Horizon Zero Dawn has just been released on the PC and there has been a big controversy surrounding its PC version. Yesterday, a report surfaced on Reddit, suggesting that the PC version is actually a debug build of the game. However, it appears that this report was inaccurate.
Frans Bouma, a programmer that has created “Photomode” camera mods for a lot of games, has shared his thoughts on the PC build. According to Bouma, the game does indeed feature some debug code, however it’s not based on the debug build.
As Bouma said:
“I had the debug build for a while, and this is not a debug build (debug build is > 100MB exe, this is < 50MB exe, offsets in structs/classes are different at times, debug menus don’t work anymore etc. (ok, code is still there, which is normal; every UE4 game ships with a lot of debug code still present too))
Some code might have error messages referenced. I reverse engineer a lot of game engines and most of them have these. It’s not enough to conclude it’s a ‘debug build’.”
Bouma also added that while the game has issues, it’s far from a mess (when it comes to its code).
“I’ve disassembled it a lot in the past weeks, I don’t think it’s a mess at all. String literals with error messages, they’re in every game exe out there. Debug code/menus? In a lot of them. Disabled, codepaths to them removed, but if you find the menus, you might be able to add some code to reactivate them. that’s also how I re-enable the console in over 230 UE4 games.
I agree with /u/NotAnotherPygmy, it’s a pointer problem, and likely they missed a guard preamble somewhere. If you look at the code, a lot of the functions have preambles to make sure multithreading issues don’t occur (typical ‘security cookie’ + critical section entry/exit stuff), pointers are always checked for null, fallback paths are there. It’s not an ‘absolute mess’, on the contrary.
BUT things happen, and some pointer might have been overlooked. To make the code run on windows they’ve added a lot which as it looks now, does have some issues.”
So yeah, the PC version is not a debug build (and that’s coming from someone that knows more than us). Additionally, I’m pretty sure that Durante would have easily discovered this during his analysis.
For what it’s worth, I’ve never experienced any crashes on our PC gaming system. Still, and if you experience crashes or a lot of stutters, you can at least give Special K a go.
Lastly, Guerrilla Games is currently looking into some of the game’s issues. Be also sure to read our PC Performance Analysis article!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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its not debug, its lotbug version!
Nailed IT!!!
ConsoLOLesles are a joke . ‘but but the ssd fast ”
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1c1f88883c1a08f756965576fd736324b9247c6581de4f123a96487ce4f61e3f.png
where is this from?
have you searched between your mother’s legs?
@alexjosep:disqus , wheres my sauce man?
I have 8hours played so far. not a single crash still. Guess I am lucky
Ditto…8 hours, zero frame drops, no crashes.
Zero frame drops? 99% of the games on the market dump frames at some point.
You are so full of sh*t, why are you doing this? This game is the Queen of Frame Drops. What happened to you man?
I run a mix of ultra and high on a 2080 @1440p. Any frame drops I am getting are 3-5 during transitions… over 10 hours, no crashes.
the opposite for me. decent performance but two crashes already
crashed within the very first 10 seconds of just an intro video… which stuttered. On an SSD in a PC with i5 9600K and 1080Ti. Holy hell
How much are they paying you man? Cause you are repeating the same song since yesterday. Blink 200x if they are holding you hostage.
Well done.
shut up, man
Haha, I miss you man. You really are crazy!
It needs more work though.
It’s not a debug build but there’s tons of features missing compared to the ps4 version, and more is being uncovered every day…
www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/i6qh82Arkham Knight was an alpha version followed by the debug
Why is this even a thing?.
Like why are we going via pure and utter nonsense rumours, which have nowt to do anything with the poor quality of the port itself?.
Debug this, dissembled that, what in the actual…
yeah cause no one gives a SH*T, all people want is an actually good playable stable game. It’s like when Jason schreier comes out with his hit pieces about “The days leading to so and so release, behind the story” NO ONE gives A FUQ. I don’t care how many people got pregnant during the making of Anthem. JUST MAKE IT GOOD! I;’m with you man.
a version that adds bugs is not called a “debug” version
Snow doesn’t deform in the snow areas in the Frozen Wildlands version on PC while it does on PS4.
Physics bugs out at framerates above 60 fps, especially the hair.
Broken face animations(eyebrows and eyes twitching) above 30 fps.
Man, this game is getting worse every single day. And, oh, more butt-kissing from DSOG. Smh.
That actually sounds like an improvement for the face animations. They were awful on PS4.
It feels like I’m talking to a person with Tourette’s tho.
At least it is a person and not a mannequin.
Have you played HZD? if not, then you are talking out of your a$$. I have played it, and have well over 9 hours in. And I have not experienced one issue in the game that others are complaining about. I think this is more about most people systems have piss poor hardware then actually in game issues. I know some of the issues are real that others are having. But when someone leaves a review that says on steam Trash graphics and thumbs it down. Thats is where I draw the line.
“Piss Poor” Hardware? Why is this always the Go Too argument? You are being disingenuous. Most so every other game that has released which is way more graphically impressive than this game and not half as much disapproval and you’re answer to all of this is, “piss poor hardware”? You are straight out of a comic strip. i5 9600k, Vega 64 (Factory Modified), 32 Gigs Of Ram (3200 mhz). Sabrent & WD Black Nvme’s, you call that Piss poor Hardware? It ain’t a super computer but it sure as hell ain’t Piss poor. Don’t be disrespectful man.
Exatcly. I’m on Ryzen 3600, 16GB of ram 3200MHZ, 1660 Ti, MX500 SSD and a WD 2TB HDD. Nothing earth shathering i know specially the GPU, but it will do in a bugdet on a 3rd world country, but somehow people keep telling me that my system should barely peform above a base ps4 ? Yet, somehow i’m the crazy one ? SURE.
This game its not even BETA its early access ?