Crytek has released the promised performance update for the Early Access version of Hunt: Showdown. According to the release notes, this update addresses most of the severe performance issues that have been reported, with a specific focus on stalling and stuttering as well as optimizing heavy CPU and RAM usage.

Going into more details, this new patch for Hunt: Showdown optimizes a number of CPU heavy processes within the game that would lead to Hunt being CPU bound, rendering cost when particle effects are filling the screen space, interior lighting volume and a number of expensive engine calls.

Furthermore, this patch reduces Hunt’s overall memory footprint, fixes a memory leak in the AI proximity grid, packs the first round of optimizations on CPU job manager (thus improving efficiency of thread queues) and improves object streaming to reduce memory usage.

We’ll be sure to test this new version of Hunt: Showdown this weekend, so stay tuned for more. Until then, you can find the complete changelog for this performance patch below.

Hunt: Showdown Performance Update Release Notes

Performance

CPU optimization and utilization

• Optimized a number of CPU heavy processes within the game that would lead to Hunt being CPU bound (especially on lower end hardware)
• Optimized rendering cost when particle effects are filling the screen space
• Optimized off-screen particle updates in most cases
• Optimized interior lighting volumes significantly
• Optimized a number of expensive engine calls (e.g GetWaterLevel)
• Reduced particle overdraw when many large particles in view
• First round of optimizations on CPU job manager (improves efficiency of thread queues)

Memory optimization

• Reduced Hunt’s overall memory footprint 
• Enabled animation DB streaming to reduce memory usage
• Improved object streaming to reduce memory usage
• Fixed a memory leak in the AI proximity grid
• Reduced memory usage in various Hunt subsystems

Server/Backend

• Improved dedicated server allocation manager to be more reliable, especially if back end slows down
• Upgraded backend technology to pave the way for further improvements to debugging user reported issues (slow response times etc)

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a stall when using lanterns for the first time (slight micro stutter when picking up the lantern)
• Fixed a stall that could occur when using dark sight for the first time after loading into the match
• Fixed a stall that occurred when aiming fuses at the sky
• Fixed a number of stalls that could occur due to some shaders being loaded during gameplay. This was especially noticeable when aiming down sights
• Fixed a stall that could occur when the banishing phase completed
• Fixed a number of invalid file accesses during gameplay which was resulting in some stalls
• Reduced stalls that could occur with cloth simulation on hunter clothing
• Fixed a number of uncached resources
• Fixed a deprecated asset that could cause the game to freeze at Stillwater Bend (or as it has been affectionately called by the community “Crashwater Bend”)
• Fixed a bug that would cause the Depth of field to be triggered when others in the match were aiming
• Partial fix implemented for some objects not rendering correctly (e.g. large amounts of vegetation missing at the start of the match)

John Papadopoulos

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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