Hunt: Showdown performance patch released

The biggest criticism of Crytek’s Hunt: Showdown has been the game’s performance and a new patch has just dropped that should improve performance.

As well as the notes seen below, Crytek also released a video explaining why it’s taking some time to improve performance and the process they have been working through to improve it. CPU performance has been a priority before they move onto GPU performance improvements. New system has been added to the CryEngine which meant there was not enough time to address many of the optimisations when it was first launched. This patch resolves that. Memory efficiency has also been improved to benefit both high-end and high-end PCs.

Check out the video below the notes for more detailed explanations on these fixes to the game’s performance.

Hunt Showdown performance patch #1

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

Developer note: In this section we will be using the word “stall” a lot. In these cases, this term is being used to describe one of 3 possibilities – micro stuttering (small freezes that do not crash the client), frame drops and spikes

• 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) **

** Developer Note – We will have a number of fixes coming soon that relate to invisible objects. Keep an eye on future hotfix/patch notes for details.