Horizon Zero Dawn's PC launch may have been less than ideal, but thanks to continuous developer support over these past few months, the PC port of HZD is in much better shape. Guerrilla Games just released their eighth patch for PC which made tons of technical changes to the game. Some new features have also been added along with sales through GOG.
Update 1.08 fixes tons of audio-related crash issues. The crashing that occurred when playing the game with mono audio and 5.1 devices is fixed. The bug where dialogue will sound metallic for some users has also been resolved.
Guerrilla Games also unlocked new features for Epic Games Store users. They now have access to Cloud Saves and Achievements. Unfortunately, these achievements will be counted from now on, which means that if you already finished the game, then you won’t unlock the achievements withouth playing through it again. This sucks for me as I already reached 100 percent completion two months ago.
Game performance is also improved. Cloud performance, especially in high and ultra-settings, is also improved. The game now uses less VRAM and frame-pacing is now much smoother. A FidelityFX Contrast Adaptive Sharpening option has also been added in Graphics setting for further customization.
While all these fixes are great, there are still some issues that are plaguing Horizon Zero Dawn on PC. The HDR not working issue for some users is still not fixed. Support for additional features like DLSS 2.0 or Ray Tracing will also be highly appreciated.
Check out the entire patch notes below and on the official site.
HORIZON ZERO DAWN PC UPDATE 1.08 PATCH 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
- 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
- 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
Functionality Improvements
- Epic SDK updated to latest version and now supports platform features like Achievements and Cloud Saves
- GOG SDK integrated for launch on GOG.com
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
- 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
