefully this was a learning experience and will help them with future Playstation to PC ports. I stand by Horizon and Death Stranding being two of the best looking PC games out there, and both are ports.
 
Ooh. Fidelity FX.

I'm always curious to try Fidelity FX. It made a difference in Monster Hunter World for framerate and I wonder how Horizon will handle it.

Honestly the VRAM management killing stutters will mostly just be useful for that dumb benchmark, in game they aren't bad but that benchmark always has them.

Did some quick tests. I'll likely play for a few hours tonight as its currently the game i'm working through.

Framerate is WAY, WAY smoother. The microstutters are gone, this is wonderful.

Fidelity FX on 100% oversharpens the image considerably but also really helps the framerate out. I know this is personal preference but I actually feel like the oversharpening BENEFITS this game. Given all the foilage and other fine details I actually really like how it works. I was able to increase the fidelity of a few other graphical settings (mostly Ambient Occlusion.) and I'm still getting around 80-90 FPS with my 1080Ti at 1440p. The framerate smoothness made gameplay a LOT better though, didn't realize how off the frame pacing was before.

I'm tempted to see if I do something like 4k at 90% with fidelity FX and keep it looking good, but that's gonna take more time to fiddle than I have at this very moment.
 
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Domingo said:
After the game being released a little prematurely (IMO), I'm happy with the way the devs have continued to release updates and patches on a regular schedule. Hopefully this was a learning experience and will help them with future Playstation to PC ports. I stand by Horizon and Death Stranding being two of the best looking PC games out there, and both are ports.
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Bring on Kratos goddammit!!!
 
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