Ys IX: Monstrum Nox is finally available on PC via Steam. The game was originally released on Nintendo Switch and Playstation 4, but now fans can take advantage of their PCs to gain more FPS for smoother gameplay.
It is developed by Nihon Falcom and was co-developed by PH3 GmbH. Peter “Durante” Thoman, Chief Technology Officer at PH3 GmbH, has provided some insights into the PC port of the game.
Full Mouse/Keyboard Support
While the game was originally made with console controllers in mind, Thoman and his team were able to support mouse and keyboard inputs really nicely.
All of the actions in the game can have two keybindings each. Pointer controls are available in all of the game’s menus, as well as mouse wheel scrolling. Adaptive prompts are also present and they will be tailored to whatever input device you prefer to use.
High Frame Rate Support
One of the biggest advantages of playing games on PC is maximizing high-end specs. That said, the game’s console versions are only capped to 60 frames per second due to general hardware limitations.
Fortunately, PC players with mid-range to high-end setups may run the game up to 144 FPS. Considering that the game provides fast-paced action, the high frame rate support is definitely a welcome addition.
Ultrawide Aspect Ratio
Most online content and games use an aspect ratio of 16:9. This is problematic for those who want higher aspect ratios.
Do not worry though as the game fully supports aspect ratios higher than 16:9. So, if you are rocking an ultrawide monitor, you can expect that all of the game’s elements and user interface will fit perfectly on your screen.
Performance Optimization
According to Thoman, porting the game to PC is quite challenging compared to its predecessor.
You see, Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana was developed to support even very old consoles like the PS Vita. But, since Ys IX: Monstrum Nox requires more powerful hardware, making it perform nicely on PC is a key concern for developers.
The initial PC port of the game struggled to go beyond 68 FPS, so the devs went to investigate. They had to implement certain improvements and conduct some rewrites here and there.
In Version 0.9.1, for example, the devs introduced various parallelization and asynchronous execution features to help optimize the DX11 drawing process. This means that a substantial improvement in the game’s performance was observed. However, it is worth pointing out that it also increased frame time instability a little bit.
Eventually, developers successfully made the necessary optimizations in subsequent versions. So, you should get consistently high frame rates from now on, provided your PC is up for it.
While Thoman and his team were hard at work in making sure that the game is smooth across the board, it is substantially more difficult to run than its predecessor. Unless you are using an expensive high-end PC, you should temper your expectations regarding the actual frame rates you’re going to get.
Other Features and Improvements
- Arbitrary resolution support (tested up to 8k)
- Camera field of view adjustment setting
- General Sampling Rate option (supports sub-sampling for low-end systems and supersampling for high-end systems)
- Draw distance and Foliage Density settings to go beyond console on the high-end or gain extra performance on the low end
- Shadow Filtering (including PCSS) and Shadow Resolution options
- Various individual Postprocessing options, including HBAO+ ambient occlusion
- Color blindness accessibility filters
Ys IX: Monstrum Nox is now available on Steam.
