Horizon Forbidden West Update Makes a Huge Improvement to Performance Mode on PS5

After 3 months of playing on Performance mode, I literally just finished and got the plat and deleted the game this week. Crazy timing. Not going to reinstall just to try it but I guess that'll be good for any eventual dlc.

Yeah, Performance mode looks much better now. Have been rotating games for the last few months but now feel like I want to get more into HFW.

This is great to see, but of course this gets released when I'm almost done with the game lol.

I didn't have a problem with performance mode when I played it but I'm intrigued to do a replay in new game + to see any difference. Certainly can't go back to resolution mode as it hurts my eyes and feels weird!

Nice. Cant wait to see DF do an analysis soon

They could do miracles if the game wasn't cross-gen..

Finally finished Dying Light 2 so was out of this or returning to Cyberpunk. After this news, it’s time to start this beast, woo

Great news, I thought the performance mode looked pretty bad at times and certainly nowhere near what the resolution apparently was, so much so I was playing in resolution mode

I've been playing performance mode and have been pretty happy overall with visuals. My only gripe is the hero lighting that makes every cut scene look like it's being performed in front of a green-screen.

@Eldritch I didn't know it was still a thing and hadn't noticed in my 140 hour play through.

I played the entire game on 'fidelity mode' it looked amazing and played really smooth, couldn't tell it was 30fps tbh. Nice that the 'performance mode' has been improved though, be nice to have a more responsive experience and not lose out on visuals but tbh it was awesome at 30fps.

People that can't tell the difference between 30fps and 60fps need to get their eyes checked. Fidelity mode is for monsters.

@MightyDemon82 Apparently it's only used on the PS5 version. So if you're playing it on the PS4 you wouldn't see it. To me it stands out like a sore thumb with everyone being lit from all angles, even when they're in shaded areas.

after everyone who bought at full price already beat the game. yay

This is good news. I really can't play action games less than 60fps anymore. The jutter especially on some displays makes games very difficult to take. Fidelity mode is great for media and screenshots, not gameplay. IMO, it should be the default in most games. I'm stills, fidelity looks best. In motion, the smoother animation looks more impressive than higher detail that the brain filters out.

@Eldritch nah PS5. Will look out for it on my next playthrough.

Don't go looking for it. If you haven't noticed it's for the best. 🤣 Maybe it's just me. I'm an illustrator so part of that means knowing how light plays off things. In Horizon's cut scenes, to me, it's all kinds of wrong. I know it's their artistic decision but I just feel its been very over done.

I already platinumed it on Fidelity mode but turned it on just to see the difference on Performance mode and was really surprised at the improvements. The 40fps mode, when released, will be so good, but I’ll have to hold out for some DLC or something before I give it a try

@ztpayne7 hahaha, I don't blame you for deleting it 😂 this is my second playthru and I'm going to do a 3rd new game plus on ps5 I'm playing between both versions

I always thought there was something weird going on with the performance mode of HFW. Guerrilla have always been masters when it comes to visual fidelity, so I'm happy to see they figure it out. I'm glad I waited and I hope the game's performance hasn't taken a hit at 60 fps, because the visual improvement is incredible.

@LOVDEATH8ROBOTS not true. Motion blur can be disabled (at least to a minimum) and there is wind in the world. Movement of trees has been reduced a bit compared to earlier versions (they did it already some patches ago). Games looks incredible also in den 60 Fps mode now.

@huyi Don't get me wrong, I absolutely loved the game. But after 3 months of being my big TV game, I'm ready to move onto the next game after my vacation this coming week (Guardians of the Galaxy) and there's only so much space on the PS5 so I took the opportunity to clear up some space haha

This update is amazing..it did take me out seeing how fuzzy everything looked at QHD this update looks great

@Hundred_Hand_Slap I agree. From 60fps to 30fps is a huge drop and looks bad. Once you play alot of games in 60fps , 30fps is like running through soup.

I am yet to actually buy this game, I loved the first one. I'm glad new game plus has been added now

@residentSteven
Do it! Once the game really opens up, and you get to explore everything, it becomes an amazing experience. The lore and world building is phenomenal

The biggest issue with Performance mode wasn't the drop-off in resolution. It was the horrid shimmering, which is now gone. That alone makes the game look quite a bit better, but it's nice to know that they also seem to have bumped up the resolution along with the clean-up.

I played this already in Resolution mode. It wasn't what I wanted to do, but given how bad the Performance mode was, I had little choice imo. I adjusted to it after replaying Horizon Zero Dawn at 60 FPS, so I still enjoyed the game immensely regardless.

I'm not going to jump into another playthrough of this anytime soon with a large backlog still and also playing it at least 120 hours in my first playthrough, but it's great to know that a great Performance mode is there now for whenever I do end up replaying Forbidden West.

It already looked really good in performance on a 4k setup to me. So this is nice.

@KidBoruto unfortunately it’s the way to go with most games these days.

Where is the new game + option I loaded it up after the update & nothing seems to have changed

"We're no Digital Foundry." Good job, too. Their analysis of the differing visuals between Resolution and Performance on the games release failed to acknowledge the awful shimmering, at least on an OLED display, when playing on Performance mode. People watched their misguided tech review and purchased the game on that merit, and were then unhappy with the product, myself included.
Kudos on Guerrilla listening to their fan base and working hard to fix the problem. I was surprised that they managed it, to be honest. Such a difference.

@Hundred_Hand_Slap

People that can't tell the difference between 30fps and 60fps need to get their eyes checked.

or buy a better TV.

It’s nice they keep working on this game but honestly, I get the feeling this game was release too early. Glad I have not started playing it yet, did buy a copy though.

@residentSteven
I haven't played the sequel, but as I recall, what you mention is only early on, when the game wants to set you up properly, with a bit of story, skills and what's not. Push through that. It won't last long 😊

I’ve been putting off playing too much as I was hoping for a patch to fix performance mode. What little I played (about 10ths) I did in resolution mode. With PS5 gen I’m now spoilt and don’t want to go back to 30fps unless it’s apparent 60fps is unlikely to be an option or where resolution disparity is too much.

I am GLAD that I am still a year behind in my games to play because I will be playing the best version of this when I play it (probably next year because I still have loads to start & finish before then) KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK SONY

I don't replay games often but wish this would have been baked into begin with. Definitely make me want to try it on any future DLC

@TheKurgan - Watch DF’s initial review of HFW again, because they absolutely covered the shimmering issue with performance mode and did so on all of their following videos covering the game.