Horizon Zero Dawn

[KentState]

The only issues I ran into was playing at 4k maxed out when it launched, but that was before Ampere. With either my 3090 or 3080 Ti, I haven't had a single issue. Even the 3080 on my laptop does fine.

 

[Stuka87]

anyone on PC run into texture problems, and if so, how did you fix them?

mine are all over the place - from pop-ins and/or failure to load to completely sudden LoD changes...it really takes away from what should be a visually stunning game. i'm really disappointed.

fwiw: purchased through GoG, running on a 3060 6gb w/ AMD 5800H cpu.

Turn the texture quality down to minimum and give it a test. You don't list what resolution your screen is, but 6GB of VRAM is listed as being enough for 1080P.

 

[Fenixgoon]

Turn the texture quality down to minimum and give it a test. You don't list what resolution your screen is, but 6GB of VRAM is listed as being enough for 1080P.

2560x1440. The game shows 4400/6000mb being used, so plenty of vram available.

I also dropped the resolution to 1920x1080 and STILL had texture issues

 

[Stuka87]

2560x1440. The game shows 4400/6000mb being used, so plenty of vram available.

I also dropped the resolution to 1920x1080 and STILL had texture issues

Texture quality doesn't change between those two resolutions though. I still suggest dropping textures to absolute lowest to test. The issue could very well be disk I/O.

 

[Fenixgoon]

Texture quality doesn't change between those two resolutions though. I still suggest dropping textures to absolute lowest to test. The issue could very well be disk I/O.

It's on an internal nvme SSD (Samsung 970), but I suppose I'll try installing it to my C drive instead.

 

[Stuka87]

It's on an internal nvme SSD (Samsung 970), but I suppose I'll try installing it to my C drive instead.

I would drop setting sway down before doing that. Also maybe have Afterburner up to monitor CPU usage to see if you are maybe limited on that side of things.

 

[Fenixgoon]

I would drop setting sway down before doing that. Also maybe have Afterburner up to monitor CPU usage to see if you are maybe limited on that side of things.

Definitely an interaction between resolution and textures/detail.

4k - slideshow with even the slightest amount of detail on, broken with details off (buildings missing, etc.)

1440p on low textures seems good with most details up, but eventually runs into LoD issues.

1080p with just about everything up seems to work best.

I'll take it, even if I can't push as hard as I want (still not discounting bugs/glitches but I know a 3060 isn't going to push 4k maxed out too)

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

Definitely an interaction between resolution and textures/detail.

4k - slideshow with even the slightest amount of detail on, broken with details off (buildings missing, etc.)

1440p on low textures seems good with most details up, but eventually runs into LoD issues.

1080p with just about everything up seems to work best.

I'll take it, even if I can't push as hard as I want (still not discounting bugs/glitches but I know a 3060 isn't going to push 4k maxed out too)

Very odd, I was able to run it at 1440p with a 1080ti with zero issues.

Incredibly fun game btw, and a solid port. Didn't feel particularly 'consoley', though the difficulty was pretty easymode throughout. I ran into a single fight that was actually difficult, one of the corrupted groups... a pair of the mole things? or whatever. Still tons of fun though.

 

[Fenixgoon]

Very odd, I was able to run it at 1440p with a 1080ti with zero issues.

Incredibly fun game btw, and a solid port. Didn't feel particularly 'consoley', though the difficulty was pretty easymode throughout. I ran into a single fight that was actually difficult, one of the corrupted groups... a pair of the mole things? or whatever. Still tons of fun though.

Yeah I think I'm just unlucky. Hopefully a patch or driver update will magically fix things but for now I'll roll with 1080p

 

[Fenixgoon]

So the thing that seemed to make the biggest difference was playing on my laptop screen at native resolution (1920x1080) instead of upscaling to an external monitor whose native res is 4k. After that, it was mostly smooth sailing.

Beat the campaign, and I will say HZDPC, despite the glaring and frustrating technical flaws, is an excellent game. If I had stopped at ~10 hours of playtime, I would have given this game 2 stars because i kept having massive texture pop-ins and other issues. With all that resolved, it can't be a 5/5, but it definitely gets a 4/5.

The story is fairly boring to start, but once things pick up, it becomes really engrossing between the holograms (required plot points) and audio logs (optional). The two together really paint a fascinating picture. I also loved how the major plot points in the latter ~50% were very exploration driven - few enemies in the area - which encouraged exploration and allowed you time to read/listen.
Combat is quite enjoyable once you power up a little, understand the damage mechanics, and have some resources at your disposal besides the basic bow. The beginning is definitely an uphill battle.

Graphically, the game is stunning when textures aren't popping in, with beautiful environments ranging from lush jungles to snowy mountains. Interestingly, I found Aloy's face to be not as detailed as some other characters (normally the PC has the most details) - just an observation, not a judgement.

Aloy is a master climber unparalleled skill, which allows vertical elements but also makes for some comical moments if you're not suspending disbelief at that exact time (did i really just make this jump from one rock to another that's in the middle of a waterfall and NOT have my hands slip off?) there are also QTE moments on extremely long jumps that don't actually require QTE button presses. The first time I encountered this, I thought for sure I'd have to do something, so the slow motion is just included for dramatic effect. It created a dramatic moment the first time, but after that, I really would have liked for those jumps to occur at full speed. I got quests to do, yo.

Most crafting materials for ammo/traps are readily obtainable - i probably had too many - but getting fish bones for certain upgrades was ALWAYS a pain. despite all the rivers and streams, fish seem to be pretty sparse. so you just need to farm one specific spot.

 

[mikeymikec]

anyone on PC run into texture problems, and if so, how did you fix them?

I started playing in late 2023 (RX 6700 XT, Maximum quality settings, 1080p, vsync). I've played through virtually the entire 'complete edition' and I noticed two blatant offenders - one when walking out of Meridian city for the first time, it's a long path down and lots of visible distance into the distance. There was a big splodge on the horizon that constituted about 10% of my 1080p screen that was obviously wrong.

I noticed a second one in the Frozen Wilds area during a quest involving the dam that had been allowed to flood, when Aloy and another character were manipulating pump controls in tandem, there was a small splodge where the water meets the platforms.

There might have been one other splodge in the game I recall seeing, but I don't remember specifics.

---

I really enjoyed this game. It took me a while to get into it (I'd guess 2 hours), but I've been burning the midnight oil on gaming for the first time in years!

 

[igor_kavinski]

burning the midnight oil on gaming for the first time in years!

Dang. You should've monetized your effort with a youtube video and your own commentary!

 

[mikeymikec]

there are also QTE moments on extremely long jumps that don't actually require QTE button presses. The first time I encountered this, I thought for sure I'd have to do something, so the slow motion is just included for dramatic effect. It created a dramatic moment the first time, but after that, I really would have liked for those jumps to occur at full speed. I got quests to do, yo.

I couldn't help but think of this game as "TR 2013 minus QTE and survival horror/porn". Throw in Batman AA detective mode and Witcher 3 melee combat and that about sums it up IMO. In a way I'm much appreciative of its TR2013 aspects because it annoys the hell out of me that TR2013 is a TR game with virtually no puzzles which IMO makes it not a TR game. HZD can give me my TR2013 fix without irritating the hell out of me.

I want to know more about the Ted Faro side of the story because the nugget that was dropped during the GAIA quest opened up quite a few possibilities IMO. Maybe they'll elaborate further in 'Forbidden West'?

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I started playing this a few months back but squirreled to other games. It's a great looking game and I have not experienced any issues in the 6 or 8hrs I have in. Always enjoy bow combat.

 

[mikeymikec]

I've more or less completed Forbidden West + Frozen Wilds (I'm at the epilogue of the latter).

I enjoyed it, but...

Apparently in Forbidden West the devs decided to remap half the keys. That threw me for a bit. My impression is that they considered keyboard users as an afterthought with little thought to what actually works in terms of keyboard layouts; for example WASD for direction control is fine, then F and G for more stuff, then Z and X thrown in for laughs / see if you can press those by accident during combat. Then press R to activate an ability on the ZX wheel, but often a quick press won't do, but if you hold down R then it does something else entirely. Grr.

My next criticism of FW is that there are *way* too many weapons. I don't bother using any blastslings, no traps either (even though I remember using the tripcaster in the original game). Even if you strip those two weapon classes out, there's at least 12 different types of ammo off the top of my head (the number is probably more like 36 if I think about it more carefully) and having to constantly change the loadout (pretty much every single battle encounter) in the weapon wheel is just tedious. I still have no idea if / what is the recommended ammo after using purgewater. Are warrior and hunter bows definitely needed? I basically didn't use a warrior bow at all either.

I have a sneaking suspicion that the skill tree became about six times more convoluted than in the original game too.

I can't say I'm overly jazzed about the doorway to HZD 3 (I'll call FW HZD2 at this point), surely it's a virtually identical retread of HZDFW. It feels like we've got to the third installment of the Terminator franchise and more titles need to be shoehorned in because money. No doubt they'll also do another "remaster" (which btw you'll notice next to no difference in even comparison videos) so they can keep HZD1/2's prices jacked up while churning out more titles. Three games, that'll be £150 please despite the fact that the original game will soon be ten years old.

I didn't have any moments in this game like I did with Batman AA whereby I only learned to use the cryptographic sequencer probably until about halfway through my first playthrough of the game, but there were moments in this game where I was like "so that's how you're supposed to do it" which I could have benefited from knowing many hours earlier. Learning to fly for example, yeah let's throw in flight controls but ignore the flight control dynamic when doing minor position adjustments when hovering, and throwing in the Shift key to mean "fly straight ahead" when the up arrow key has been the "run / ride straight ahead" key otherwise is jarring.

My play time for FW was 97 hours. In terms of play time I have no complaints, it's common to get only 20 hours out of a "current" game that costs £40/£50.

 

[Stg-Flame]

Apparently in Forbidden West the devs decided to remap half the keys. That threw me for a bit. My impression is that they considered keyboard users as an afterthought with little thought to what actually works in terms of keyboard layouts; for example WASD for direction control is fine, then F and G for more stuff, then Z and X thrown in for laughs / see if you can press those by accident during combat. Then press R to activate an ability on the ZX wheel, but often a quick press won't do, but if you hold down R then it does something else entirely. Grr.

Are there any hardcoded keybinds? I don't use WASD and hardcoded keybinds are the quickest way for me to never play a game on PC.

 

[mikeymikec]

Are there any hardcoded keybinds? I don't use WASD and hardcoded keybinds are the quickest way for me to never play a game on PC.

I haven't checked. I'm always a bit averse to changing keybinds because I assume that the game devs have more of an idea about how the functions will be used therefore having a better idea than I do (when starting a new game) about their ideal positioning. Also, if I knew off the top of my head what the HZD1 keybinding were then I might have tried to change HZD2's keybindings to match (if that was practically possible).

I'll try to remember to check the next time I start the game.

 

[mikeymikec]

@Stg-Flame

It looks to me like the bindings are completely free to alter, including secondary binds for each function.