INQUISITR.COM / Entertainment

‘No Man’s Sky’ PC Patch Aims To Fix Early Glitches, Hello Games Currently Offering Free Beta Download

By Patrick Frye
Published on: 04:45 PST, Aug 17, 2016

A No Man’s Sky PC patch is already underway as Hello Games has encountered the same basic problem that Grand Theft Auto Online did. Such ambitious online titles are always riddled with bugs, and if it’s popular enough, the servers often can’t keep up.

It’s mostly based on the same premise as any machine. The more moving parts there are, the more potential problems there can be. Massively multiplayer online games are the same way, in that with so many different elements all working together, something could be very wrong with it. Assassin’s Creed Unity launched with this issue, and it was considered one of the worst games in the series.

Ambitious new AAA games often launch with sometimes game-breaking glitches. The first No Man’s Sky PC patch is expected to be the first major fix, and those who own the game can download the beta for this patch and help test it, says Eurogamer.

  • One of the first major fixes involves AMD Phenom support, and thousands of lines of code have been rewritten to accommodate the option. Nothing above SSE 2 is needed to run the game.
  • The Radeon 6xxx GPU doesn’t natively support OpenGL 4.5, but the No Man’s Sky PC patch is said to fix this.
  • Mouse smoothing can be turned off to eliminate stuttering and clipping. Often with smoothing turned on, the frame rate can drop below 30fps, which is considered the bare minimum for consoles. Oftentimes, when a console is trying to load too much at once between checkpoints, the performance stutters and makes the game almost unplayable with extremely low frame rates. PC gamers expect more than this.
  • CPUs with four or fewer threads will see some improvement in performance, while those with eight threads will be improved greatly.
  • Game saves had been known to end up lost or corrupted, a problem often created when the game’s save function doesn’t work correctly, or the process is interrupted. This problem will be significantly reduced with the upcoming patch.
  • Alt-Tab functions weren’t always pausing the game properly, often resulting in a crash. The upcoming No Man’s Sky PC patch is expected to fix the issue.
  • A common issue the game tends to share with most console titles is the initial start-up crash. Most games will do this the first time these days. Shader caching in No Man’s Sky‘s intro was slowing the frame rate. This might still happen the first time, but after that, Hello Games claims it should be fine.
  • An issue shared by the PC port of Batman: Arkham Knight was that the frame rate was maxing out at 30 or 60, which is still playable. However, the patch is said to be raising the frames per second, so the visuals are smoother.
  • For now, Intel GPUs are not supported, but Hello Games says they are working on adding support later.

Keep it in mind that the patch beta is still in the playtesting phases, and you might still have issues with the game. If you’re willing to take that risk, sign in on your Steam account and search for No Man’s Sky. To download the PC patch beta, right-click on the game and select “Properties.” From there, select “Betas,” and input the code “3xperimental” where prompted.

Despite its many performance issues, No Man’s Sky sold well at launch, and the PC patch should help even out the playing field. GameSpot reports having downloaded the patch to their computers, and the game appears to be running much better.

[Image via Hello Games]

Share this article: ‘No Man’s Sky’ PC Patch Aims To Fix Early Glitches, Hello Games Currently Offering Free Beta Download
More from Inquisitr